Virginia Tech students could soon take the first steps toward careers in national intelligence.
Tech, along with Howard University, received an award from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to join a national program already consisting of 19 other universities.
This award will designate both universities to develop an “Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence.” The program is geared toward engineering but is also looking for students from all majors and backgrounds interested in pursuing careers in national intelligence.
Tech and Howard will each receive $1 million for the first two years and could receive up to $2.5 million over five years if the program is deemed successful.
Jeff Reed, the principle investigator of Tech’s intelligence community program, said the intelligence community approached Tech last spring. With the help of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and Wireless@VT, the university was able to submit a successful proposal to the ODNI.
Program co-director Ashwin Amanna said that the intelligence community’s goal is to produce “students who have seen the world and can broaden their perspective and broaden their culture.”
Reed said the program also does not want students who all think alike.
According to Amanna and Reed, federal bodies including the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency are looking for future employees with critical thinking skills spanning a wide variety of majors and concentrations, emphasizing language as an important skill.
“The intelligence community has a desire for languages,” Amanna said. He cited Chinese and Arabic as two major focuses.
Both directors encourage students from all majors to apply.
“It’s going to be open to all majors, all across campus,” Amanna said. “We went at it primarily with an engineering focus, but it’s going to be very broad.”
Maj. Carrie Cox, executive officer with the Tech Corps of Cadets, said the program is not targeted at the corps, but does hold value for its members.
“(It is) open to everyone, it’s just that we as the corps are especially interested,” Cox said. “We have a lot of students interested in government service.”
Cox said it is a good program for students to add to their resumes.
“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for them to get some real world experience, to see if this is a career they’d be interested in,” Cox said. “Being involved in this program will help them when applying for an internship or a job.”
Amanna also said the program would be helpful for students seeking jobs and internships.
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Who can I contact about finding more information on this program?
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We have an interim blog page at http://vticcae.wordpress.com/
When the application form is ready we'll post the link here.
Alternatively, you can email
grahamc@exchange.vt.edu
Put IC CAE in the subject and request info. We'll email the link for the registration form when it is available.
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