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

As the United States confronts increasingly complex threats from China, foreign influence, artificial intelligence and geopolitical flashpoints around the world, one Seton Hall University program is giving graduate students hands-on experience tackling real national security challenges before they enter the workforce at a rate its founder proves the program’s importance.

The National Security Graduate Fellowship at Seton Hall’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations pairs students with government agencies seeking research and analysis on pressing foreign policy and national security issues and has an 80% placement rate, with graduates going on to work at the NSA, CIA, Secret Service, military and defense contracting companies, according to founder Mohamad Mirghahari.

"My goal for my students is they’re ready day one if they get hired," Mirghahari told Fox News Digital.

Mirghahari, a Seton Hall graduate and national security expert who spent 14 years in key Department of Defense leadership roles supporting counterterrorism initiatives around the globe, later served as a presidential appointee and senior advisor to the Transportation Security Administration’s chief of staff and remains a special advisor to the Defense Department.

US COUNTERINTELLIGENCE ‘WAY BEHIND,’ POST-9/11 RECORD ‘EXTRAORDINARILY NEGLIGENT’, FMR TRUMP WH OFFICIAL WARNS "Our 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 explained.

"As we know, most government agencies have a lot of things going on and they don't have enough resources, but what our graduate students are able to do is support those government agencies, answering and doing research for real-world requirements in the national security field." Mirghahari says the program is also unique due to the practitioners from "across the United States government" that serve as guest lecturers and professors giving students a necessary insight into experiences in the field, particularly given the changing landscape and variety of threats facing the nation compared to ten or twenty years ago.

INTEL CHIEF WARNS OF 'EVOLVING' THREATS AS TERROR GROUPS NOW 'RECRUIT THEIR AGENTS ONLINE' "Part of what makes our program so unique is that we address the real-world issues of today," Mirghahari said.

"History is very important, and you learn from history, but we also want to be the classes that can support the government in real time.

We have done projects on China, India and Pakistan , as well as the South China Sea." The fellowship’s work has included projects for the State Department on how the U.S. could re-engage with the Taliban if the group returned to power in Afghanistan.