News

NSPC Announces Its 2026 Summer Intern Cohort

May 21, 2026

 

The National Security Policy Center (NSPC) at UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy is pleased to announce that nine undergraduate- and graduate-level UVA students have been selected to participate in its 2026 Summer Internship Program. This year’s internship, sponsored by Washington Harbour, will give students the opportunity to contribute research on some of today’s most pressing national security issues to UVA’s National Security Data and Policy Institute (NSDPI) in Charlottesville. Interns will conduct a suite of research, writing literature reviews, policy white papers, and backgrounder memos. These students will also gain practical skill-building and career advice from distinguished professionals in the field, hearing from several industry, government, and academic experts over the course of the summer and briefing senior leaders on the work they produce.  

The NSDPI works to harness government, academia, and industry to tackle the most urgent national security challenges using cutting-edge technology. Institute researchers develop AI algorithms and other advanced tools to make sense of massive data, distilling vast troves of information to connect disparate dots and piece together possible threats that might escape more traditional, time-consuming analysis. Established in 2024, the Institute has collaborated closely with the NSPC since its inception, opening new opportunities to Batten students and connecting them with real-world national security practitioners and research. 

The NSPC’s 2026 Summer Internship with the Institute will have two parts.  First, students will work in teams to conduct a literature review on a specific topic area for the NSDPI. Second, they will engage in individual research and write a policy white paper on a national security topic of their choosing. Interns will have the opportunity to present their research to industry, academic, and government national security professionals.  

In addition to the research component, this internship offers programming to introduce students to the intelligence community landscape. Interns will participate in professional development workshops on library instruction, writing for policy professionals, national security careers, the clearance process, and writing a federal resume.  

Nine students will join the NSPC’s 2026 summer internship cohort: undergraduates Rohan Iyer, Phillip Johnson, Owen Leshner, Jane McGuiggan, and Maeve Myers; Batten School MPP candidates Peter Sullivan, Brooke Livergood, and Charles Burns; and Trevor Hamilton, a rising second-year MPP candidate who will serve as this year’s group advisor. You can read more about this year’s interns on our Undergraduate Researchers and Graduate Researchers pages. 

Our sincere thanks to the NSPC’s summer internship sponsor, Washington Harbour. Their support allows us to offer a robust internship program directly to UVA students on grounds, giving them rare and valuable exposure to various career paths in national security and foreign policy.