Yara Komaiha | 2020 | Interns

Yara Komaiha

Yara Komaiha (’21)

Dearborn Heights, MI

Dana Mead Intern

Biological Engineering Major

MIT Washington DC Office

This summer I had the opportunity to intern at the MIT Washington DC Office and work on COVID policy. One part of my role was attending and reporting weekly on Congressional hearings, panel discussions, and expert talks on topics relevant to MIT and the wider science community. I also worked with a team of MIT affiliates to develop Professor Thomas Malone’s idea of a Digital Works Progress Administration (D-WPA) into legislation. Drawing from the Depression Era WPA, this proposal targets the country’s high unemployment rate by hiring and up-skilling many Americans through remote government jobs. For the project, I researched key questions on implementation and accessibility and have been able to explore the different routes of policy making through both the legislative and executive branches first-hand.