ORGANIZATION
The Center for Survey Research (CSR) at UVA's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service assists local governments, state agencies, community organizations, and academic researchers to accurately and objectively measure attitudes, behaviors, interests, and needs pertinent to their work and services. CSR is a full-service center that carries out research design, questionnaire development, multi-mode data collection, data analysis, and report preparation across various subject matters and study populations.
SPONSOR
Kara Fitzgibbon, Director, Center for Survey Research
PURPOSE
In this internship, the student will have the opportunity for hands-on and in-depth experience conducting public impact research. The individual in this internship will become an active member of our research team, and work on multiple survey projects. The students will be involved at all stages of the research process and gain practical experience in survey research techniques, project management, data analysis and reporting, and client relations. The student will also be introduced to other units of the Weldon Cooper Center, including the Media Team.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
This internship will prepare intern for careers in any of the following:
- Faculty
- Industry and For-profit
- Data Science
- Government
- Academic and Research administration
- Non-profit
- Advocacy and Policy
- Regulatory affairs, Marketing and Sales
- Consulting
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
This internship will provide experiences to develop and polish the following skills:
- Communication to diverse audience
- Self and career management
- Interdisciplinary team collaboration
- Grant training and pitching for funding
- Problem-solving and analytical
- Teaching, mentoring, and training
- Project management and leadership
- Data literacy and fluency
RESPONSIBILITIES
A CSR PhD+ intern will take on responsibilities and develop skills in the following areas:
- Questionnaire design and development, which will include learning questionnaire design techniques across modes, assisting in qualitative questionnaire pretesting, and programming in Qualtrics.
- Contribute to and take responsibility for project management timelines and production on one or more surveys. This will include navigating IRB procedures (when applicable), documenting project progress and attending team and client meetings.
- Communication with survey respondents, from initial contact and recruitment materials to ongoing communication and inquiries with survey participants.
- Data management and analysis, including managing, cleaning and combining data files from various sources as well as descriptive and inferential data analysis in SPSS or similar statistical packages.
- Prepare survey reports and presentation materials, including editing and providing written consent for research reports and communications with clients. PowerPoint and data visualization skills will also be utilized
- Translate work into a shareable media product: the intern will develop, in collaboration with Claire Downey, manager of the Media Team, either a podcast or video relevant to the work conducted as part of the CSR internship.
MENTORING PLAN
From the internship, the student should gain experience in:
- Conducting practical public impact driven research survey design and gold standard methodological techniques for collecting primary data
- Working collaboratively within a team
- Project management, including handling multiple projects simultaneously, regularly switching tasks, and meeting tight project deadlines
- Data analysis and report preparation for a broad audience (i.e. not academic journals but a general public).
The intern will also become part of the larger team of professionals at the Welden Cooper Center for Public Service, with additional exposure to work in the area of public affairs and policy, public communications, and applied research for local and state governmental and non-governmental organizations.
DESIRED QUALITIES
CSR is open to students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Students from the social sciences or public health sciences are likely to find the work more directly tied to their program/previous experience. Students are not expected to have any previous survey experience (though that's a plus!), but they should have some experience in quantitative data analysis and basic statistics.
DURATION AND EFFORT
In order to meet the goals outlined above, this internship may span two consecutive terms. The internship can begin in either Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 based on student's availability. CSR will work with the student on setting a weekly schedule that is mutually agreed upon and meets the PhD+ internship expectation of up to 200 hours per semester.
FUNDING
PhD+ interns will be paid bi-weekly wages up to $5000 per semester ($25 per hour for 200 hours per semester).