Four students from Longwood’s College of Business and Economics were selected to participate in an all-expenses-paid research internship at Carnegie Mellon University this past summer.
Nick Baragar ’14 of Virginia Beach, Hannah Flaherty ’14 of Springfield, Ben Peters ’14 of Amherst and George Werbacher ’14 of Fredericksburg traveled to Pittsburgh in June as fellows in Carnegie Mellon’s highly competitive ITLAB Internship program, which is open to rising seniors pursuing STEM-related under- graduate degrees at ITLAB’s 12 partner institutions. All four students are completing BSBA degrees with a concentration in information systems and security.
The fellowships provided by Carnegie Mellon included a stipend of $3,500, plus a meal allowance, round-trip airfare to Pitts- burgh, university housing, tuition for two courses, all required books and related course materials, and access to all of Carnegie Mellon’s facilities.
“The Information Systems program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College ranks among the most prestigious in the world,” said Peters.
The internship program, which concluded in August, provided Peters and the other participants the opportunity to conduct cutting- edge research projects directed by Carnegie Mellon faculty, who are world-renowned ex- perts in their fields, and to take two courses.
The Longwood students competed for the opportunity with students from other universities, including Brigham Young and Emory. Randall Boyle, associate professor of informa- tion systems and security at Longwood, said the outstanding training his students receive made Longwood’s applicants for the program stand out.
“Longwood students discover that the ex- tensive applied focus of their technical training sets them apart from their counterparts at other schools,” he said. “Our students have a technical skill set that is much more extensive than other top IS programs.”