Andrew Weaver CC’26 and Theodore Zaritsky CC’26 both named 2026 James C. Gaither Junior Fellows!

Congratulations to Andrew Weaver CC'26 and Theodore Zaritsky CC'26, who have been awarded the 2026-27 James C. Gaither Junior Fellowship. Each year, through the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows program, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. offers approximately 15 one-year fellowships to graduating seniors. Gaither Junior Fellows work as research assistants to Carnegie’s senior scholars, supporting the institution’s mission of taking on the most difficult global problems and safeguarding peace. Universities may nominate a maximum of two candidates for the Gaither Junior Fellowship each year; in a Columbia first, both nominees, Andrew and Theodore, have received the award. Andrew will work as a fellow in Carnegie's American Foreign Policy Program and Theodore will work as a fellow in Carnegie's Global Order and Institutions Program.

Andrew Weaver CC'26, originally from Miami, Florida, studies Political Science and Mandarin Chinese. He has supported research projects about Indo-Pacific security issues as an intern for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, Carnegie China, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Andrew has investigated the impact of U.S. arms sales on Taiwan's defense reforms as a Presidential Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. He is currently writing a senior thesis on the causes of change in Taiwanese military strategy since the end of the Cold War. At Columbia, Andrew has served as Co-President of the Alexander Hamilton Society, a non-partisan organization dedicated to foreign policy education. Through the Gaither Fellowship, he hopes to learn methods for foreign policy analysis and contribute to debates about U.S. grand strategy.

From Tucson, Arizona, Theodore Zaritsky CC'26 is a John W. Kluge Scholar majoring in Economics and Political Science. Committed to a career in public service, Theodore has supported the Economics team at the U.S. Consulate General in Morocco. He has also worked at the United Nations, drafting speeches for the General Assembly and Security Council. At Columbia, Theodore has served as a research assistant at the Institute of Global Politics and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies on projects related to counterterrorism strategy, international crisis behavior, and U.S. foreign policy. Last summer he conducted policy analysis at the Institute for Economics and Peace, supported by the Stanford S. Parker Memorial Fellowship, which is awarded by the Department of Economics. As a Gaither fellow, Theodore's research interests will focus on the future of American internationalism, the bureaucratic politics of diplomacy, and global collective action problems, particularly the design of incentives for international cooperation.

For more information about the James C. Gaither Junior Fellowship, please reach out to Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.