Fulco-Cabot Fund to Support Internships With Major Gift to Program

Brendan Clark ’21

Editor-in-Chief

Trinity College’s Public Policy and Law Program has received a major gift from a friend of the program to its Adrienne Fulco and Edward Cabot Fund which will, for the first time, allow the Program to support a full-time summer internship in policy or legal fields for Program students. This generous donation will also help to advance the Fund’s research objectives and offer additional funding for students seeking to travel and explore issues of policy in Washington, D.C. and other centers of government.
Started in 2013 by a group of Public Policy and Law seniors, the Fulco-Cabot Fund serves as a vehicle to support student research and has sought to strengthen links between current students and the Program’s alumni/alumnae. A longstanding goal of the Fund has been to support student internships for those who might “otherwise be unable to do so because of financial constraints,” added Program Director Adrienne Fulco. Fulco stated that this new donation is consistent with the “priorities of both the Public Policy and Law faculty and the alums who continue to support the Fund.”

The Fund became endowed in 2018 after a recent drive in memory of the late Professor of Policy and Law Edward “Ned” Cabot. Fulco spoke of the students who started and led the Fund’s development, telling the Tripod that they had the “skills to get this done” and that this recent donation is the “culmination of work by current students and alums who are dedicated to improving the Program for those who follow.”

The Tripod also spoke with Paige Greene ’13, an alumna of the Program who was instrumental in the creation of the Fund, who noted that there were two aims at the Fund’s inception: to “honor Fulco and Cabot” and to “find a way to build opportunities for others in the program.” Fulco and Cabot, together with former Professor of Economics Emeritus Andy Gold, revised the Public Policy and Law Program extensively almost two decades ago, with the program graduating its first majors in 2004. Greene added that she and others developed the Fund during the end of her junior year and by the time of her graduation the Fund had raised “over $10,000 in support of the program.” Greene remarked that this recent donation has helped to realize “the ultimate goal” of the Fund from the start: the support of research and internship opportunities for current and future undergraduate students.

Ethan Cantor ’16, an alumnus of the Program, echoed Greene’s comments, telling the Tripod that “a significant number of alumni have donated in honor of the impact that Professors Fulco and Cabot have had on our lives.” Further, the Public Policy and Law Alumni/ae Advisory Group is actively working with the Program’s faculty to “establish guidelines and deadlines” for the Fund’s application process going forward. Fulco added that majors can expect “guidelines during the spring term” and that the Fund will be “ready to support internship students in the 2020-2021 academic year.” Cantor, too, noted his excitement with Fulco’s announcement, reiterating that because of the “rapid expansion of the Fund, we expect that there will be sufficient funding in the 2020-2021 academic year to also support at least one unpaid internship award for a student in the program interning in the fields of public policy or law.”

Cantor, who has worked with the Program’s Alumni Advisory Board, added that the Board is “incredibly grateful for the remarkable generosity that the Fund has been the recipient of over the past seven years.” Fulco added that the Fund’s recent growth and ability to provide for internships fulfills a “dream that Ned and I had…that there would be enough money to support our students in meaningful ways.”