A faculty-mentored research internship experience that helps you develop broad research and professional capacities.
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
The OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience is operated in collaboration with our well-established undergraduate research program, the First-Year Innovation & Research Experience (FIRE).
How does it relate to FIRE?
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The FIRE program originally designed this program for FIRE students.
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This program includes the opportunity to participate in many FIRE streams and receive mentorship from FIRE faculty leaders.
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This program is open and available to FIRE students.
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This program remains designed and led by FIRE leadership and faculty leaders.
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The course connected to this program is OURS199: Research Internship.
How is it different from and/or more than FIRE?
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This program is available to all UMD undergraduate students - not just FIRE students.
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We are also working to include research opportunities with faculty members across campus. This will allow the program to have FIRE and beyond-FIRE research destinations for participating students.
RESEARCH INTERNSHIPS
Introduction
OUR is excited to announce the 2025 OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience, a summer research internship and professional development opportunity built for a wide range of University of Maryland (UMD) students.
This opportunity is available to all UMD undergraduates.
The OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience provides:
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A research-intensive, faculty-mentored 8-week summer experience
AND
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3 credits of transcript-impacting OURS199: Research Internship course credit
OUR Research Interns work closely with faculty leaders and a small group of their undergraduate peers on focused research projects in research environments across campus.
All OUR Research Interns will participate in a broad range of potential research engagements:
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Receive fundamental research, technology, and method training (no previous experience is required for participants),
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Learn, test, and implement new research methodologies and protocols,
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Design and pilot experiments,
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Gather and analyze data,
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And develop and share a finalized project or other research accomplishments.
All OUR Research Interns will strongly develop professional capacities through weekly program-wide seminars and professional development discussions.
Each of our research groups has a small number of OUR Research Interns, ensuring selected students get a focused, faculty-mentored research experience.
Eligibility
The OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience is the opportunity through which both FIRE streams and other campus researchers can offer their resources to participating undergraduate students.
We welcome all currently enrolled, full-time, degree-seeking undergraduate students to apply to join our research community. Even if you have no previous research experience, the OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience is for you!
How to Apply
Due to space limitations, OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience positions are by application through March 30, 2025.
Our application purposefully does not ask about your grades, GPA, or previous academic and/or research accomplishments. We simply want to know more about you and your motivations for pursuing a research and professional development experience.
We will use the perspectives you share to find students 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:
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Application Evaluation & Decisions:
March 31, 2025 - April 4, 2025
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Decisions Communicated to Applicants:
April 4, 2025
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Enrollment in Summer OURS199 Course:
by April 18, 2025
The OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience has been designed to include course credit that impacts your transcript and degree progress.
Students confirm their acceptance of the OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience by enrolling in OURS199 and paying the tuition and fees required for this course credit. Failure to do so will result in losing acceptance into the internship experience.
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Waitlist Open Enrollment Period:
On April 22, 2025, we will begin the open enrollment period of our summer program.
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All sections of OURS199 with available seats will be open for enrollment by any interested UMD undergraduate student, including those on our application waitlist. If interested, no additional approvals or assignments are needed to grab a final spot in our internship experience!
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Each section of OURS199 is connected with a specific FIRE stream. If you can enroll in a section with open seats, you will join that FIRE stream.
Please see the FAQs to the right for more information about enrollment, tuition, and fees required for OURS199.
Questions about the OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience should be sent to
our-office@umd.edu.
FAQs
What are the essential dates I need to know?
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Applications Close:
March 30, 2025, at 11:59 pm -
Decisions Communicated to Applicants:
April 4, 2025 -
Enrollment in Summer OURS199 course:
by April 18, 2025 -
Waitlist Open Enrollment Period Starts:
April 22, 2025
When is the OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience scheduled?
OUR Research Interns commit to 8 weeks of research over the summer. The internship period lasts from June 2, 2025 through July 25, 2025 (which overlaps with the 8-week UMD summer session).
How many hours per week are required?
OUR Research Interns commit to 15 hours per week of on-site research engagement. Each research group will determine exact schedules, generally overlapping business hours (8:00 am to 5:00 pm).
Can specific days and/or weeks be missed if I have a short commitment this summer?
We seek to work 15 hours per week for eight weeks with all OUR Research Interns. We recognize you might have short plans that could interfere with just a few days or up to one week of this period. We will work with you to distribute the required hours to the other weeks in the internship period.
Each of our research groups will determine specific week-to-week and day-to-day schedules. Schedules will be released on the OURS199 course's ELMS pages by May 14, 2025.
Is this a paid research position?
We are not able to offer paid positions. While the OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience promises a professional research opportunity, this is a UMD summer course - not employment with FIRE or OUR.
Can you provide more information about tuition and fees for the OURS199 course? As a participant, am I required to pay tuition, and are scholarships or financial aid available?
The OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience requires enrollment in a 3-credit UMD summer course (OURS199) that has summer-based tuition and fees.
Information about tuition and fees for OURS199 is available on the Extended Studies website:
We are not able to offer scholarships or financial aid to cover these course costs at this time.
What will the OURS199: Research Internship course require? Will there be assignments, quizzes, and exams?
The OURS199 course will allow all OUR Research Interns to earn transcript credit for their summer commitment and accomplishment.
The OURS199 course has been designed to facilitate the research process and will not have quizzes, exams, or final exams.
The course will have short assignments requiring students to communicate about their research progress and challenges regularly throughout the 8-week experience and report on final findings and accomplishments.
Why should I apply if I am a current FIRE student in FIRE Semester 2?
This is an opportunity to advance, accelerate, and deepen your FIRE experience.
While the three-semester FIRE experience focuses most heavily on research training and accomplishment, the OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience brings an additional focus on research leadership development that will advance your training and make you a strong candidate to be a FIRE Peer Research Mentor at the end of FIRE Semester 3.
Additionally, this is an opportunity for you to potentially work with a different FIRE stream for just the summer period (you would return to your current FIRE stream for FIRE Semester 3 in the Fall 2025 semester). Please see more information in the question below about stream preferencing for summer.
Why should I apply if I am a completed FIRE student or current Peer Research Mentor?
Much like current FIRE Semester 2 students, this is an opportunity for you to both deepen and broaden your FIRE experience. Your best opportunity might be to spend time with a FIRE stream and faculty member different from the one you had during your FIRE experience.
Will early applications have an advantage?
Yes, the order of applications will impact acceptance into the OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience. We encourage you to apply early.
Does OUR provide housing?
We are not able to provide housing. However, OUR Research Interns can find on- and off-campus housing resources through The University of Maryland's Department of Resident Life and Off-Campus Housing Services.
Do OUR Research Interns need to be able to come to campus during the summer?
Yes, OUR Research Interns need to be able to come to campus to perform the research and attend professional development seminars. OUR is not able to offer this opportunity remotely.
The application asks me to communicate which research group most interests me. If accepted into the OUR Immersive Research Internship Experience, which group will I be assigned?
We will work to provide each prospective OUR Research Intern with their highest preference possible.
Who should I contact if I have issues adding or dropping the OURS199 course?
Please contact Extended Studies (EXST) regarding any issues adding or dropping the OURS199 course. Please be aware that if OURS199 is your only course for the summer term, you may have to work with EXST to drop the course (it might not be possible to do so through TESTUDO).