The Department of Homeland Security headquarters seeks motivated students looking to contribute their unique insight, skills and talents to support the important mission of securing the homeland.
Our headquarters offices offer paid summer internship opportunities for full-time and part-time college or university students. Academic credit may be awarded in accordance with the appointee's work schedule and his/her individual college or university policies.
The Department's Student Summer Employment Program offers opportunities for students to gain on-the-job experience during the summer of 2010. The following fields may include, but are not limited to the corresponding list of duties:
Business Administration
- Providing administrative support
- Compiling and preparing information
- Monitoring and tracking reports and special projects
- Monitoring and tracking funds utilization of office budget
- Preparing a variety of reports from several automated databases
- Preparing correspondence, status reports, schedules and technical reports
- Applicants to the Business Administration area may be considered for other applicable areas including Buying/Pricing/Contract Negotiation, Finance & Accounting, General Administration/Clerical, and Human Resources.
Buying/Pricing/Contract Negotiation
- Reviewing requests for procurement
- Analyzing requirements and recommending revisions to the statement of work
- Preparing solicitation documents
- Analyzing bids and proposals
- Recommending the award of purchase orders to senior specialists
- Assisting senior specialists by carrying out analytical contract specialist work that includes predetermined phases of assignments designed to provide broad exposure to work in the profession
Civil Rights & Civil Liberties/Equal Employment Opportunity (CRCL/EEO)
- Researching topics
- Helping to coordinate, and participate in, a broad scope of activities related to engagement with American Arab, Muslim, Sikh, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Somali communities on civil rights issues
- Researching and developing enterprise-wide training on civil rights and civil liberties issues for Department staff in support of the Civil Liberties Institute
- Providing support to the Disability Policy Team in its effort to proactively integrate principles of nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in all of the Department's policies, programs and activities. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Emergency preparedness and response
- Assessing existing and proposed Department policies to determine whether they comply with the U.S. Constitution and other applicable laws, regulations, and policies
- Conducting policy research and analyses on various topics to inform and guide CRCL’s impact assessment and program work
- Establishing, revising, coordinating, implementing and advising on the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties' impact of program planning and management across component lines within the Department, and with Department information sharing, law enforcement and intelligence community partners
- Charting recommendations made through final reports issued or memos sent to components, and component responses received, to assist in the effort to monitor compliance with the implementation of our recommendations in closed complaint
- Designing the EEO & Diversity Program’s section of the CRCL website and lay foundations for building up a greater web presence
- Drafting final agency actions for adjudication of employment discrimination complaints
- Catalog appellate activity on findings of discrimination and reprisal in cases before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and federal district courts
Communications & Public Affairs
- Participating in developing, recommending, implementing, and evaluating policy for Department press relations programs
- Providing oversight and other assistance over Department information programs involving press releases, newspapers, magazines, and other publications, as well as radio and television
Finance & Accounting
- Participating in the development, evaluation, analysis and interpretation of policies to resolve accounting and audit problems
- Analyzing and resolving difficult issues related to the accounting aspects of programs where the resolution of problems requires an integrated financial approach
General Administration/Clerical
- Supporting professional and technical staff by performing a variety of clerical duties
- Assisting higher level employees with special projects
- Performing administrative duties including the construction of forms, sorting of mail, and other correspondence, and receiving and delivering telephone messages
Health Affairs
- Familiarizing yourself with the structure and operations of the Office of Health Affairs
- Supporting Department activities in biodefense, medical readiness, component services, or international health affairs
- Assisting in the development of policies and procedures with regard to specific health threats
- Assisting in defining capabilities for medical first responders at the federal, state, local, tribal and territorial levels
- Supporting medical planning as it relates to the Homeland Security mission
Human Resources
- Providing assistance and support to Human Resources Specialist in recruitment, selection, placement, job analysis and workforce planning
- Independently performing routine technical assignments, including modifications to vacancy announcements, posting job opportunities and issuing job appointment letters
Information Technology
- Policy and planning
- Security
- Application software
- Operating systems
- Network service
- Data management
- Systems administration
- Customer support
- Assisting higher level employees in the planning, designing, developing, acquiring, documenting, testing, implementing, integrating, maintaining, or modifying of IT systems.
Intelligence & Analysis
- Performing routine intelligence operations work involving collection, analysis, evaluation, interpretation, and dissemination of information
- Compiling data from specific sources for the use of senior specialists
- Evaluating and making preliminary analyses of intelligence data in terms of adequacy of detail and coverage
Legal/Law
- Performing legal research
- Analyzing legal and policy implications, and presenting work products in draft form to Counsel on a variety of difficult legal problems
- Responding to inquiries and correspondence pertaining to legal matters
- Legal areas may include procurement law, immigration law, litigation, and legislation; including agency authorities and administrative law
Policy
- Assisting in the development and coordination of Department-wide policies, planning and programs
- Researching of historical policy documents, legislative histories and court decisions
- Identifying issues or problems
- Developing alternative solutions consistent with Department regulations and operating procedures
Privacy
- Working closely with the Senior Staff to identify and analyze departmental programs and policies on privacy
- Developing new procedures and guidance dealing with the applicability and impact on privacy of current and developing technologies
- Performing research on a wide variety of issues related to privacy
- Participating in the implementation of federally mandated privacy laws, regulations, policies and procedures at the Department.
Science and Technology
- Assisting with the development of application systems to detect explosives and concealed weapons on air cargo, passengers, and the transit systems
- Working to prevent acts of catastrophic terrorism by utilizing existing resources, or by developing new ones
- Helping to design and test cutting-edge security applications
- Assisting with the research, development and testing of new vaccines, antidotes, diagnostics, and therapies against biological and chemical warfare agents, or collaborating with researchers in national laboratories, universities, and corporations to assists with the design, development, and testing of progressive applications
All internship positions are located in the Washington, D.C. area.
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How to Apply
Application Deadline: Applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, November 27, 2009.
Application Online: Apply to Student Summer Employment Program.
Requirements: To be eligible for this program, students must be:
- A United States citizen
- Enrolled or accepted for enrollment as a full or part-time degree (diploma, certificate, etc.) student in an accredited high school, technical or vocational school, 2-year or 4-year college or university, graduate or professional school
- At least 16 years of age
Candidate finalists must undergo and successfully complete a background investigation for a security clearance. Selected candidates will be required to submit a copy of their transcripts and a letter of enrollment or acceptance for enrollment for the 2010-2011 academic school year prior to appointment.
Contact our student programs staff at internships@dhs.gov.
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