As a first-generation college student, Skylar Harteneck ’26, Rosemount, thought college was just like high school—you go to classes every day until you graduate, then you get a job.
But she found more in Morris, including three research projects and an internship with the Center for Homicide Research of Minneapolis. In fact, Harteneck surprised herself with how much she enjoyed the internship and the research she was part of.
The Center for Homicide Research serves as a catalyst for homicide prevention and homicide case clearance through empirical research, with a strong focus on under-researched and marginalized populations, and organizational partnerships.
“I love the work that I do there and the work that the company does on homicide research. Just to say that that's where I work is such an insane thing. I've loved being able to meet the different people there, the different students, and my supervisor, too, he has so much knowledge and life experience.”
At the Midwestern Psychological Association conference in Chicago in 2025, Harteneck presented her research from her Empirical Investigations in Psychology course on the use of life-simulation video games as a way to reduce anger. She also attended a few presentations on criminal psychology. She was intrigued by the research and found the presenters first on Instagram and then on LinkedIn.
“One of them had done an internship at the Center for Homicide Research, and it was all online, and completely flexible, and I thought that was actually so perfect. So I ended up filling out an application.”
She was prepared to wait until this summer to work with the Center, but after her interview, she was offered a position with the spring cohort. After orientation and training, Harteneck started on the research right away.
“I was going online, looking at news reports on different crimes that had happened all over the United States and putting them into a database that would be used to do different research.”
Harteneck is the first UMN Morris student to intern with the Center and initially felt a little unprepared and insecure about her ability to keep up with the other interns, many of whom were graduate students. But, she quickly realized, “I'm not far behind. Luckily at Morris, research was one of the biggest things that I did—three very different research projects, gathering different literature and making my own conclusion, or collecting my own data. I did so many things that ended up preparing me for this internship, and I didn't even know. So I was actually over-prepared.”
In fact, it’s that focus on research that Harteneck finds unique at UMN Morris.
“Literally, I don't know anybody who hasn't done research—it's just a very normal part of what we do here. At some point, you're going to be doing your own research, and you're going to be presenting it at URS. The opportunities that Morris gave me that I didn't know that would happen, didn't know that I would need, was super impressive.”
Because the internship focus is on homicides, Harteneck quickly found that the work could be emotionally demanding. But, she also found purpose in the work.
“I can't change what happened to these people, I can't undo it. I can't even really fully stop crime and future things from happening. But I think that's why the work is important, and why I became so grateful for this opportunity, because the research we're doing goes into preventative measures, so that this could at least reduce the amount that this happens in the future. This is potentially saving people's lives from going through something like this, and that was, that's kind of what's driving me now.”
Harteneck is continuing the internship through the summer.