Homeland Security Federal Semester

Working with the University of Maryland’s Office of Undergraduate Studies (UGST) and the Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, START offers University of Maryland undergraduates the opportunity to participate in a four-course program called the Homeland Security Federal Semester. This academic-year course and internship sequence is intended to introduce students to the federal policy-making process and to major issues in homeland security policy.

Students begin the program with a seminar on federal homeland security policy and follow that course with two electives and an internship. Taught by an analyst at the National Counterterrorism Center (formerly of the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate), the course allows students to examine the evolution of institutions, networks, and organizational relationships that are emerging to accomplish the wide range of homeland security missions and functions, as well as relevant, contentious policy issues in this emerging field. The course provides students with an overview of the nature of threats and major vulnerabilities that are the focus of homeland security efforts and surveys the principal actors engaged in the homeland security enterprise. Finally, students also analyze current homeland security policy issues and discuss the future of the homeland security enterprise. Senior practitioners from the government and private sector frequently guest-lecture in the class, and students produce a piece of writing relevant to a major contemporary policy issue each semester. In a truly unique academic activity in Fall 2009, for instance, students in the program were able to contribute short written pieces to the Department of Homeland Security's Quadrennial Homeland Security

"A great part of the program has been the speakers that come in. We have had [speakers from] the private and public sectors.... It really helps you get a feel for what it’s like working in homeland security in different professional communities (public vs private). It has been a great way to understand the policymaking process and see the difficulty in operationalizing homeland security policy as well as understanding all the players that are involved in homeland security."

--Sabrina Hammouda, Government and Politics and Terrorism Studies, University of Maryland Class of 2009

For more information on, and to apply to, the Homeland Security Federal Semester, please go to http://www.federalsemester.umd.edu/.

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