HEI's Summer Fellowship Program

Links to important information
Information for Prospective Summer Fellows
Information for Prospective Mentors
Expanding the Fellowship Program
Joint Committee
For More Information 

 

Information for Prospective Summer Fellows

Overview

Fellowship applications are now open! Fellows will spend the summer developing and conducting research alongside a mentor at an academic institution or non-profit organization. Applicants are not required to have a background in life sciences but should be motivated to learn more about environmental health sciences as a potential career path.

We have lined up an exciting list of 26 mentors across the United States who are excited to host fellows and share their knowledge and ideas and can give you a flavor of what environmental health research is like.

To foster connections among fellows, HEI staff will plan several activities throughout the program, including office hours and career conversations. Fellows will be expected to work with their mentors to prepare a proposal describing their plans for the summer and to deliver mid-summer and final presentations. More detailed information about the fellowship can be found in the preliminary Summer Fellowship Syllabus 2025 and will be provided to selected fellows.

Eligibility

Applicants must be a college junior or senior the fall after the fellowship and authorized to work in the United States. The program will require about 40 hours per week over the fellowship period and fellows should not be taking more than one summer class.

This fellowship is intended as a first or early research experience for students coming from backgrounds underrepresented in environmental health research. Therefore, potential applicants to the summer fellowship should self-identify as coming from an underrepresented or disadvantaged background defined as follows:

1) Indigenous or underrepresented race or ethnicity group in environmental health research as defined by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
2) Individuals with disabilities (physical or mental impairments that substantially limit major life activities).
3) Other socially disadvantaged groups (first generation to attend college, sexual orientation/gender identity, or other).

Application process

Fellowship applications are now open. Please review the list of opportunities, select three opportunities you are most interested in, and then follow this link to apply. You can also download a list of the questions  Fellowship Application 2025 on the application. Contact us at fellowship@healtheffects.org if you have questions. The deadline for applying is January 6, 2025, with decisions made in the spring.

Decisions will be made no later than March 2025 and all selected fellows will each be matched with a mentor. Stipends will be $8,000 for the summer of 2025, and the stipend amount will be reviewed and adjusted annually.

Evaluation Process

Applications will be evaluated based on an applicant’s goals and motivation to pursue environmental health research, description of how the fellowship provides an opportunity not otherwise available, background and academic progress, and current skills and those the applicant would like to acquire. Each application will be reviewed by one member of ISEE and one member of ISES. The joint committee that includes members of HEI staff, ISEE, and ISES will then select finalists based on the scoring of applications. Finalists will be reviewed by the mentors identified by those applicants to ensure a good fit with the project. A final selection will be made by the selection committee. Decisions will be communicated to applicants no later than the end of March 2025. 

Research Opportunities

Selected fellows are matched with mentors at institutions across the United States based on their preferences as indicated in the applications. In the list of mentor opportunities, each mentor indicates what the fellow can expect in terms of the research environment, who will supervise them and how often, what skills might be gained, and how many fellow students they may interact with.

Read more about the mentor opportunities.

Please review the list carefully and select 3 opportunities in which you are interested. Each year, the list is organized by geographic location, recognizing that it might be easier to take advantage of an opportunity closer to where you live or attend school. In addition to the project itself, you should consider other factors that could help determine what might be a great opportunity for you, such as the type of research, what skills you might gain, and how many other students and researchers there are in the lab. As part of your application process, you will be asked to indicate which opportunities interest you most strongly and why. This information is used in the application review and to match fellows with mentors. We aim to match selected fellows with one of their top three mentor choices, but we cannot guarantee specific matches.

Information for Prospective Mentors

Mentorship applications are now closed and will reopen in fall 2025 for the following summer. At that time, we will invite researchers at academic and nonprofit institutions and state and local governments to apply to host an undergraduate student and serve as a research mentor. Mentors get the opportunity to support the careers of undergraduates from backgrounds underrepresented in environmental health sciences, and fellows also can meaningfully contribute to their mentors’ ongoing projects. Types of research opportunities that mentors can provide might include bench science, data analysis, field work, and modeling. Please note that HEI will financially support the fellows with a stipend, facilitate the matching process, and provide office hours support, but that the mentors are expected to provide the research project and include their fellow in their lab or departmental activities. 

The application will ask you to answer some questions about yourself and your research:
• What can the fellow expect in terms of the research environment?
• Who will supervise them and how often?
• What opportunities will the fellow have to interact with other students?
• What will be the in-person experience of the fellow if you are matched?
This information will not be used to select mentors. Rather, it is meant to provide prospective fellows with information that helps them to decide which opportunities they would prefer if selected for the fellowship. 

Program expectations for mentors: 
•    Host the fellow in your lab for an in-person experience (or remote if your organization operates completely remote) for the 10-week period. Note that fellows may take one summer class but are expected to be present full-time (defined as 5 days per week for 40 hours).
•    Attend a mentor training call before the start of the program.
•    Meet formally with the fellow at least once a week.
•    Ensure that you, or another member of your research group, have daily interactions with the fellow to support both the project and professional development.
•    Work with the fellow at the start to define the project and deliverables; the fellow is required to send a 2-page proposal to HEI two weeks after the start date (we will provide a template).
•    Help the fellow prepare for mid-summer and end-of-summer presentations. Mentors are strongly encouraged to attend the presentations if their schedules allow.
•    Be prepared to make necessary accessibility accommodations for your fellow should they need them and/or to connect your fellow with the institution’s accessibility office.

Expanding the fellowship program

HEI welcomes contributions from individuals and organizations to maintain and grow the fellowship program in future years! If you would like to discuss opportunities to grow the program, please email us at fellowship@healtheffects.org. If you would like to donate to the fellowship program either online or via mail, please visit the donation page.

Joint Committee

A joint committee with representatives from HEI, ISEE, and ISES manages the fellowship program. HEI thanks both societies for their support and time and prospective mentors for volunteering to take these summer fellows under their wing. Members of the joint committee are as follows:

Carrie Breton, University of Southern California and ISEE North America Chapter Executive Council
Christine Ekenga, Emory University and ISES Diversity Committee
Honghyok Kim, University of Illinois Chicago and ISEE Capacity Building and Education Committee (CAPE)
Donghai Liang, Emory University and ISES Diversity Committee
Peng Gao, Harvard University and ISES Diversity Committee
Beate Ritz, University of California—Los Angeles and ISEE Capacity Building and Education Committee (CAPE)

Additional support is provided by HEI staff including Drs. Ellen Mantus, Elise Elliott, and Allison Patton, and research assistants Ms. Ada Wright and Ms. Samantha Miller. This program is also supported by Dr. Lenny Howard, ombudsman to HEI.

For more information

Please email fellowship@healtheffects.org for further information about any aspect of the HEI Summer Fellowship Program.