Student Opportunities

Community Research

The department encourages students to enhance their classroom learning by seeking opportunities to do primary research in the community.

Examples:

• "Cross-City Inequalities: Determinants of Rental Housing Quality in Bloomington, IL," Lindsey Haines
  
  
• "Westside of Bloomington: Crime Climate Survey," Ryan Lambert

Internships, Scholarships, and Fellowships

Our most successful students have benefited from:

• Internships – For more information, please see the Political Science Internships page .
  
  
• Scholarships and Fellowships
  • For information and opportunities, please see the Political Science Scholarships and Fellowships page .
  • One example of scholarships and fellowships is the Pi Sigma Alpha Howard Penniman Scholarship for Graduate Study . This article describes the award given to a recent IWU student: Bouras ’18 Earns National Pi Sigma Alpha Recognition .

Off-Campus Study

The Department of Political Science requires one semester of off-campus study to enrich the liberal arts experience. For more information, please see Fulfilling the Off-Campus Requirement page.

Study Abroad

Students can enrich their academic experience through studying abroad—for more information, please see the IWU Study Abroad program.

Research Presentation and Publication

In order to share their scholarly work, political science students are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities for research presentation and publication.

• Presenting Research
  • Students may present work at the John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference .
  • The Pi Sigma Alpha National Research Conference  provides students with the opportunity to present their own research. See also this article: Bouras ’18 Presents at National Research Conference .
• Examples of Research Work – For examples of research other students have presented, see the Student Honors Papers collection.
  
  
• Publishing in Res Publica – Students may submit their original research for publication in Res Publica , IWU's unique undergraduate journal of political science.