Homeland Security A Route To Service For Poli Sci's Lack

Less-than-perfect eyesight kept Kristin Lack from becoming a fighter pilot. So now she's relying on her intellectual vision rather than her eyes to help defend her country.

Lack, who will graduate this week summa cum laude and with departmental high honors from the University of Cincinnati's political science department, is one of only 101 participants nationally selected out of 2,500 applicants for the Department of Homeland Security's Scholars and Fellows program.

The program was inaugurated last September and seeks to identify and develop the brightest young minds to work in this rapidly developing field of need.

Lack is one of only a handful from the social sciences selected for the program. Her ongoing interest is in security studies.

"I was always interested in military subjects," says the Colerain High School graduate. "I was in ROTC in high school and went to a lot of different (military-related) programs."

But her eyesight shot down her chance at being a pilot. Initially she came to UC majoring in pre-law, but then she discovered the political science program had an emphasis in strategic issues.

"The political science professors here are really strong," Lack says. "They are great at making time for you and letting you know about opportunities that are available to you. I've heard complaints from students at other schools that are much bigger, where they find it hard to work closely with professors."

Once becoming a Homeland Scholar, Lack was suddenly in a much better position to pursue her interests. This year, the program paid not just for her full tuition but also gave her a $1,000-per-month stipend.

"They are still in an organizational phase," Lack says of Homeland Security. "A lot of the people working there had to be pulled from other places in the government. Now they are trying to build a new foundation with college students."

Working under faculty advisers Dinshaw Mistry and Richard Harknett, Lack has written a senior thesis this year analyzing U.S. counterproliferation policies in dealing with North Korea and Iran. This summer, she will go to Washington to assist with a Homeland Security project that simulates the impact on different cities of a nuclear, chemical or biological attack.

"It is work that is definitely needed," Lack says. "In some cities if they were attacked, there could be chaos with a total stress on their emergency services."

Lack will return to UC in the fall, where she will need just one year to earn her Master's degree. She's looking forward to getting new influences into her studies from new faculty member Mia Bloom, a terrorism expert who will be joining UC's political science faculty next year.

Afterwards, Lack could be headed back to Washington for her career. "Homeland Defense obviously would like its scholars to stay with the program. I would think I will end up doing that or possibly something with the FBI counter-terrorism programs. I definitely want to stay in government work."