American Statistical Association New Jersey Chapter
Annual Summer Internship Program 
Brief Proposal
The American Statistical Association is the world’s largest community of statisticians. This is a non-profit organization supporting excellence in the development, application and dissemination of science through meetings, publications, membership services, education, accreditation, and advocacy. With an objective of promoting interest among graduating high school students towards taking up statistics training and choosing careers in the statistics field, the New Jersey Chapter of the American Statistical Association seeks to enroll prospective Junior and Senior year High School students from New Jersey (and a limited number of students from outside New Jersey) into a summer (virtual) Statistics Internship Program. This annual internship program started in the summer of 2013 and has continued since then. Administered entirely by the New Jersey Chapter of the American Statistical Association, this program is run by active support of volunteers from within the chapter membership and is sustained by a limited chapter fund. Opportunities for external contributions from private and/or public institutions to this great program do exist. The program is administered remotely and does not require students to travel to any particular location (except for the concluding event, should one be held, when notified). Eligible students will need access to the internet/electronic mail service for communicating with the coordinator of the program. All participants are required to complete a short-term statistics project towards earning their final internship certificates.
The duration of this proposed program is about 6-8 weeks during the summer months of June-August every year. Interested students will be required to select a specific topic from a list of predetermined research areas in statistical theory and applications and asked to develop a research paper (not exceeding 10 printed pages, including ≤ 5 tables and ≤ 5 figures). The final research paper will follow a pre-specified format and need to be completed by each enrollee in the program under the guidance of a professional statistician available for consultation via phone and/or electronic mail.
Participants in the program follow instructions to complete their research papers in the allocated time period and submit their final completed assignments for evaluation by a committee of professional statisticians. Criteria for evaluation include considerations of the quality and originality of the research effort. A certificate of internship will be awarded to each participant upon successful completion of the project paper. Subject to a minimum number of participating interns in the program and availability of funds by the New Jersey Chapter of the American Statistical Association, an award system may also be introduced for selection of up to five best projects as recommended by an independent committee of statisticians/judges. 
How this Program Works
This internship program is primarily designed to attract promising high school students into considering a higher education in quantitative sciences that is focused on learning from designing scientific experiments to collect, analyze, and interpret evidence as well as making sense of large observational data using statistically valid analyses. Successful participants will complete a brief research paper under the guidance of a professional statistician. The role of the guide is to help students understand the technical requirements of the project and provide oversight towards the completion of the project. This will allow students to gain critical experience in writing a research paper and learn about statistical solutions to important problems in depth. There will not be any need to travel and meet with the statistics guide during the program period.
Eligibility Conditions for Participation
This program is organized by the New Jersey Chapter of the American Statistical Association for currently enrolled High School Junior and Senior students in New Jersey. A limited number of students currently registered/planning to register or have completed an AP Statistics course will be enrolled in this program. There will be no application fee for participation. Interested students will need to fill out an application form including a short (<150 words) paragraph about their interest in Statistics along with their expected graduation date and address of the school currently attending. Students shortlisted by the Chapter to participate in the internship program will be duly notified. 
Long-Term Viability of the New Jersey Chapter American Statistical Association Summer Internship Program
The New Jersey Chapter of the American Statistical Association may accept external funding for its internship program from private and/or public institutions. All sources of funds received will be appropriately acknowledged and utilized for sustaining the internship program over the long term.

Suggested List of Research Topics for Participants (Choose any one of the following)
1.	 Compare the last 5 years of SAT or ACT scores from your school vs the national average. Assess if your school is doing better, worse, or equivalent to the national average.  How would predict your school average for the next 5 years?
2.	 Design and conduct a survey among your peers to examine whether listening to music while studying actually increases test performance. 
3.	Based on the latest study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, examine the relationship between age and accident data.  What are the key factors that may impact this relationship for the ages between 16 and 24?  Do you believe that the age of getting a license should be increased higher?
4.	Visit the U.S. Census Bureau website page and browse through the latest population estimates for your county. Find estimates for migration and out-migration into the county you live. Based on these data, estimate the population growth for your county in the next ten years. How much confidence will you have in your prediction? Can you suggest if this prediction depends on the level of unemployment in your county?
5.	Based on popularity of certain sporting events, cities are named as winners or losers. Using data from the 4 major sports in the USA (baseball, football (from Super Bowl 1 onward), National Hockey League (do not use data from the World Hockey Association), and the National Basketball Association (do not use data from the American Basketball Association), assess how you would quantify the labels winners or losers to cities.  Hint – you may want to use championships as a start.
6.	Let’s suppose you witness a viral disease (e.g., zika virus) spreading in the area where you live.  Design a study with a sample of 100 random individuals from the infected community to estimate the incidence rate and provide appropriate precision to your estimate. How do you plan to predict the future spread of the disease in your community?    
7.	Design and conduct a two-part survey at your school to investigate a) students’ favorite styles of music by classifying them into three or four broad categories and b) career choices being made in terms of subject areas or colleges they are applying for. Do you find any correlation between choice of music style and profession chosen by a student? Suggest a statistical test for examining whether any such correlation between the two variables is spurious.
8.	Marketing Survey:  There are many products for teen acne problem.  A pharmaceutical company is interested to develop a new acne product and bring it to market.   In order to formulate the development strategy, the company needs to understand the youth market.  What factors determine the use and purchase of acne products by this group?  The objective of the project is to design a marketing survey to collect useful information.   Tool:  Use Survey Monkey to conduct the survey (free).  What will you do?  Decide who to survey, design the survey questions, conduct the survey, analyze the data, and write a report.  If acne is not of interest to you, you can select another product category.
The above is not an exhaustive list of all possible topics. This list may be further modified and/or additional topics added by the Chapter. Each student participant will preferably be assigned a professional statistician as a guide to finish the project paper on time and meeting key criteria for successful internship. At any time, questions about the statistical methods or paper writing may be directed to the guide through email or phone. The goal is to provide high level guidance to the student participant when required, but allow independence to the student participant in formulating and completing the entire task.
Paper Format for Submission
The paper should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11") with 1" margins on all sides. A clear font that is highly readable should be used. APA recommendation is to use 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
Title page: the front page of the paper should contain a research topic, the name of the researcher, date, grade level, school name, city, state etc.
The paper itself includes the following several sections:
1.	Abstract
The abstract would be served as a brief summary of the paper. It should not exceed 150 words.
2.	Introduction
This section would contain a brief description of the research topic, a literature review and a statement of the hypotheses.
3.	Methods
This section would discuss experimental design and/or data collection method, or the data used, in addition to statistical methods.
4.	Results
This section would describe the result from the statistical analysis of the data.
5.	Summary and Discussion
This section would return to the problem raised in the introduction. Research results, analysis and conclusions are summarized in this section. Finally, suggestions for future directions of the research need to be discussed here.
6.	References
This section would list all sources cited in the paper.
Timelines
1.	May 2nd ~ May 20th - registration period in the program and selection of research topic. 
2.	June 1st ~ June 6th  – The Chapter notifies students selected in the internship program
3.	June 15th ~ August 15th (~ 8 weeks) - Design study and collect data (if needed) and write paper
4.	August 22nd ~ September 15th (~ 3 weeks) - Evaluation & judging of submitted papers
5.	Late September - Announcement of awards (if applicable) and distribution of certificates to interns
Program Coordination Committee 
The New Jersey Chapter of American Statistical Association officers and statisticians recruited from chapter membership will be part of the program coordination committee.  Upon successful completion of the program, each participant will be awarded a Chapter certificate.  
Note: This internship program is designed to promote statistics at the local grassroots level and will be administered by professional statisticians serving on the New Jersey Chapter of the American Statistical Association, a non-profit organization. Participation in this program is purely voluntary and based on meeting specific eligibility conditions. The program is strictly educational in scope and does not confer any rights to the participants and/or third parties. The New Jersey Chapter of the American Statistical Association reserves all the rights to hold, alter, postpone and/or discontinue the annual internship program at any time without notice.