Spend your summer conducting research that makes an impact on our local community through the Community-Academic Scholars Initiative. This 10-week summer research experience empowers undergraduates in all majors to address critical issues related to health, poverty, and/or social inequity in Champaign-Urbana. Scholars from disciplines across campus work with an Illinois researcher and a community organization on a research project designed to directly benefit the community members served by the partner organization. This includes program evaluations, needs assessments, or similar projects.
To augment the summer experience, program leaders host weekly professional development sessions with the scholars and invite researchers and campus experts to provide practical guidance on topics such as careers in research, conducting research in community settings, centering anti-racism in research, and communicating research to different audiences. Students then showcase their work during a poster session preceding the final awards ceremony. Scholars also receive a $4000 stipend to offset the cost of housing and/or living expenses during the program.
Illinois undergraduates are invited to join the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute and Center for Social & Behavioral Science for the 2024 Community-Academic Scholars information session on Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom.
During this 45-minute information session, we will:
- Discuss the program and the application process
- Share a couple of past projects
- Talk about how scholars will be matched with research projects
- Hear directly from one of the 2023 Scholars, Wondrous Jenkins, about their experience in the program
Sign up for the information session even if you cannot make it. We will notify registrants when the recording is available.
