Friday, March 4, 2022

FIRE Summer Research Internships

FIRE is excited to announce a new summer research internship and professional development opportunity built for a wide range of University of Maryland (UMD) students - the FIRE Summer Research Internships.

This opportunity is available to UMD undergraduates both affiliated with and independent of the FIRE program at UMD. We ask that you share this information with students who might benefit from the opportunity.

FIRE Summer Research Internships provides:
  • a research-intensive, faculty-mentored 8-week summer experience
  • AND
  • 3 credits of transcript-impacting FIRE199: FIRE Research Internship course credit
FIRE Summer Research Interns work closely with our FIRE Faculty Leaders and a small group of their undergraduate peers on focused research projects in FIRE stream locations across campus.

All FIRE Summer Research Interns will participate in a broad range of potential research engagements:
  • receive fundamental research, technology, and method training (no previous experience is required for all participants),
  • learn, test, and implement new research methodologies and protocols,
  • design and pilot experiments,
  • gather and analyze data,
  • and develop and share a finalized project or other research accomplishments.
  • All FIRE Summer Research Interns will strongly develop their leadership potential and other professional capacities through weekly program-wide seminars and professional development discussions.
Each FIRE stream has a small number of FIRE Summer Research Interns ensuring selected students get a focused, faculty-mentored research experience.
Eligibility

The FIRE Summer Research Internships marks the first time FIRE is able to offer its resources to students who are currently in FIRE, those who have already completed FIRE, and other UMD undergraduate students who are not affiliated with FIRE.

To be clear on this issue of eligibility for FIRE Summer Research Internships - the following groups of UMD undergraduates are encouraged to consider this exciting opportunity and apply:
  • Current FIRE students, Enrolled in FIRE Semester 2, Spring 2022.
  • Current FIRE Peer Research Mentors
  • Completed FIRE students, Those who have already completed FIRE, not currently FIRE Peer Research Mentors, at UMD completing their degree. Do you wish you could come back to FIRE and have an additional mentored internship experience to broaden your research portfolio? You can!
  • All current UMD undergraduates, Did you just transfer to UMD? Are you or were you in another first-year program? Do you have extensive research experience or would you like to use the FIRE Summer Research Internships as a gateway to get involved in research? You are eligible!

How to Apply

Due to space limitations, FIRE Summer Research Internship positions are by application through March 27, 2022. Our application purposefully does not ask you about your grades, GPA, or previous academic and/or research accomplishments. We simply want to know more about you, your motivations for pursuing a research and professional development experience with FIRE.

We will use the perspectives that you share to find students whom we think are a good match for the opportunity we offer.

The Process After Application

After the application period ends the following process will occur:
  • Application Evaluations & Decisions:
    • March 28, 2022 - April 4, 2022
  • Decisions Communicated to Applicants:
    • by April 8, 2022
  • Confirmation of Participation:
    • by April 15, 2022
All accepted applicants will confirm their intention to be a 2022 FIRE Summer Research Intern. During this period of time, we will be in contact with any applicants placed on the FIRE Summer Research Internships waitlist about positions that have become available.
  • Enrollment in Summer FIRE 199 Course:
    • by 5:00 pm on April 20, 2022

Students who confirm their acceptance with the FIRE Summer Research Internships are expected to enroll in FIRE199. Failure to do so will result in the loss of acceptance into the summer program. Additional information and answers to FAQs are available on our website.