Courtesy Photo | Isabel Baynum, a DCSA Student Experience intern working for the Personnel Security...... read more read more
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As a part of her honors curriculum at Suffolk University, Isabel Baynum, a Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Student Experience intern working in the Background Investigations front office, presented her thesis, “A Comparison of Constitutional Protections and Miranda Rights: Islamist Terrorism vs. Domestic Terrorism,” at the National Collegiate Honors Council Annual Conference in Dallas, Texas.
Only 175 undergraduate students from across the Nation were selected to participate in the student poster sessions.
Baynum received acceptance to the national conference following her thesis presentation at the Student Research Conference in Political Science and Legal Studies sponsored by Suffolk University in Boston, Mass., where she was awarded the Judith R. Dushku Discovery Award for Best Overall Paper.
Her decision to focus on Miranda Rights came out of a class her junior year that dove into policy making and the influence of the various Supreme Courts, with a focus on the Supreme Court with Earl Warren as the chief justice from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court expanded civil rights, civil liberties and judicial power, and in 1965 while deciding Miranda v. Arizona, the Warren Court came up with a set of guidelines to be read to any suspect while being taken into custody.
“The scope of my research discussed how Miranda Rights fit into modern society, with a focus on terrorism,” she said. “I blended the Warren Court, the influx of terrorism, specifically domestic terrorism, and followed legislation through Congress to see what policies have been implemented in the past 20 years.
“I have a passion for policy making and how Congress operates,” she admitted.
At the national conference, Baynum had to present her thesis in a five-minute elevator pitch, with a poster as her only visual, before five rotating judges. In creating the poster, she broke her thesis down into four sections – Miranda Rights and the relevance of the Warren Court; Miranda Rights after 9/11; how recent policies have worked to limit those rights; and finally, how are we seeing the presence of Islamic terrorism and domestic terrorism in society today, and what are the implications on Miranda Rights?
“It’s telling a story in four parts,” she said. “My goal was for it to be both applicable externally and introspectively, to push people to question whether we are legislating against certain groups and do we find the results of our laws empirically supported.”
While Baynum admits to being nervous, she felt comfortable having worked with the materials for the past nine months while fine tuning her presentation. “I was just privileged to have a platform and share the intricacies of the topic with my peers and judges,” she said.
After giving her presentation, Baynum received great feedback from the judges on how they regarded the research and areas that could be expanded. She is awaiting word as to whether she received an award for her thesis paper.
As a DSE participant, Baynum came to DCSA because she was looking for an opportunity within national security but in a larger mission-based internship. “When I interviewed with DCSA, I felt an initial connection with the mission,” she said. “With a new agency, I felt that I could have a hand in growing it.”
She received confirmation of her acceptance, moved from Boston to Washington, D.C., served her summer internship in the BI front office, and recently received an offer for employment with the agency upon her graduation.
“I’m really excited to receive an offer,” Baynum said, noting she’s assisted in building out the BI strategic plan and helping create a more integrated, effective BI front office. “But there’s more to be done.”
| Date Taken: | 12.01.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.01.2022 17:30 |
| Story ID: | 434327 |
| Location: | DALLAS , TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 501 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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