High School Programs

This nine‐week program offers a chance to learn, explore, and gain hands‐on experience in a Children’s Hospital Medical Center research laboratory environment for 15 to 16 minority students each summer. Click here for a letter announcing the program that is sent out to all Cincinnati Area High Schools. Each BRIMS intern will be paired with a research mentor to pursue a 9-week full time basic science, or clinical biomedical research project during the summer. All interns will give a 5-minute PowerPoint presentation of their research project to the group and are encouraged to present a poster at the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Capstone poster competition at the end of the program.

In addition to participating in SURF activities, BRIMS interns participate in weekly networking luncheons and shadowing opportunities with minority faculty in several areas of the hospital from surgery to administration. Participants may earn up to $2,988 ($8.30/hr) based on the number of hours they work in the laboratory. The BRIMS program is sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs and Career Development at Cincinnati Children's and a grant from the 5/3 Bank Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund.

Applicants must be from a racial or ethnic group shown to be underrepresented in biomedical research including Black or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, American Indians or Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders (Guam, Samoa). This program is open to high achieving graduating high school seniors and college freshmen from the Cincinnati tri-state area only. College students from other states who have outside funding (ie MARC awards) are also eligible to participate in the program. Please contact Dr. Cindy Bachurski directly about participating with outside funding.

The BRIMS program is highly competitive. Students must be an identified minority underrepresented in biomedical science careers: African American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander or American Indian. Only US citizens, or green card holders are eligible to apply for the program.

The BRIMS program targets high achieving students as they graduate from high school or finish the first year of college and have taken multiple science courses (rising Freshmen or Sophomores). We consider high school class rank, GPA, ACT or SAT scores (if available), number of science classes taken, leadership in extracurricular activities and recommendations to narrow the applications to 18-20 finalists. From those, the top 15 to 16 will be matched with mentors based on their personal essays and interviews, depending on funding. All applicants must submit a one-page personal essay describing their career goals and what kind of research they are interested in doing at Cincinnati Children's.

Please compile and submit the following information online:

1. Complete the online application form including uploading your resume with a list of extracurricular activities and leadership positions held, your personal essay about your career goals, and your High School transcript including grades through the fall semester 2017 and ACT or SAT scores. Note, if you are currently a college freshman, include a transcript of your fall college grades.

2. Have two references send letters of recommendation mailed in sealed envelopes to Lisa Higgins at the address below or email them directly to lisa.higgins@cchmc.org. At least one letter of recommendation should be from a science teacher.

All application materials must be submitted online or by email to:

Lisa Higgins
Children’s Hospital Medical Center, MLC 4000
3333 Burnet Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45229
or lisa.higgins@cchmc.org 

Questions about the program call Cindy Bachurski at 513-636-8918
Questions about the application process call Lisa Higgins at 513-803-0781 or email: lisa.higgins@cchmc.org