START offers unpaid internships year round on a variety of our research projects and teams. During the course of their internship, participants are exposed to the most up-to-date theories, methods and information related to the study of terrorism. They are versed in critical questions being tackled by homeland security practitioners, policy makers and researchers, and they are mentored in a professional environment geared toward student success. The program is designed to prepare the next generation of homeland security scholars and practitioners through real-world research experience.
START’s internship program is open to undergraduate and graduate students (as well as some recent graduates) in any related discipline from any institution. Each internship lasts for one term. Participants work at least 10 hours/week during the fall and spring semesters and 20 hours/week during the summer. Our internships can be undertaken for academic credit, and this is highly encouraged. Interns participate in a program of enrichment and career development opportunities. All interns are required to work onsite with their research project staff. Because interns work directly with our researchers and staff on current research projects, the internship positions vary depending on our research portfolio.
START is currently accepting applications for Fall 2015 internships. Internships available for each semester are listed below. Please note applicants must submit a separate application each semester and applicants may only submit one application per semester.
Fall Internship Program Notes and Application:
- Priority Application Deadline: Jun. 7 (Please note that for some projects, this is the FINAL deadline. See project descriptions for more details.)
- Final Application Deadline: Jun. 21
- Mandatory Intern Orientation: Aug. 27-28
- Final Day of Program: Dec. 11
Questions? Contact internships@start.umd.edu.
Why choose an internship at START?
- Experience working with a large team of dynamic and experienced researchers.
- Exposure to cutting edge theories and methods.
- Deepen your understanding of current issues in terrorism and homeland security.
- Work on projects of immediate interest to the practitioner and policy community.
- Hone and develop a range of transferable skills attractive to future employers.
- Opportunity to work with and meet other students and researchers with similar interests.
- Enrichment activities offering wide opportunities for learning and personal growth, schedule includes simulations, career presentations and research talks.
- Mentorship from START staff and researchers in a successful professional environment.
- Internships can be undertaken for academic credit (depending on approval from your institution and department).
General requirements
Applicants for all internships must:
- Have a good academic record.
- Demonstrate an interest in the subject matter.
- Be able to complete their internship work hours on site at START.
- Agree to attend orientation and training.
Submit an application by the deadline, all application packets must include:
- A complete application for the correct semester (available at http://www.start.umd.edu/careers/internships),
- One page resume,
- Cover letter,
- Writing sample,
- Unofficial transcripts from most recent institution.
Each project may have additional requirements, including minimum credit hours, preferred majors and compulsory meeting times. For specific requirements and information visit: http://www.start.umd.edu
Global Terrorism Database (GTD)
The GTD is an open source, unclassified database including information on terrorist attacks around the world since 1970 (currently updated through 2013). The database is maintained by researchers at START. The GTD includes systematic data on domestic as well as international terrorist incidents that have occurred during this time period and now includes over 113,000 cases. The GTD intern team is organized into the following themes:
- GTD: Incident Location and Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT)
- GTD: Perpetrator Identification
- GTD: Target Classification
- GTD: Understanding the Patterns and Use of Weapons and Tactics
- GTD: The Consequences of Terrorism – Casualties and Outcome
- GTD: Coding Intern At Large (Generalist)
Unconventional Weapons and Technology
The Unconventional Weapons and Technology Division consists of a number of intensive, shorter-term research projects concentrated on research topics within the larger study of terrorism and politically violent non-state actors. Intern positions are available in the following focus areas:
- Unconventional Weapons Internship
- Open Source Intelligence on Organized Crime and R/N Trafficking
- Behavioral Indicators of Insider Threats
- Countering Emerging Proliferation Threats in India: Terror-Crime Nexus and Trafficking Trends
- Cyber Intelligence Collection & Assessment (Eyes of Victory)
Communications
START communications team is seeking interns to assist with START’s communication activities and products. Interns’, responsibilities will vary but may include: Writing and editing press releases and featured stories, planning and attending events, creating media kits, developing and tracking media lists and monitoring social media.
Risk Communications and Community Resilience
Government, non-profits, and other organizations rely on public communication to deliver important messages to various audiences. Professional communicators today use social scientific research to improve this process, and START’s research teams have several current and upcoming communication projects that address current research questions. Risk communication is important for delivering messages about impending storms, terrorist attacks, public health crises, and more. Interns working on this team will support several ongoing research projects as well as new projects.
Dataverse
START is continuing to develop the Terrorism Data Archive Dataverse. Interns for this project will learn about terrorism-related data through archiving datasets and reading over documentation. Interns will serve as Assistant Editors and would be responsible for preparing data for archiving onto the START Dataverse. Depending upon the dataset, there will also be opportunities to create Codebooks and add labels and values to the data. Interns will receive training in the archiving process.
Strategic Military Assessment Research and Transition (SMART) Projects
SMART projects focus on the relationships of violent non-state actors (terrorist, pirates, etc) and state authorities to analyze their patterns of interaction and strategies of violence.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Analytical
Interns will contribute to the construction of a global, multimodal transportation network. Tasks will include analysis and aggregation of large-scale datasets, database triangulation, manual vector editing, extensive open-source research into traditional and illicit transportation methods, digital cartography/mapmaking, and translation of START’s qualitative research into geospatial format. Interest/experience in global security and/or terrorism is beneficial.
TEVUS Handbook and Simulation Internship
The Terrorism and Extremist Violence in the United States (TEVUS) Database integrates existing and new open-source data sets to facilitate more robust and sophisticated analyses of the behaviors, operations, and activities of violent extremists within the United States.
Understanding Domestic Radicalization
This internship is part of the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) project, a three-year project which seeks to establish an empirical basis to investigate the underlying mechanisms and processes for individual radicalization in the United States. Previous intern teams researched information on radicalized individuals and entered it into a dataset; wrote case studies on radicalized individuals; performed quality-control checks on the dataset; performed structured qualitative analysis; and assisted project staff in conducting analysis on the quantitative data.
