21st Century Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) Papers - Smart Research: Leveraging Interns and Fellows to Enhance your Research Program

From the Foreword: The Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) has always embraced a whole-of-government, interagency, and comprehensive approach as part of its innate philosophy. PKSOI's Internship Program was a natural outgrowth of this holistic approach reflected in the wide array of academic disciplines and institutions of our interns. For all their diversity, our interns are uniformly enthusiastic and bring a hunger to make a real difference with their endeavors. Since the inception of the program, these bright young men and women have made a profound impact on PKSOI's research capability.

The success of PKSOI's program led to requests from other institutions for assistance in establishing a similar internship venture. In response to these repeated requests, authors Karen Finkenbinder and Rick Parsons have captured their collective wisdom to build and sustain a program to leverage the talent available from intelligent and engaged college students.

Karen and Rick cover the full spectrum of considerations for a successful internship program from research goals, to working environment, to the humble administration so necessary for any such endeavor. In the end, our authors continue to emphasize the need for meaningful and relevant projects for the interns. As the quality and quantity of projects increase, so too does the relationship with the sponsoring faculty. Likewise, our authors observe - the easiest way to extinguish the flame of inspiration is with a preponderance of menial tasks or "make-work."

It is our pleasure to publish this guide as a primer to establish a vibrant internship program using the vast array of talent available in today's students. We expect great things from these promising young men and women. After all, the future of a peaceful and stable world will eventually rest on their shoulders.