UST Economics and English major Shannon Heitkamp ’15 was recently selected for a summer internship at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan.

This prestigious and highly competitive program (8 awarded from an applicant pool of more than 240) provides students with graduate level coursework and research project opportunities in quantitative methods of social research.  View the press release.

This summer, in addition to graduate level coursework and seminars at ICPSR in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she’ll be engaged in a research project with ICPSR’s extensive social science data archives, likely working on longitudinal research in education.

Shannon applied for the internship in January, submitting an online application and references.  She then participated in 2 rounds of interviews, and was notified of her award about 3 weeks ago. The internship carries a $4,000 stipend, room and board in university housing, and a scholarship covering the cost of fees, texts, and materials for coursework in the ICPSR Summer Program.

She worked with UST Econ professor Monica Hartmann on her application and some ongoing course research.  Dr. Hartmann says of Shannon: “I am thrilled that Shannon was selected for this honor.  Her work ethic,  intellectual curiosity, and maturity made her a highly qualified candidate.  Last summer, Shannon conducted qualitative research with my colleague Dr. Susan Callaway in the English Department.  Through this research, Shannon learned that ESL students were interested in having opportunities to meet American students to practice their English.  In response to her findings, the English Café was started with collaboration with her research advisor, Academic Counseling, International Student Services, and the library. This blending of research and practical action will serve Shannon well in her future endeavors.”

At UST Shannon has also served as a student writing consultant with the Center for Writing and is an Excel! Research Scholar.

UST is a member institution of the Consortium, and subscribes to the ICPSR database, an extensive archive of political and social research data. ICPSR works with researchers to deposit, archive, and preserve their data, and makes the data sets and documentation available to subscribers for download and analysis using statistical software.

The Libraries congratulate Shannon on this most impressive accomplishment!