Each year, the CJI facilitates a summer research assistantship program that exposes a cohort of undergraduate students from the University of Virginia and students from local area high schools to academic research and experiential learning opportunities. The output of the 2017 program was an interactive StoryMap entitled “The Illusion of Progress: Charlottesville’s Roots in White Supremacy.” The summer 2018 program began work on the podcast series and oral history archive “Notes on the State,” which engages with Thomas Jefferson’s writings, complexities, and legacies. For the 2019 summer program, the Citizen Justice Initiative will place students in teams across different research projects pertaining to public history, digital humanities, and archiving.

The summer interns will get hands on experience in public history and African American studies with the opportunity to build skills for college, learn digital tools, and engage with the history of the environment around them.