New Grad Earns Fellowship in Philadelphia

David Dry ’14, former Westmont College Student Association (WCSA) president, earned a fellowship from the John Jay Institute and will study over the fall in Philadelphia. The highly competitive Fellows Program, which accepts just 12 students a term, is a post-undergraduate educational and professional experience for men and women aspiring to public positions in public society and the church.

Dry was an intern in summer 2013 at the Washington, D.C., office of U.S. Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA 49th District) when he reconnected with Tyler Castle ‘12, who had completed the fellowship program.

“He got me very excited about the opportunity,” Dry says. “I spent the next few days researching the program and quickly decided that it was something I had to apply for, no matter how competitive it was.”

Following the intensive semester-long academic residency, Dry will be placed in a semester-long externship, most likely with a national or international governmental agency. “I am hoping to go back to Washington, D.C. and work for congressional leadership,” he says. “My three main objectives are to immerse myself in political theory with like-minded peers and mentors, to learn how to exemplify Christian values and leadership in the secular arena, and to prepare myself for future graduate studies and practical application worldwide.”

Dry has known since he was 12 that he wanted to run for public office, but he says it wasn't until his senior year at Westmont that he began to understand and embrace that this is, for now, the path that God wants him on.

“I am serious about pursuing public service and public office and want to do so in a way that is not only compatible with the Christian faith, but informed by it,” he says. “It is my hope that I can start to reconcile how to work and lead in a government of the world, while being a citizen of the Kingdom of God.”