Sybil Cutler, a graduate student in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Purdue University, is passionate about understanding sibling relationships and how families navigate stress and life transitions, with much of her recent work focusing on military-connected families. Thanks to her recent internship experience, she’s now considering a career that combines these research interests with policy.
Cutler was selected as the first Bay Family Policy Intern, a position created in 2024 with generous funding from Charles and Laurie Bay, both veterans and Purdue alumni with strong commitments to helping military and veteran families. The internship is administered via a partnership between the Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) at Purdue University and the Center for Families.
“Laurie and I are very pleased to be able to support a program as important as MFRI and to give back to the university that means so much to us,” said Charles Bay. “We would also like to congratulate Sybil as the first intern. Young leaders like Sybil are exactly why this internship program was created.”
This internship provides graduate students at Purdue with the opportunity to learn about mobilizing data to educate policymakers, specifically in relation to military service members, veterans and their families.
“I hadn’t really thought about pursuing policy related to military families until I started at MFRI, and [the internship] allowed me to explore a different opportunity that I hadn’t expected,” said Cutler.
While Cutler is the first Bay Family Policy Intern, she had previous research experience related to military families, which she gained as a data collector with MFRI’s Operation Military Experience and through a graduate assistantship with Reaching Rural Veterans. The internship allowed Cutler’s role at MFRI to expand by working on another initiative, Measuring Communities.
Cutler assisted in the development of the Legal section of the latest Measuring Communities: Spotlight Report and also participated in ripple effect mapping (REM) training, which is an evaluation technique that measures the impact of an initial activity. Through these experiences, she got to analyze data from the report, explore how data can be used to inform decisions, and learned how to measure the widespread impact of initiatives.
The internship also took Cutler beyond Purdue’s campus; she traveled to Capitol Hill in May 2025 for a day of advocacy with the National Military Family Association. Alongside MFRI Senior Education and Employment Specialist Katie Walter, Cutler shared some of the latest data on military-connected families and got a firsthand perspective on how researchers and lawmakers can interact to make data-driven decisions.
For Cutler, the internship helped to clarify her career goals by providing hands-on experience with policy.
“I really wanted to get some policy-related experience before I decided what I want to do in the future, and the internship was a really nice way to see if I wanted to pursue a career in policy, specifically policy related to military families,” said Cutler. “[The internship] allowed me to see how my strengths and research interests could fit into a career in policy.”
Now nearing the completion of her master’s degree this fall, Cutler plans to continue her education at Purdue by pursuing a PhD in Human Development and Family Science. While her long-term career options aren’t completely solidified, Cutler says she’s grateful to the Bay Family Policy Internship for allowing her to explore a potential path.