High School Programs
Biomedical Research Internship for Underrepresented Students

Biomedical Research Internship for Underrepresented Students

The BRIUS program offers an outstanding science training opportunity for Cincinnati area graduating high school seniors and college freshmen. The program is designed to involve students traditionally underrepresented in biomedical careers in cutting‐edge scientific research conducted in an academic medical center to stimulate their interest in pursuing biomedical research careers.

Contact Us

If you have questions about the program or application process, please contact us at brius@cchmc.org.

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 14 to 15 underrepresented students each summer. The online application will open in early to mid-November 2023.

2024 application

Applications for 2024 are due on February 15, 2024.

Each BRIUS intern will be paired with a research mentor to pursue a nine-week full time basic science, or clinical biomedical research project during the summer. All interns will give a five-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, BRIUS interns participate in weekly networking luncheons and shadowing opportunities with minority faculty in several different clinical specialties. Participants will be paid $13.00 / hr. The BRIUS program is sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs and Career Development at Cincinnati Children's and a generous endowment from the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Foundation.

Attendance is mandatory on Orientation Day, Monday, June 3, 2024.

Applicants must be from a racial or ethnic group that is underrepresented in biomedical research including Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinos, American Indian or Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (Guam, Samoa). This program is open to high achieving graduating high school seniors and college freshmen from the Cincinnati tri-state area only.

The BRIUS program is highly competitive. Only US citizens, or green card holders are eligible to apply for the program. Successful applicants are high achieving graduating high school seniors or students completing their 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 20 finalists. From those, the top 14 to 15 will be matched with mentors based on their personal essays and interviews, depending on funding. All applicants must submit a personal statement highlighting their academic achievements; extracurricular activities; future academic and career goals; and any obstacles they have encountered personally that have shaped their motivation, personality, and outlook.

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 2023 and ACT or SAT scores, if available. Note, if you are currently a college freshman, include a transcript of your fall college grades.

2. We ask that you submit two letters of recommendation (only one is required) through the online application portal. You will be asked to enter your recommenders' names and email addresses into the application portal, and it will automatically generate an email that will be sent directly to the recommender. Please speak with your recommenders very early in the application process to coordinate the submission of these letters. Waiting until the last minute can cause your application to be incomplete when the portal closes, and this will result in your candidacy not being considered further. At least one letter of recommendation should be from a science teacher or scientist, and the optional letter can be from anyone who can speak to your character and academic performance.

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