STEM Internships are funded through the WORC grant provided by the Savannah River
Site to support and enrich the academic experience of USC Salkehatchie undergraduates
who are interested in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) or STEM-related
fields. By providing access to faculty-mentor relationships, Salkehatchie encourages
students to explore their interests at a more in-depth level than can be attained
in the classroom, which will help the students in their future studies and job searches.
All students who are interested in STEM-related areas and meet the following criteria
are encouraged to apply. An applicant must:
- must be a STEM scholarship recipient.
- have at least 12 college credits, including those in progress and on record, when
applying,
- be a full-time student of USC Salkehatchie taking mostly in-person courses from the Salkehatchie
campus during the period of the project,
- have a STEM faculty member willing to submit a recommendation letter online to address
the student's STEM abilities
- meet one of the following GPA requirements:
- have a 3.0 GPA from the semester immediately prior to application,
- have a 2.5 overall GPA,
- earn a 2.5 GPA for the semester when applying if there is no record prior to the application.
Interns can earn up to $2,000 per semester.
Available Projects
Cosmic Rays
Cosmic rays are subatomic particles that reach the Earth and originate from collisions
of galactic and extra‐galactic particles with atmospheric molecules. The cosmic rays
can be detected and measured with a scintillation detector connected to a data acquisition
system. In particular, students can measure the speed of cosmic rays with two detectors
and the rate of cosmic rays with one detector. The cosmic ray rate depends on the
atmospheric pressure, and this dependence can be measured.