Junior Fellows Program
The Political Science Department has discovered gold in its backyard. While we've always known that the resource was there, we didn't tap it until 1991.
That fall the Department launched a program involving a few outstanding undergraduates. We offered a special course designed with two purposes in mind: First, these talented undergraduates would work with professors as teaching or research partners; second, these students would have a chance through a seminar to explore the nature and cutting edges of the discipline. Both purposes provided the students with special insight into and intimate knowledge of political science and how political scientists work.
Now going into its fifteenth year, the Junior Fellows Program this fall will have 18 students enrolled. If you are interested in undergraduate research in political science, if you are curious about what professors in our department do, why they do what they do, and how they came to do it, then it is never too early, or even too late, to think about how you can become a Junior Fellow.
Here is how our program works: Faculty nominate up to three (and with special dispensation four or five) outstanding undergraduate political science majors or minors whom they have taught in class. Students who meet the selection criteria (majors or minors with at least a 3.3 over GPA and/or 3.5 in political science classes) are designated "Junior Fellows" and are accepted into the program. Once accepted, each student arranges with his/her nominating professor to work either in the classroom or on a research project. We have found over the years that most student-faculty pairs work together on research, though many Junior Fellows have tutored students, read drafts of student papers, and run their own discussion sections.
In addition, the Junior Fellows meet twice each month in a three-hour seminar. At every meeting two professors from the same sub-field within political science present their approaches to research and review some of their current work. Because these faculty pairs have been selected to reflect the diversity of research methodologies and strategies within the same subfield, the students can see the richness and flexibility of the discipline. These presentations give the students a deep look into research, as they simultaneously help socialize them into the life and ways of scholarship. At the end of the semester the students meet in seminar to share with their "Fellows" the work they have been doing and the results of their own mining--their final projects.
Our motives for this program are not entirely altruistic. We have found that undergraduates like these have multiple talents that we can use. Moreover, we use these talents while also channeling our Fellows toward future careers in political science. In short, "Junior Fellows" not only serve as valuable resources for the department, but also represent the future of the discipline. The Junior Fellows Program, by all accounts and on all fronts, has been a success. We have demonstrated to all who will look what most faculty already know: That our best undergraduates are a "pool of excellence" - energetic, eager, reliable, focused, and smart-from which we can mine the gold of academic talent.
Nominations are made by faculty. If you are interested in the Junior Fellows Program, then you need to distinguish yourself in political science classes by performing at an exemplary academic level. In short, do well. Plus, there is no harm in approaching a political science professor and expressing interest in the Program. Let them know that you want to be a Junior Fellow. Get on their radar screens and show them how indispensable you are.
Junior Fellow Teach Freshman Seminars
Through an agreement with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Junior Fellows in the Department of Political Science have been permitted to offer their own Freshmen Seminars. These seminars are open to all freshmen at ASU. They are one-credit, pass/fail courses that meet for one hour each week of the semester.
Each Junior Fellow teaching a seminar works with a faculty sponsor who supervises the Fellow's work. But it is the student who plans, and writes the syllabus, evaluates student work, and teaches the class. Each Junior Fellow undertakes an independent study (POS 499) with his/her faculty sponsor and thereby earns three credits for teaching the seminar.
The Fellows choose what topics they wish to teach. There is no restriction on the topics, other than that they must pertain to politics broadly defined. We have six Freshmen Seminars taught this fall by Junior Fellows. The topics are: "Weapons of Mass Destruction," "Democracy in Peril," "Politics and Propaganda of Nazi Germany," "Political Activism," "Militant Islam and Democracy," and "Behind the Headlines."
Topics from past courses have included: "Political Satire," "LBJ: Tyrant or Savior?", "Political Scandals," "China," and "The Lives of Political Thinkers." As you can imagine, there is no limit to what you might offer. Your topic depends almost entirely on you and your interests. Teaching Freshmen Seminars is limited to our Junior Fellows because by doing so, we could convince the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that we had a pool of outstanding students who already had experience either teaching or conducting research and who had proven themselves in the classroom and as collaborators. Of course, teaching a Freshmen Seminar is not something that a Junior Fellow must do. It is simply another option available to them, another way of gaining valuable experience that is otherwise not often open to undergraduates.
For more information, see Professor Jack Crittenden, founder of Junior Fellows, Office: Lattie Coor Hall 6754; Phone: 480-965-1784; E-mail: crit@asu.edu