ICPSR announces summer internships
We are pleased to announce the participants in the 8th year of the ICPSR Summer Internship Program for undergraduates, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. We received more than 250 applications for the program, and selected six interns:
- Jane Oliphant of the University of Portland (Ore.) will work with Sara Lazaroff of the ICPSR Education Archive
- Jeffrey Berg of Carleton College will work with Doctor Ashe in the Members Archive
- Joshua Goode of the University of Colorado-Denver and Red Rocks Community College will work with Tannaz Sabet in the Data Sharing for Demographic Research archive
- Rosa Rincon of California State University-Northridge and Pasadena City College will work with Justin Noble in the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
- Thomas Hegland of St. Olaf College will work with Kevin Kapalla in the Members Archive
- Tori Thomas of Georgia State University will work with Abayomi Israel of the Resource Center for Minority Data
The interns will spend 10 weeks at ICPSR in Ann Arbor, and will gain experience processing data and learning statistical software packages; complete a research project resulting in conference-ready posters; and attend courses in the ICPSR Summer Program.
The goal of the program is to promote the effective use of social science research data among undergraduate students, and to encourage participants to pursue a career in the social or behavioral sciences. Abayomi Israel and John Garcia of the Resource Center for Minority Data are the projct managers, and Lynette Hoelter, ICPSR's Director of Instructional Resources, serves as the Co-Principal Investigator.
Videos of last year's interns describing their projects can be viewed on the ICPSR YouTube channel.
More information on the student participants follows:
- Jane Oliphant of the University of Portland is a triple major in Social Work, Psychology, and Sociology graduating in 2013. After graduation, she would like to attend graduate school in the social sciences or Public Policy and possibly pursue a career in research. Jane has experience working with SPSS and has already identified a number of datasets that she would like to work with this summer: the Head Start Family and Child Survey (Faces) Series, the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) Policies Database, and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 2004 Panel – just to name a few. Since 2010, Jane has served as a Resident Assistant and has worked as the Service and Justice Coordinator at her university. In 2011, she gained experience as a Camp Counselor at the Cascades Camp and Conference Center. Jane is also very active in her campus community where she plays various intramural sports and volunteers in a number of committees. In 2010, Jane worked as a Social Justice Intern at the Macdonald Center - an organization that serves the low-income population in downtown Portland. Jane’s most recent research project examined the relationship between self-concept and observer ratings. This summer she would like to focus on the question of how a person’s access to resources in their childhood influenced their later life outcomes – more specifically, research that examines inner-generational poverty.
- Jeffrey Berg of Carleton College is a double major in Political Science/International Relations and Psychology/Cognitive Science graduating in 2014. Jeffery is most interested in the evidential side of social science: specifically, data analysis, and survey design- with the hope to one day pursue a career in research. He has worked as a Research Assistant for his college’s Political Science department where his work focused on the nature of political advertisements during the 2008 political campaigns. In addition, during the spring of 2012, Jeffery interned at the National Archives under the supervision of the External Affairs Liaison. Although only a sophomore, Jeffery has already gained experience with SPSS, TIBCO Spotfire, and S-plus. In addition, he has working knowledge in the Python programming language and is fluent in Spanish. Outside of the classroom, Jeffery has served as the General Editor of The Echo Newspaper and Chief Editor of the Literary Journal at Wheaton Academy, and is currently the Photographer and Editor for Media Relations at his college and Ice Hockey Statistician at the Advanced Ice Arenas.
- Joshua Goode of the University of Colorado is a Sociology major and Demography minor graduating in 2013 with an interest in becoming a Sociology professor one day. Specifically, he hope is to pursue a research career in the area of family demography. In 2011, Joshua worked as a Research Assistant for two different professors where he learned about working with both qualitative and quantitative data. In terms of experience with data, Joshua has worked with Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort (ECLSB) data, as well as the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) data from the United Kingdom. His senior thesis on the educational aspirations and expectations of minority youth utilizes the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and he has experience with SPSS, STATA and Mplus. In 2011, Joshua has also given two conference presentations; the first was at the National Council on Family Relations Meeting in Orlando Florida, and the other at the National Center for Family & Marriage Research Counting Couples, Counting Families Conference in Bethesda Maryland. Joshua serves as president of the Students of Sociology Club and vice-president of the Alpha Kappa Delta, the international Sociology honor society.
- Rosa of California State University-Northridge is a junior Sociology and Criminology major with an Associates of Arts Degree in Sociology from Pasadena City College. After graduation she plans to attend graduate school in either Sociology or Criminology with the hope of one of two career trajectories - an analyst in the criminal justice system for city or state government or a Sociology professor at a community college. Rosa has worked with a number of large data sets, including the General Social Survey and the National Longitudinal Surveys, and has experience in SPSS. She has worked as a Youth Leader at the Pasadena Unified School District, and has served as the Community Representative for Puente Club. Rosa is bilingual and uses her fluency in Spanish and English when volunteering as a tutor at the Senior Center and at El Centro de Accion Social. As a first-generation college student, Rosa hopes that the ICPSR Summer Internship will give her greater experience in statistical methods and social research as to prepare her for the next steps in her career.
- Thomas Hegland of St. Olaf College is a double major in Mathematics and Economics with an emphasis on Public Policy and a concentration in Statistics graduating in 2013. After graduation, Thomas plans on pursuing a graduate degree in Economics with the hope of one day becoming an economist. Through his wide range of experiences, Thomas has acquired a wide range of technical skills; this includes experience in the use of the R statistical computing language, Linux/Unix environments, SAS, STATA and EViews. He has also worked with a number of large data sets such as the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). His main research interest is urban poverty as he believes that it is tied to many other questions relating not just to Economics but also to the broader social structure. In addition, some of his academic achievements include studying Number Theory in Hungary in 2011, the Buntrock Academic Scholarship, a publication in the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Sciences, and a number of presentations including his most recent at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. From 2010 to the present, Thomas has worked as an Undergraduate Research Fellow for the NSF supported Center for Interdisciplinary Research. He also serves as member and coach of the debate team, member of the Math team, class representative for the Mathematical Association of America and the vice president of his college’s chapter of Omicron Delta Epsilon – the national Economics honor society. Currently he serves on the Student Government as the Chief Financial Officer of the political Awareness Committee.
- Tori Thomas of Georgia State University is a Sociology major and African American Studies minor graduating in 2013. After graduation, she would like to participate in the Teach for America Program with the ultimate goal of attending graduate school in either Sociology or Education. Tori is a Ronald McNair scholar and has been awarded a number of accolades including the Margaret Andersen Award for outstanding performance in Sociology. In addition, she has received the Georgia Hope scholarship, the Horatio Alger Scholarship and the Next Generation Award Scholarship. Tori has experience in both SPSS and SAS and has worked as a Research Assistant and Intern in the McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program and the NSF/NIH funded Public Housing Study respectively. Through these programs, Tori has developed an interest in studying how relocation out of public housing affected educational opportunities in minority communities. In 2010, Tori also served as the Statistics and Measurement Intern for The Georgia Center for Nonprofits and has continued to be a very active member of her community. She is currently a member of the Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority Incorporated, served as a First Year Mentor and Service Ambassador at her university and is a Junior Achievement Volunteer responsible for teaching financial literacy at elementary and middle schools.
May 23, 2012