John Jay College - The Center on Terrorism

Graduate Assistantship in Homeland Security
John Jay College Alumni Association Counter-Terrorism Graduate Scholarship Award

Graduate Assistantship in Homeland Security
Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security

The Office of Graduate Studies and the Center on Terrorism at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, are seeking applications for the inaugural Graduate Assistantship in Homeland Security. The assistantship has been made possible by a grant that the College has received from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The objective of the grant is to help prepare Masters students – especially those from underrepresented groups – for careers in DHS or in the broader field of homeland security.

The assistantship offers a stipend of $2300 per month for 12 months. In addition, the assistantship will reimburse the full costs of tuition, fees and health insurance. The successful applicant will work full time as a research assistant while continuing his or her studies.

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT!! In the next assistantship, the GA will work with Professor Charles Jennings (Department of Protection Management) on a project titled “Best Practices and Environmental Factors in Achieving Regional Radio Interoperability.” The objective of this project is to develop summary measures of radio system interoperability in metropolitan areas and research will include trips to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Washington, CD for archival research.

Application Requirements
The assistantship is for one calendar year (i.e. October 2008 – October 2009). Applicants must be enrolled in a Masters program at John Jay College for the duration of the assistantship period and maintain good academic standing with a GPA of at least a 3.3. Assistantships are limited to US citizens.

Download full application
Next submission deadline is noon, Monday September 22, 2008.

Past Recipients

2008-2009

Katharine Boyd was awarded the Graduate Assistantship in Homeland Security in March of 2008. She is currently working towards her Masters in Forensic Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and toward the Certificate in Terrorism Studies offered by the Center on Terrorism. Ms. Boyd earned a B.A. in psychology and political science from Ashland University in Ohio, and she wishes to pursue a Ph.D. following graduation in 2009.

Soon after 9/11 (her freshman year of college), Ms. Boyd became interested in what factors contribute to terrorist motivation. She did research in her undergraduate studies regarding radical Islamic moral development. Her research interests include studying radicalization and terrorist motivations in relation to public policy. As the current GA, Boyd is contributing to the literature review for the upcoming book, The Fundamentalist Mindset: On Religion and Violence with Professor Strozier (Director, Center on Terrorism) and History Will Judge: An Examination of Torture through the Ages with Professor Sneh (History Department).

John Jay College Alumni Association Counter-Terrorism Graduate Scholarship Award
Sponsored by the Billy Blanks Foundation

This scholarship honors Charles Mills, Class of '76, a supervisor for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance who was at his desk on the 87th floor of #2 World Trade Center when the planes crashed into the building. During his prior law enforcement career Mills served as Chief of Police of Schenectady, New York, and with the New York City Transit Police.

The John Jay College Alumni Association and the Center on Terrorism offer the Counter Terrorism scholarship which will pay $1000 for each of two semesters to a graduate student enrolled in the Masters Certificate Program in Terrorism Studies. A student receiving this scholarship is expected to do an internship at the Center on Terrorism as defined by the Director of the Center.

Application Requirements
To be eligible for the scholarship, students must:

be enrolled in a CUNY graduate program
have a minimum of a 3.5 GPA
be enrolled in the Certificate in Terrorism Studies Program
have accumulated between 9 and 24 graduate credits at the time of application

Interested students need to submit a written essay of approximately 500 words pertaining to the way graduate education can contribute to the understanding and the prevention of terrorism, and discuss their professional ambition after graduation.

Submission DEADLINE: Essays for 2008-2009 academic year are due by September 22, 2008.

Please send your essay submission and transcript (with complete contact information) to:

The Center on Terrorism
John Jay College
555 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Multiple awards may be given!!

For more information email terrorism@jjay.cuny.edu

Past Recipients

2008-2009

Katy Glover is the recipient of the John Jay College Alumni Association Counter Terrorism Graduate Scholarship Award for the 2007-2008 academic year. She is currently working toward her Masters in Forensic Psychology. Katy is also working toward the Certificate in Terrorism Studies offered by the Center on Terrorism at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She holds a B.S. in Forensic Studies with a minor in Psychology from Florida Gulf Coast University. She is currently employed with NYC Department of Investigation, as a Confidential Investigator. She is also currently serving as the coordinator of a major national conference hosted by the Center on "Interrogation and Torture Controversy: Crisis in Psychology" scheduled for the fall of 2008. After graduation she hopes to be employed by a federal agency as a Special Agent.

2006-2007

Benjamin Orr was the recipient of the John Jay College Alumni Association Counter Terrorism Graduate Scholarship Award for the 2006-2007 academic year. He obtained a Masters in Public Administration from the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, specializing in Policy Analysis. Benjamin also earned the Certificate in Terrorism Studies offered by the Center on Terrorism at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Missouri-Rolla. After graduation he hopes to enter law school.

Mr. Orr’s interest in terrorism and fundamentalist extremism both precedes and is a response to the attacks of September 11th, 2001. He was raised in a Christian sect that, though pacifist, bore many markers of more violent groups. After separating from the sect in college-the rest of his immediate family soon followed-he wrote his senior thesis in 2000 on the comparability of terrorist groups in first and third world countries, focusing on the Red Army Faction in Germany and Sendero Luminosa in Peru. His research interests are terrorist networks, terrorist financing and the intersection of civil liberties and counter terrorism policy. Benjamin serves as a Research Associate at the Center on Terrorism on the Global Network Terrorism project.

2002-2003

Robert Marmara of Rockaway, New Jersey, was the recipient of the John Jay College Alumni Association Counter Terrorism Graduate Scholarship Award for the 2002-2003 academic year. Robert was the first recipient of the award given to a graduate student in honor of the many alumni who died in the September 11th attacks. Mr. Marmara served as the coordinator of a major national conference hosted by the Center on “Torture After 9/11” in the fall of 2003.