Summer Research Fellowship

The Center for Global Health's annual Summer Fellowship Program is a 10-week internship open to undergrad and graduate students where they will benefit from first-hand experience working in a research setting in Chicago and one of our partnering sites abroad. The program offers a strong local mentoring infrastructure as well as longitudinal and well-defined projects that will allow students to gain practical exposure to medical and global health research. 

Each Fellow will be awarded $5,000 to cover the cost of travel, lodging, and other in-country expenses. This stipend will be distributed in one lump sum through the Office of Career Advancement prior to departure. A completed and signed Mentor-Mentee Commitment form is required in advance of funding distribution. Post Fellowship, students may be eligible for additional funding to present findings at external conferences and/or academic meetings. 

Students selected for the Summer Research Fellowship Program are required to attend pre-brief and debrief orientations on either end of the fellowship and to attend CGH Summer Research Fellowship Preparatory Seminars. These include:

Seminar One: Introduction to Research (with a focus on scientific integrity and the process of experimentation)

Seminar Two: Research Methods Bootcamp

Seminar Three: Preparing Your Written Repor

Seminar Four: Preparing Your Presentation

After their time abroad, the student will submit a final report paper detailing research procedures and outcomes. This scientific reporting is essential to any research activity. Reports are required to contain an introduction, methods section, and results/discussion. These hopefully will lead to future scholarly work, presentations at conferences, and publication. In addition, a ten-minute oral presentation to peers, mentors, and CGH faculty, and abstract submissions for the CGH Global Health Day Research Symposium, the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH), and/or other professional academic meetings, are expected. 

A group of 2 to 3 competitive students, made up of undergraduate and graduate students, will be selected for each of the Fellowship sites. Working as a team, guided by a University of Chicago mentor and a site-based mentor, scholars will learn the nuances of research design, implementation, analysis, and presentation of final products including oral presentation formats, abstract development, and formal academic writing. The mentor-mentee relationship, as well as peer-to-peer mentorship, is foundational to the Summer research fellowship. 

A mentor can act as a sounding board,  putting situations in perspective, offering feedback, and identifying activities you can engage in or ways you can position your work to meet your goals, as well as resources that may be helpful to you. The mentee should take the initiative in establishing the mentor-mentee relationship, through which the mentee can be accountable in delivering project goals, and the mentor is able to offer constructive criticism.