Due to the continued and rapidly changing situation with the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic,The Ohio State University announced on April 7 that the university will cancel the 2020 Ohio Five-OSU Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program. OSU has cancelled all on-campus undergraduate research programs and suspended all but critical research programs to comply with State of Ohio and OSU emergency orders. Ohio Five and OSU are continuing to work on plans for the resumption of the program in summer 2021 and will provide application and program information in fall 2020.
An expanded collaboration between The Ohio State University and The Five Colleges of Ohio will offer up to 30 paid summer undergraduate research internships exclusively to students of the Five Colleges of Ohio in summer 2020. New opportunities in microbiology will be featured in the program, adding to fields offered in 2019, including in chemistry and biochemistry, statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology, physics, and mathematics. The collaboration is made possible with the joint support of The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences, the OSU College of Public Health and The Five Colleges of Ohio.
The 10-week program, offered from May 18 to July 24, 2020, will partner OSU faculty members with Ohio Five interns who will conduct individual projects that contribute to the faculty members’ research priorities. At OSU, students will gain experience working in an R-1 university laboratory alongside senior faculty and OSU undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, an ideal introduction to the graduate school research experience. Students will conclude their internship at a capstone event at OSU where they will present their research to OSU faculty and faculty and academic deans from their home institution, followed by a presentation at their college early in the fall semester.
Participants in the 2019 program credit their summer experience with building their skills and confidence in developing independent research project, using advanced lab techniques, and presenting their research to peers. Working in an R-1 environment with mentor, leading research projects, and experiencing “the independence and trial and error of being an experimentalist” topped their lists of program attributes. “Learning what research in my field actually entails in practice was very beneficial for me,” one student commented, “I learned a lot by being pushed out of my comfort zone intellectually.”
The program is open to currently enrolled students at The College of Wooster, Denison University, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, or Ohio Wesleyan University with a special focus on students completing their sophomore years. Applicants may be STEM majors or, for the College of Public Health internships in biostatistics, statistics, and epidemiology, may also include social sciences majors who have statistics coursework. Those who initiate research projects they wish to continue may be invited to continue these activities with OSU following the internship. The program is especially suited to students interested in a graduate degree in the sciences that they may consider pursuing at OSU.
Students will receive gross wages of $4,000 for the 10 weeks of full-time research and housing at OSU in its conference housing at no cost to the intern. Applications, including a cover letter, resume, transcript and faculty recommendation, are due by January 31, 2020 and may be made through the Ohio Five online portal.
Some colleges' network security protocols prohibit use of uploaded forms; if you are having difficulty doing so on your application, please use this alternate text-only form. All Denison University students must use the text-only form.
Decisions will be announced on March 15. For more information, please visit https://u.osu.edu/ohio5sure/