A look inside program giving future Nat Sec experts 5-year head start amid evolving threats: ‘Ready day one’

Seton Hall’s National Security Fellowship Prepares Students for Real‑World Roles

Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations has built a national‑security training program that is already showing a track record of success. The National Security Graduate Fellowship, launched by alumnus and former Department of Defense (DoD) official Mohamad Mirghahari, pairs graduate students with federal agencies and defense contractors to conduct research and analysis on the country’s most pressing foreign‑policy and national‑security challenges.

A hands‑on pipeline to the field

Since its inception, the fellowship has achieved an 80 percent placement rate. Graduates have gone on to work for the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service, the U.S. military and a range of defense‑contracting firms. “My goal for my students is they’re ready day one if they get hired,” Mirghahari said in an interview with Fox News Digital. The program’s success, he explained, comes from its focus on real‑world projects that directly support agencies that “don’t have enough resources to meet their research needs.”

Mirghahari’s experience in the public sector underpins the fellowship’s approach. He spent 14 years in DoD leadership positions supporting counter‑terrorism initiatives around the world, and later served as a presidential appointee and senior advisor to the Transportation Security Administration’s chief of staff. He remains a special advisor to the Defense Department and draws on his network to bring practitioners from across the federal government to serve as guest lecturers and mentors.

Curriculum that matches today’s threats

“The program is unlike any other in the nation because our graduate students are actually tackling real‑world national security challenges and issues from government agencies,” Mirghahari told Fox News. He highlighted recent projects that illustrate the fellowship’s breadth: students have conducted research on China, India, Pakistan and the South China Sea; they have worked with the State Department on how the United States could re‑engage with the Taliban if the group regained power in Afghanistan; and they have examined the evolving threat landscape posed by foreign influence and cyber operations.

“The real‑time research we produce is not just academic,” Mirghahari said. “Our papers remain relevant for years, and they are often recirculated within the government.” He pointed out that the fellowship’s emphasis on emerging technologies—artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and graph theory—gives students a skill set that many agencies are only now beginning to deploy.

“Artificial intelligence, data and all these different things impacting our national security play a major role in our work,” Mirghahari said. “We examine foreign influence, including how data is mined and distributed, and we use tools such as artificial intelligence, graph theory and other analytical methods to examine large datasets.”

Students learn to sift through terabytes of information and extract the insights that matter most to their government clients. Mirghahari emphasized that this “force multiplier” approach is especially valuable given the time‑consuming nature of data analysis. “We’re helping government clients bring the information together in one place and examine it more thoroughly,” he said.

Bridging the skills gap

According to Mirghahari, the fellowship equips graduates to hit the ground running, a necessity in a security environment that demands rapid responses to new threats. “Some of the feedback we’ve received from agencies is, ‘Your students are well‑equipped. They’re better than some of the people who have been here for five to 10 years,’” he said. He believes that the program can cut a trainee’s learning curve by years, reducing the time required to acquire on‑the‑job skills that would otherwise take five years to develop.

The program’s 80 percent placement rate underscores this advantage. Agencies that have worked with fellowship graduates report a high level of readiness and a tangible contribution to their mission. “We’re giving students an awareness of these technologies and how they can be used across the government,” Mirghahari noted. “That’s part of what we do.”

Looking ahead

Seton Hall’s National Security Graduate Fellowship is a rare example of an academic program that blends rigorous coursework with tangible, high‑impact research for the federal government. As the United States confronts increasingly complex threats—from foreign influence and cyber warfare to shifting alliances in the Indo‑Pacific—programs like this are helping to fill the talent gap in national‑security agencies.

The fellowship’s success story is one of collaboration: students gain real‑world experience; agencies receive timely analysis; and the country’s national‑security workforce is strengthened. In an era when the speed of technology outpaces the pace of hiring, Seton Hall’s model may serve as a blueprint for other universities seeking to prepare the next generation of defense and intelligence professionals.