Summer Research Associates Fellowship

Summer Research Associates Fellowship

The CMC Policy Lab Summer Research Associates Fellowship award allows students work on projects with various policy partners.  For 2022 the team worked with the American Enterprise Institute analyzing state voter access and turnout in the 2020 election; and federal transportation policy with State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The CMC Policy Lab launched the Summer Research Associates Fellowship in Summer 2020.  The program awards students a fellowship to work on an ongoing project with a Policy Lab partner.  Examples of current and past Policy Lab projects are available here.  Past student participants can be viewed here.

Duties

Summer Research Associates will work individually and in groups on qualitative and quantitative policy research, analysis, visualizations, and memo writing. Students will be expected to attend staff meetings, regularly coordinate with faculty supervisors between staff meetings, and interface with project partners via phone, email, and video conference. All fellowship work will be performed remotely and will not require travel.

Qualifications

Strong oral and written communication skills, and some previous experience with policy research, either in an academic or professional setting, is required. Preference will also be given to students who have not participated in the previous summer associates program. Candidates should highlight policy writing experience; courses taken in statistics, political methodology, or econometrics; or a proficiency with R, Stata, Tableau, or Python. While it is not required that Summer Research Associates have taken the Policy Lab course, students who have not will be required to participate in an orientation before the start of the program.

Fellowship Requirements

This year, the program runs for eight weeks.  Associates will be awarded a $2,400 fellowship in two installments, are expected to work 20 hours per week, and must be available for regular meetings and staff communications throughout the program.

The application period for 2023 will open in Spring 2023.  For more information on the CMC Policy Lab, please visit our homepage.