Contact: Sammy McDavid
Musette Edwards and Roger Crowder
Two Mississippi State University graduate students who received degrees Saturday [May 12] are selections for the nation's leading government internship program.
Roger D. Crowder Jr. of Louisville and Musette C. Edwards of Starkville are among some 550 master's- and doctoral-degree graduates from throughout the United States recently named to the two-year Presidential Management Intern Program.
Both are receiving master's degrees in public policy and administration from the department of political science. Their selection raises to nine the number of MSU political science graduates selected for the PMI program over the past five years.
"The PMI selection process is very competitive and the positions are highly sought,"said Doug Feig, political science department head. "That's why the program is considered to be the most prestigious method by which recent graduates can enter federal service."
Crowder, who previously received an MSU bachelor's degree in communication/public relations, is joining the U.S. Department of Defense as a budget analyst in the Pentagon with the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. While completing his master's, Crowder has worked as an assistant in the MSU Extension Service's Center for Governmental Technology.
Edwards, a cum laude political science/pre-law graduate of Jackson State University, will be a management support specialist in the Social Security Administration's Atlanta, Ga., regional headquarters. She has been working as a graduate assistant in the political science department.
Both will begin their work assignments in late summer.
Established by President Carter in 1977 and reconstituted by President Reagan in 1982, the program provides interns with a starting salary of approximately $35,000 and the likelihood of permanent federal employment upon completion of their work period.