Two IUP students have been selected for the 2012 Harrisburg Internship Semester (THIS) program.
Fourteen students total are participating in this year's program, which provides students the opportunity to work in state government while earning a semester's worth of credits. The program is open to students from each of the 14 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities.
The IUP students selected for the program are Rachael Masterson, who is working for the Joint State Government Commission, and Mitchell DeRubis, who is working for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.
Masterson, a senior from Collegeville, is a Political Science major and Criminology minor. DeRubis, a junior from Indiana, is majoring in Economics and Political Science and minoring in Applied Statistics.
Students in the program will attend several academic seminars during the internship and complete an individualized research project as part of the program's requirements.
Since the program began in 1989, more than 500 students from PASSHE universities have participated in THIS, gaining insight into the workings of state government at the policymaking level. Interns have worked with dozens of state agencies, as well as in the offices of the governor, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and the attorney general.