DiSS: START Diversifying Security Studies Program (CDP 2013-2014)

Overview

START's Diversifying Security Studies Program (DiSS), is a comprehensive, one-year program designed for University of Maryland (UMD) undergraduate students from racial and ethnic minority groups currently underrepresented in career fields related to homeland, national and international security. Students will enter the program at the beginning of their junior or senior years, and focus on a holistic approach to understanding, combatting and overcoming issues that students from underrepresented populations may face in the security-related workforce. DiSS program experiences are aimed to transition students from their undergraduate experiences to professional positions in the homeland security science and technology arena (HS-STEM).

Summary of Program Components

Students will participate in three program components:

• A traditional classroom learning component, in which students will enroll in six credits of coursework on terrorism studies during the 2013-2014 academic year, three credits in an online course during the 2014 summer, and three credits of a START-led study abroad program hosted collaboratively with Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia;
• An experiential learning component, in which students will participate in a part-time academic-year research assistantship and a full-time summer internship in the terrorism studies field at the University of Maryland and/or other Consortium Universities; and
• A customized program of career development activities designed to introduce students to career options in the field of homeland security and to help them develop and refine their professional skills.

 

For more detailed information, please go to: http://start.umd.edu/start/education/academic_programs/cdp/diss/.