About Cato on Campus

Cato On Campus exists to connect students with the ideas of liberty, including those emerging and others time-tested, through various means to empower social change that bolsters well-being based on free markets, limited government, individual liberty, and peace.

Welcome to Cato On Campus, the educational outreach arm created for students by the Cato Institute, one of the nation's leading public policy research foundations.  We strive to offer you a one-stop shop for liberty-based policy, opportunities, resources, and more.  While our programming runs on multiple mediums, this website - www.CatoOnCampus.org - serves as the primary mode of connecting you to what we are up to.

Young people have been the driving force behind many of the social movements that have transformed history.  Cato On Campus exists to provide you the intellectual ammunition to advance the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace, as well as an outlet for you to make your voice heard.  Explore our various program dimensions below to find out what we offer and how you can get involved.

Research & Resources
From philosophers and great minds of the past to current scholars and journalists with a fresh take on modern issues, we offer a constantly updated database of articles, videos, studies, papers and more.  You can watch Milton Friedman's famous "What is Greed?" interview, or you can read the most recent analysis of what's happening in public policy today. 

Students by nature have an emmense appetite for knowledge, and we seek to provide the information that contributes to the process of attaining that knowledge.  We hope that our resources will prove to be invaluable in your academic research, and in your personal pursuits.

Internships
Some things you don't learn until you do them.  And what better way to learn more about liberty than a short term, highly professional, intellectually stimulating internship?  That's one of the reason we host internship listings for Cato and many other organizations on this site.  No matter your background, there's something for you.  Check out other organization positions here, and our Cato internship here.

Contests
Ideas are great.  But if they're not expressed they don't help anyone.  To encourage that metamorphosis, we host three student contests to incentivize turning ideas into projects.  It's also a way for us to encourage the integration of Cato's excellent resources into students' work.  There are three categories: op-ed, YouTube video, and college paper.  Submissions are judged monthly.  Details are available here.

We also host links to various other liberty-oriented organizations who host contests for students.  These range from short videos and essays to longer papers, and offer an array of prizes from books to thousand dollar checks and international trips.  Stay tuned to the most recent contests here.

Events
Reading about ideas is great (and we host the Liberty Fund's amazing Online Library of Liberty for just that purpose), but there's just something about hearing the ideas spoken, expounded upon, and discussed that drives the ideas deeper into one's mind.  And it helps when the speakers specifically address issues tailored to the demographics of the audience.  That's why we host a lot of events.

Responding to increased demand for regular events, we have expanded our event schedule to hold at least one event per month at the Cato Institute and broadcast online with a live discussion board.  Our past events have included "How Will ObamaCare Affect Young Adults?," "Balancing Liberty and Security in an Age of Terrorism," "Beyond Left and Right: the Case for Libertarianism," and "Global Warming Realities and Fantasies," among others.  All our events are free, and are followed by a reception.  For upcoming events, check out our events page.

 

Newsletters
One of the struggles about being a student is that there is so much going on that lots of opportunities are missed simply because you didn't know about them -- we get that.  And that's why we spend time every month searching for the latest opportunities, articles, contests, events, policy ideas, scholarships, books, videos, and more, so you don't have to. 

Signing up is easy, just visit the homepage and enter your email address in the little box.  We'll take care of the rest.  (You can sign up and check out an archive of previous newsletters here.)

Ask the Expert
Cato scholars value and understand the importance of education.  So we run an ‘Ask the Expert' column as an opportunity for you to get answers about the pressing questions on your mind. You can ask any Cato scholar any question related to their work, or just a general question you may have been itching to ask. We will review the questions submitted, pick the ones most relevant to the work of Cato scholars to have an expert answer, and will then post the question and the response here on Cato On Campus.  View the archive of previous questions and responses.  Send your questions to asktheexpert@cato.org.

We hope you find the site informative and useful, and encourage you to bookmark us and come back often, as we are always updating the site with new content.

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