Sen. Max Baucus initiates fund to offer students D.C. internships

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., recently announced the creation of the Sean-Michael Miles Memorial Conservation Fellowship to honor the memory of the University student who died in a car accident in his hometown of Bozeman, Mont., last year.

Though the details of the fellowship have not yet been finalized, the program will host one college student or recent graduate for three months each year in Baucus' Washington D.C. office. The fellow will research legislation dealing with environmental and Native American issues and will write and correspond with constituents, Baucus spokeswoman Maureen Rice said yesterday.

"They would pretty much get to do anything that any of us does on a regular basis," Rice said. "And we will try to match their major and interests with our needs, which in this case should be related to conservation."

Though officially open to students nationwide, the fellowship's coordinators hope to attract a wide range of students from Montana, Rice said. Fellows will be selected by a committee comprising members of the senator's staff and Miles' parents. The committee will consider the applicants' backgrounds along with their essays about personal qualities and their experience with environmental issues.

Conservation, Rice noted, will be a key component of the fellowship because Miles was deeply interested in preserving the physical and social environment of his home state.

"The state of Montana is very concerned with conservation because of our various national parks," she said, adding that Baucus sits on the Senate's Environmental and Public Works Committee.

Tribute

In an emotion-filled tribute delivered to the Senate on March 23, Baucus described Miles' life and interests before announcing the founding of the fellowship and welcoming its first participant, Miles' sister Michelle, to his staff.

"Sean wanted to make the world a better place, and believed completely that one person can truly make a difference," Baucus said. "There was no cynicism in his life. He befriended the friendless and remembered the forgotten. Above all, he was making a difference. It is a loss beyond Montana's boundaries as well."

"Sean's death casts a dark shadow over the future of those of us who knew and loved him," Baucus added. "Yet it is the light he offers that we commemorate today."