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Public Sector Data Science Internship Program

Explore careers in policy research and evaluation. Public Sector Data Science interns work with the Ohio Education Research Center and a partner state agency to investigate policy problems using data-based methods. Built for undergraduate juniors and seniors, this opportunity provides practical experience and the opportunity to put theory into practice. 

Curriculum

Students will engage in a combination of lab training, self-study and work with agency partners.

Students will be assigned to an agency research office for the summer (mid-May to the end of July). Working with an agency partner, they will perform basic and applied research on policy-relevant topics. Agencies might include the Ohio departments of Education and Workforce, Higher Education, or Job and Family Services, among others.

During the agency internship, students will participate in a weekly seminar with Glenn College/CHRR and OERC staff and faculty. These weekly seminar sessions will serve as a “learning lab” where students can get help from staff on ongoing issues that arise in the internship site and hear from various guest speakers in the data science field.

Students in the internship will be expected to present their research at the end of the summer to an audience of the OERC's agency partners and to present at the Autumn Undergraduate Research Festival.

Eligibility

This program is designed for, but not limited to, rising juniors and seniors from a relevant discipline that includes both social science research methods and some basic computer programming skills. 

The selection committee will examine transcripts and prior work experience, and look for a combination of the following:

  • Courses/skills in education policy, policy evaluation and economics
  • Experience with statistical programming (STATA, R, etc.)
  • Experience with other software, such as ArcGIS, QGIS, Tableau, etc.

Preference will be given to Glenn College students who have taken at least Public Policy Analysis, Public Policy Evaluation, econometrics and statistics classes.

For more information contact Josh Hawley, faculty director or Ceanna Burnheimer, Research Associate.