Collin Bastian
Fall 2021 John Jay Fellow
Hometown: Plainfield, Illinois
College: Wheaton College (IL)
Degree: B.A. Political Science, Economics, Minor in Mathematics
Collin Bastian graduated summa cum laude from Wheaton College (IL) in May 2021, majoring in Political Science and Economics and minoring in Mathematics. Motivated by the pursuit of truth and justice, Collin was primarily interested in learning about natural law theory and the just war tradition in his studies. While at Wheaton, he was active in the campus’ ministry group, Discipleship Ministries, wherein he served as a Discipleship Small Group Leader for two years.
In the summer of 2019, Collin was named a FPE (Faith, Politics, and Economics) Scholar at his university, where he collaborated with professors to research the topic of charitable giving. He excelled in his studies throughout his time at Wheaton, which led to him being awarded the 2020/2021 Business-Economics Outstanding Student Award. Upon graduating, Collin was inducted into the Wheaton College Scholastic Honor Society.
Outside of school, Collin was a member of The Heritage Foundation’s inaugural Academy class in the summer of 2020, where he was named a Miller Foundation Academy Fellow. In this role, he worked alongside other fellows in order to research ways to further the pro-life movement by increasing the effectiveness of crisis pregnancy centers. In the summer of 2021, he returned to The Heritage Foundation as an intern, where he was named a Samuel L. Westerman Foundation Intern. As an intern, Collin used Stata to reverse-engineer calculations for the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Additional Child Tax Credit from existing data.
After his time at the John Jay Institute’s Fellows Program, Collin hopes to pursue graduate studies in the field of political theory so as to enter into a career in academia or the think tank world. When not working, one can find him reading or talking with his friends.