HEI's Summer Fellowship Program

Mentorship Applications

Mentor 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 mentor and host an undergraduate student in their group.  Types of opportunities might include bench science, data analysis, field work, and modeling. Please note that HEI will financially support the fellows, 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 choose which project to indicate in their application.

Program expectations to participate as a mentor:
· Host the fellow in your lab for an in-person experience (or remote if your organization operates completely remote) for the 10-week period (June to August). Note that fellows may take one summer class but are otherwise 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 [2].
· 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-fellowship and end-of-fellowship 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.

Contact us at fellowship@healtheffects.org if you have questions.

Fellowship Applications

Fellowship applications will reopen in November 2024 for the following summer. 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.

More detailed information about the fellowship can be found in the draft syllabus.

2024 Fellowship Syllabus

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)

Applicants should be authorized to work in the United States, be a junior or a senior the fall after the fellowship, and be available full-time, 40 hours a week, for 10 weeks during the months of June through August. Start and end date will be flexible based on academic calendars, with office hours occurring between June 2 and August 22.

Fellowship applications will open at the end of November 2024. Stay tuned for more detailed information. When the applications next open, applicants will be able to review the list of opportunities, select 3 opportunities that most interest them, and then complete a form to apply. You can also download the application questions   2024 Fellowship Application. Contact us at fellowship@healtheffects.org if you have questions. The next deadline for applying will be in early 2025 with decisions made in the spring.

Evaluation Process

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. Evaluations will be 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. 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 made no later than March 2025.

Twenty researchers at academic and nonprofit research institutions volunteered to serve as mentors and host an undergraduate student in their group during the Summer of 2024. The list of mentor opportunities for the Summer of 2025 will be available in late November when the fellow applications open.

Read more about previous mentor opportunities
Download the PDF  2024 Mentor Summaries

Each mentor indicated what the fellow can expect in terms of the research environment, who will supervise them and how often, how many fellow students they may interact with, and what skills might be gained.

Applicants in 2024 were asked to review the list carefully and select 3 opportunities in which they were 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, what portion will be remote versus in person, and how many other students and researchers there are in the lab.

Expanding the Fellowship Program

We would like to support more fellows in coming years. HEI welcomes contributions from individuals and organizations towards the program with the goal of supporting up to 10 fellows each summer, or even more if we can make that happen! 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

HEI, ISEE, and ISES have formed a joint committee to manage the fellowship program. HEI thanks both societies for their support and time and prospective mentors for taking 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, University of Pittsburgh 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.

Attachment	Size
2024 Fellowship Application	175.75 KB
2024 Mentor Summaries	318.19 KB
2024 Fellowship Syllabus	235.6 KB