Cato Institute Internships

The next generation of thinkers, leaders, and advocates:

The Cato Institute Internship Program

Spring 2023 Deadline: 11:59pm ET, Nov. 13, 2022

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Are you trying to begin a career in policy, communications, or law? Do you want a rich education in contemporary policy issues—and the philosophical, historic, and economic underpinnings of those issues? A Cato internship might be right for you.

Cato’s paid internships are for undergraduates, recent graduates, graduate students, law students, and early-career professionals who have a strong commitment to individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace—principles that, taken together, constitute libertarianism, known alternately as “classical liberalism,” “market liberalism,” or, to many of our international friends, just “liberalism.”

Most Cato interns work primarily as researchers for our policy scholars. Individual department placements include defense and foreign policy, healthcare policy, constitutional studies, and numerous others.

Other interns work in communications-oriented roles, including media relations, external affairs, and video production.

Interns receive a stipend of $1000 per month. Interns who are in law school or who hold a JD receive a stipend of $1400 per month. All internships take place at the Cato Institute in Washington DC.

The John Russell Paslaqua Intern Seminar Series

The John Russell Paslaqua Intern Seminar Series is an unrivaled component of the Cato internship program. This intensive seminar curriculum encompasses public policy, economics, history, and political philosophy and is presented by Cato’s senior policy researchers over the course of more than 40 readings-based seminar sessions per internship term. In addition, the program includes writing, public speaking, and networking workshops to help interns hone their communication skills, learn about career paths in public policy, and develop early professional relationships that will help them advance beyond their time at Cato.

In honor of John’s legacy, the Paslaqua family established the series as a reflection of John’s passion for big ideas and individual liberty. John, a 2014 graduate of Colgate University, produced exceptional work for Cato’s Center for Constitutional Studies as a member of the spring 2015 intern class. Ilya Shapiro, director of the center, remembers John as dedicated and hard‐working: “John was quite thoughtful and had a bright future ahead of him. He kept asking for more work and did it very well.”

Tragically, John died suddenly in 2017. Kenneth Paslaqua, John’s father, said proudly, “John had a clear libertarian legal mindset and supported less government intervention into people’s lives.”

Thanks to this generous contribution by the Paslaqua Charitable Foundation in John’s memory, Cato will continue to educate the next generation of leaders for a free, open, and civil society. The John Russell Paslaqua seminar series enhances the Cato internship experience that John enjoyed so much and through which he is fondly remembered.