Summer Research Intern

Research Foundation of The City University of New York•New York, NY

7d•$20 - $25•Hybrid

About The Position

Thank you for considering a career with the Research Foundation of The City University of New York (RFCUNY). The team at RFCUNY is made up of dedicated, talented professionals committed to providing the services that allow CUNY researchers, faculty, and staff to focus on their intellectual curiosity and scientific discoveries. We are pleased that you are interested in exploring opportunities to join RFCUNY. Primary Location: CUNY INSTITUTE FOR STATE & LOCAL GOVERNANCE Bargaining Unit: No CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG): About Us The CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance has a mission to improve the financing, delivery, and measurement of critical public services through research, technical assistance, and education. We lead projects aimed at reforming the criminal justice system, measuring urban inequality, expanding the reach of social service providers, and more. Each project has a dedicated team of research and policy experts who collaborate closely with internal and external organizations. For more information about ISLG, please visit www.islg.cuny.edu. Our Goals for Diversity and Inclusion We strive to foster an office environment and an approach to work that welcomes and respects different perspectives, backgrounds, and life experiences. We are working towards our goal of recruiting and retaining staff, interns and advisory group members who are diverse in terms of race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, veteran status, socioeconomic status, disability, and justice system involvement. Who we are looking for ISLG is recruiting up to four (4) CUNY undergraduate and/or graduate student interns to work on a variety of research projects. Interns may work on one or more projects and may contribute to a number of quantitative or qualitative analyses and help with project administration. Potential projects include but are not limited to: The Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) is a national initiative launched in 2015 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The initiative advances fair and effective policies and practices across the local criminal legal system, with three key goals–reduce jail populations; promote racial equity and reduce racial/ethnic disparities in jails; and advance community safety. Over 50 cities and counties across the country participate in the SJC and CUNY ISLG serves as the national intermediary and primary data and analytic partner. As the initiative will be sunsetting in December 2026, CUNY ISLG is working to establish the SJC legacy through a data archive and a legacy website. The data archive will house criminal legal data collected from SJC sites by CUNY ISLG throughout the course of the initiative. The “one-stop-shop” legacy website will contain critical resources, reports, tools, and other products created under the SJC—including legacy materials that present key summative learnings—for various audiences and actors that contribute to local change. The Prosecutorial Data Collaborative supports prosecutors’ offices in building the infrastructure and culture necessary to effectively use data in their offices, courtrooms, and communities to support decision-making and policy. This includes the development of tools and processes to assist prosecutors in managing their offices, assessing performance, and ensuring that office practices align with leadership goals and priorities. Assistance may involve the development of data dashboards, deeper dive analyses of particular aspects of office practice, technical assistance with data interpretation, and sustainability planning and support. The Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP) is a Bureau of Justice Assistance initiative that provides funding for the development, implementation, or expansion of comprehensive efforts to identify, respond to, treat, and support those impacted by opioids, stimulants and other drugs. The BJA Smart Supervision Project is a Bureau of Justice Assistance funded project to develop an Integrated Data System (IDS) in York County, Pennsylvania. The IDS will integrate client- and case-level records from criminal justice, medical and behavioral health, and human service entities operating in the County. The goals of the integrated data system are to help support more effective client case management by sharing information about client involvement in multiple systems (e.g., probation, jail, mental health, substance use), and to increase successful and equitable outcomes for probation supervision clients. CUNY ISLG serves as the research and evaluation partner for the project. The core of this internship is creating community and peer-to-peer learning among ISLG interns; to foster community we will have bi-weekly, in-person convenings that will cover a range of topics such as relationship building, project management, etc. We are hiring interns to work at ISLG from May 26– July 30). Interns will have a hybrid work schedule and report to a designated ISLG staff member. Interns will work on a range of tasks within the project(s) listed above as well as others not listed here. We are seeking research interns who will work on quantitative or qualitative tasks or a combination of the two. Tasks that the interns may be responsible for include: Writing syntax to process, validate and standardize case-level administrative data files for analysis; Attending meetings with project partners and taking notes; Conducting literature reviews around a variety of topics; Synthesizing research publications across SJC priority areas, including those identified above; Contributing to public-facing written products, including policy and issue briefs, and presentations for academic and community audiences; and Other tasks as needed to support ISLG’s work. We are seeking research interns who will work on quantitative or qualitative tasks or a combination of the two. Tasks that the interns may be responsible for include: Writing syntax to process, validate and standardize case-level administrative data files for analysis; Attending meetings with project partners and taking notes; Conducting literature reviews around a variety of topics; Synthesizing research publications across SJC priority areas, including those identified above; Contributing to public-facing written products, including policy and issue briefs, and presentations for academic and community audiences; and Other tasks as needed to support ISLG’s work.

Requirements

Currently enrolled in one of the following degree programs at a CUNY school or have graduated from such a program within the last year: criminal justice, sociology, or other social science field
Possess demonstrated experience carrying out tasks related to the collection, management, and dissemination of complex data
Proficiency in one or more of the following programming languages: R, Stata, SPSS (data-focused interns)
Experience and/or interest in qualitative research including interviews, focus groups, and qualitative coding analysis
Experience and/or interest in community engagement approaches to research
Understanding of both quantitative and qualitative research methods and analysis
Ability to summarize key findings and synthesize results across multiple research publications
Ability to communicate and work with team members in an accessible manner

Nice To Haves

Ability to commit to a consistent schedule of approximately 35 hours per week for the internship period (May 26– July 30)
Ability to attend peer-to-peer credentialed in-person weekly sessions currently anticipated to be scheduled on Wednesday’s from 9:00am-11:00am
Excellent time management skills and experience working in deadline-driven environments
Ability to prioritize and work on a number of tasks simultaneously
Flexibility about projects and workflow
Passion about equitable state and local policy solutions to pressing social issues
ISLG is open to flexibility on the requirements above, but we would expect candidates to fit most of the items described.

Responsibilities

Writing syntax to process, validate and standardize case-level administrative data files for analysis
Attending meetings with project partners and taking notes
Conducting literature reviews around a variety of topics
Synthesizing research publications across SJC priority areas, including those identified above
Contributing to public-facing written products, including policy and issue briefs, and presentations for academic and community audiences
Other tasks as needed to support ISLG’s work