Hertog Foundation

Meet our 2026 Summer Fellows from the University of Florida!

Nate Maximiano is a rising junior studying Mathematics and Philosophy. He is interested in the intersection of mathematics, philosophy of mind, and AI ethics. Nate is from Boulder, Colorado.

Ella Oursler is a rising senior at the University of Florida studying Dual Languages (Japanese and Chinese) and Philosophy, Politics, Economics & Law (PPEL). Ella has spent a semester with Newcastle University in the UK studying Chinese and Political Science, as well as a year with Kansai Foreign Language University in Japan studying Japanese. Ella is from Miami, Florida.

Catalina Reichard is a rising sophomore studying Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL). She is an inaugural Rosenthal-Levy Scholar, the Director of Programming for UF's Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter, and a Social Board member at the St. Augustine Catholic Center. Catalina is from New Orleans, Louisiana.

This summer, 32 fellows will join us for the 2026 Political Studies Program. Fellows will spend six weeks this summer studying the theory and practice of politics alongside outstanding peers and master teachers. This cohort includes several student-athletes, a flutist, pianist, and composer, a Midshipman, a Boren Scholar, and a Truman and Marshall Scholar–elect.

Meet our 2026 Summer Fellows from the University of Florida!

Owen Duffy-Massey is a rising junior studying Political Science. He is a research assistant at the Princeton Geniza Laboratory, where he uses artificial intelligence techniques to study medieval Mediterranean documentary texts. Owen is interested in the law and premodern Jewish History.

Ronnier Canizares is a rising sophomore studying Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL). He has worked as a File Clerk at a law firm and a Government Finance Intern for the City of Hialeah. Ronnier is an inaugural Rosenthal-Levy Scholar and a recipient of the the McDonalds HACER National Merit Scholarship.

Morgan Kelley is a rising senior studying Political Science and Philosophy. She is the Managing Editor of The Florida Finibus and an Orientation Leader. Previously, she worked at Radio America, and served as a congressional intern in Florida’s Third District.

In our Constitutional Studies Program, last week, fellows explored the Founders’ vision for education and its essential role in sustaining republican self-government.

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” - James Madison

Meet our Spring 2026 fellows. We have three fellows joining us from the East Coast.

Amishai Goodman-Goldstein is an M.A. candidate in Political Communication at American University. He was a Lincoln Scholar in Political Thought, a Project on Civic Dialogue Grant recipient, and a Complex Problems Program leader at AU as an undergraduate, and now serves as the Coordinator of the Nuclear Studies Institute and a Civic Life Fellow. He was a fellow in both the AEI Summer Honors Program and the Hertog Political Studies Program.

Julia Magee is a recent graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. She majored in English Literature with a minor in History. She is interested in both of these disciplines because they help her practically address her goals of better understanding the world.

Anji Zhang is a fourth-year Chemistry PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For her undergraduate studies, Anji studied Chemistry at the University of Toronto. She has completed humanities programs with the Hertog Foundation, the Catherine Project, the Instauratio Magna Foundation, and the University of Austin, and she is working on a Nature Perspective article on the epistemological basis for AI justification. She is also a Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing Scholar under MIT’s Schwarzman College of Computing.

We're excited to welcome an outstanding cohort of 21 undergrads and recent graduates to study key constitutional questions and controversies with legal experts in our Program this summer.

This cohort includes three trained musicians, a Midshipman, a sacristan, a Russian language translator, and the youngest-ever graduate from the University of Houston.