More Than a Summer Job

Summer internships have long been a valued way for students to explore career paths, and the new Baylor Summer Fellows program boosts that value with funded opportunities that serve the public good and expand academic conversations.

Launched in 2024, Baylor Summer Fellows –– offered through the Office of Engaged Learning (OEL) in the College of Arts & Sciences –– provides on-site work experience and research opportunities benefitting the public good to rising sophomores, juniors and seniors. Students can apply for internships offered exclusively by the program, or they can participate through internships already offered by their academic departments.

“The goal is to have internship opportunities for all students, whatever their major might be,” said Dr. Emily Hunt-Hinojosa, a past director of academic excellence initiatives in the OEL. “Every student who participates in Baylor Summer Fellows enrolls in something Baylor’s been building called a V9R –– which is a research course within an academic department. We can help them pair with an academic department that supports their research endeavor.”

The BSF program covers internship costs and living expenses ranging from $1,500 to $5,000 depending on the individual experience. The funding does not cover tuition because BSF internships do not provide credit hours unless they are part of an academic department’s credit-based internship program.

“Let’s say a student in the Summer Fellows program is a science major and they’re in biology. They may want to apply for our B-TRUE (Baylor Transdisciplinary Research Undergraduate Experience) program, which involves lab research. Or, if they’re interested in political science, they may like the City of Waco Policy Innovation Internship,” Hunt-Hinojosa said. “There are all kinds of majors and diverse geographic representation because these internships are local and national, and we have some international opportunities we’re building out as well.”

BSF internship opportunities in Texas include:

• City of Waco Policy Innovation Internship
• Waco Family Medicine Primary Care Internship
• Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP) Internship
• BTRUE Summer Research Program
• iBEARS Summer Research
• Urban REAP: Renewable Energy and Agricultural Project
• Tropical Medicine Summer Institute
• Tropical Disease Research Internship Program (T-DRIP).

Self-made options

In addition to applying for existing internships, BSF students can create their own internship through an option called Propose Your Own. That process requires a letter of acceptance from the entity hosting the proposed internship, a well-defined plan for the activity and research to be done by the student, and projections for the cost of the internship involving such things as living expenses.

“A lot of these things are prohibitive for students without additional support because they’re unfunded,” Hunt-Hinojosa said. “And even if they’re funded, typically it is not adequate to also cover cost of living, so our goal is to make those experiences accessible to Baylor students and not have the funding model be prohibitive.”

Propose Your Own promotes student initiative and creativity, and from the University’s perspective, it may provide openings for future students.

“If a Propose Your Own internship goes really well and we want other students to get that opportunity, we’ll try to build, through that student, a longer-term relationship,” Hunt-Hinojosa said. “It’s the first year we’ve done that model and we’re working through a lot of those logistics now.”

Fellow cohorts

All Summer Fellows join an engaged learning student cohort that shares experiences and explores common themes.

“Healthcare is not separate from environmental justice, which is what students at the Urban Renewable Energy and Agricultural Project will be working on,” Hunt-Hinojosa said. “It’s not divorced from policy at the city or municipal level, which is what students at the City of Waco will be working on.”

The Summer Fellows cohort experience begins each April with an orientation. Summer Fellows create an ePortfolio of summer experiences that illustrate the themes of citizenship, scholarship and leadership, and they present their research and internship projects at the Fall Research Symposium. After completing the program, Summer Fellows are eligible to continue in the OEL as Baylor Engage Fellows, who pursue a variety of research, ambassadorial and civic endeavors.

In its inaugural year, Baylor Summer Fellows had more than 100 applicants for 55 funded spots. Hunt-Hinojosa said the program is limited because of cost, despite some funding from donors and cost-sharing with hosting entities. The OEL has requests from entities that want to host students, and the program is set to expand as more donors and hosts are developed.

“We want to make internships something students can dedicate themselves to, not something where they need to have an additional job to make it viable,” she said.

Dr. Andrew Hogue, associate dean for engaged learning in the College of Arts & Sciences, said the Baylor Summer Fellows program is invaluable.

“These opportunities are essential for our students as they seek to make seamless transitions from the classroom to the good things they hope to achieve with their lives beyond it,” he said. “And this program is impossible without the support of visionary donors who believe in this kind of transformational investment.”

Boston bound

Greatness Adewumi, a junior neuroscience major from Houston, spent the summer of 2024 at Boston Children's Hospital on an internship arranged through the Propose Your Own process within BSF. She has had her sights on pediatric neurosurgery ever since she read about Dr. Ben Carson and his surgery on conjoined twins. Following a cousin to Baylor, Adewumi enrolled as a neuroscience premed student. 

“I was in a professional development class, and part of the objective of the class was to help us get an internship or a post-graduate job. My objective was to get an internship,” she said.

Through a foundation, Adewumi developed a mentoring relationship with a doctor at Boston Children's, and she found an internship at the hospital that fit her interests in neuroimaging.

Speaking in the spring of 2024 before her internship began, Adewumi said it would focus on developmental disorders, such as hydrocephalus, autism, cerebral palsy and down syndrome. She would also attend seminars and conferences at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School during her internship.

“I’ll be working with infants and children who have those conditions and will look at the developmental research aspect of it. They’re also offering me time to shadow some of their physicians, so it’ll be great to meet those people and build those connections as well,” she said. “I’m really excited for this opportunity, and I’m genuinely grateful for the support from the Baylor Summer Fellows Program.”

*This story originally appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Baylor Arts & Sciences magazine.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY 

The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments in the sciences, humanities, fine arts and social sciences, as well as 11 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. The College’s undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum, which routinely receives top grades in national assessments, emphasizes a liberal education characterized by critical thinking, communication, civic engagement and Christian commitment. Arts & Sciences faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences website.