Published: Nov. 14, 2019

**We are sorry to share that our Child Health Research Internship cannot accept interns for the summer of 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we must prioritize social distancing in the labs and cannot accept students at this time. We will not have a definitive date for the end of these precautions until the end of summer at soonest. Please check back for updates on 2022 internships in the future. We treasure this program and are heartbroken to not host summer interns this year.**

The Department of Pediatrics offers summer research opportunities for rising high school seniors, college students and first-year medical students. Students will work in the lab with members of the Department of Pediatrics faculty at Children's Hospital Colorado/University of Colorado on the Anschutz Medical Campus. 

The summer program will introduce students to research opportunities related to child health. The summer internships will include opportunities for students to participate in a lecture research series as well as present their research at the completion of the summer internship.

Meet the research program faculty (.pdf).

Program details

Dates: The 2020 summer program will begin Monday, June 1, 2020 and end Friday, July 31, 2020.

Eligibility: Students must be a rising senior in high school, an undergraduate student, graduate student, or a student completing the first year of medical school. Students must be available for the entire nine-week internship.

Stipends: Each student will be provided a stipend of $3,500 to assist with travel and housing costs.

Mentor selection: As part of the application process, applicants will provide their first, second and third choices for potential mentors. The Child Health Research Internship Steering Committee will work with the program faculty to accommodate when possible the mentor requests of the applicants.

Seminar series: Weekly research seminars will be given every Friday afternoon by members of the program faculty. Attendance is required by all student research interns, and lunch will be provided.

Student research presentations: At the completion of research program, the summer research interns will be expected to provide a 2-3 page written summary of their research experience. In addition, all students will provide an oral or poster/PowerPoint summary of their research. Students and mentors will also be encouraged to produce abstracts for submission to local, regional and national meetings. If the students’ research is accepted for presentation at a scientific meeting, the Child Health Research Internship will provide funding for travel and registration for the student to travel to one scientific meeting.

Application requirements

Applications for the 2020 Summer Program will be accepted December 1, 2019 through February 1, 2020. At this time we are unable to accept applications from international students without a current US Visa.

All applicants are required to submit the online application and include:

  • Basic information
  • Statement of previous research experience or involvement in extracurricular activities (500 words max)
  • Statement of future career goals (500 words max);
  • Letter(s) of recommendation. 1 letter is required; 2 are highly encouraged.
    • Please note: The Child Health Research Internship is a highly competitive program.  In 2019, the unweighted average GPA of program participants was 3.80 and represented 5 high schools, 12 universities and 3 medical schools across the United States. You may also wish to consider applying for the Colorado Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute's Summer Undergraduate Minority Mentoring in Translational Science (SUMMiT) program. Get more information about the SUMMiT program.

Summer 2020 Child Health Research Internships are made possible by the generous support of The Daniel and Janet Mordecai Foundation, the Department of Pediatrics and Children's Hospital Colorado.

Apply to the 2020 Child Health Research Internship

Program evaluation

All students and participating program faculty will complete a research program evaluation.

For any questions not addressed on our website, please email us at ResearchInternship@childrenscolorado.org.