The Honors Program in Political Science provides an opportunity for some of our best students to develop their research skills and extensively study a topic of interest to them. The program consists of participation in one or more upper-division honors seminar during the junior year. Upon completion of the thesis, students graduate with Honors in Political Science. The Public Affairs Internship Program identifies political internship opportunities in the Orange County area and matches these openings with interested UC Irvine students. Local government agencies, state and local legislators, public interest groups, political campaign organizations, and other political groups are seeking qualified UCI political science majors to serve in these internship positions.
Interns meet several times during the quarter with the internship coordinator and other interns.
These sessions discuss and evaluate the internship experience. The Department supports a very active chapter of the Model United Nations Association. The Model UN group focuses on developing an understanding of current international issues and how political science can be used to understand international relations. The Model UN group participates in several local and national Model UN assemblies. In addition, in the Spring quarter the UCI Model UN group sponsors a simulated UN Security Council session at Irvine, which includes several hundred high school students from the Southern California area.