Competitive Internship Opportunities
Each year, the Berry Career Institute partners with employer sites to send Cornell students, selected through a competitive process, to premier internship opportunities. See what employer partners are saying about working with Cornell students and the competitive internship program:
“We often brag about Cornell students, telling others that these students are the best we have in comparison to other programs.” - Dr. Amy Keller, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
“This has been a wonderful partnership in my tenure.” - Stephine Hunt, Manager of Literary Arts, Chautauqua Institution
““Our Cornell student intern was outstanding, consistently the top performer of her peers through the summer both in terms of interest, aptitude, and work ethic. She was a stand out intern.” - Dr. Erik St. Louis, Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine
Internship deadlines
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and students are encouraged to apply by or before the following deadlines (or deadline listed for a specific site) to be considered for summer funding.
Dimensions priority deadlines
- TBD 2025 (Mayo and Children’s Hospital)
- TBD 2025 (all other competitive Dimensions internships)
Final deadline (all internships)
April 14, 2025 (Block 8 Day 1)
Although these opportunities are open until filled, if applying after this deadline, you may not receive funding before the start of your experience due to processing time. Funding is awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Academic year applications should be submitted 30-60 days prior to the internship start date. Early applications are encouraged. We understand that many programs may not notify students of acceptance until later in the spring; applications received after deadlines will be considered on a first-come, first-serve basis and awarded based on merit.
All sites are open to considering candidates as long as a position is available. Acceptance for a competitive internship is not final until the hosting organization confirms acceptance of the proposed candidate. Placement at each site is dependent upon timing, availability of funds, applicant fit, and the needs of the site.
Contact career@cornellcollege.edu for more details.
Aquillius Corporation
Location: San Diego, CA
Timeframe: Summer
Deadline: TBD 2025
Description: The internship program will be coordinated and supervised by Dr. MyPhuong Le and Dr. Leah Villegas at Aquillius, which partners with Microtek.
Student interns will be presented with 3-5 problems. They will work in a team environment to come up with a solution that they will work on during the summer:
- Week 1 – Participate in brainstorming sessions and present ideas. Judges will select the most promising ideas that the students will develop.
- Week 2 – Designing of prototypes and planning of project timeline.
- Week 3-9 – Building prototypes/testing/experiments. Collect pilot data and develop value propositions.
- Week 10 – Pitch Day. Prepare a pitch deck and present the project to a panel of judges.
Students will have the opportunity to learn laboratory and/or manufacturing skills, such as cell culture, western blots, 3-D designing, and electronic assembly (such as wire bonding, flip chip and die attachment, etc.)
Aquillius and Microtek are biotechnology startup companies that specialize in research and development, fabrication and testing of miniaturized devices (which are often medical in nature). Their facility has a number of state-of-the-art equipment, including the Keyense VHX-7000 microscope, and the Xytec Condor Sigma Bond Tester.
Interested students should email Sydney Meeker for consideration, next steps, and a direct referral.
Chautauqua Institution
Location: Chautauqua, NY
Timeframe: Each internship is four weeks long. The June-July intern will offer support for the Writers’ Festival prior to the opening of the Institute. Otherwise, the positions have very similar responsibilities. The July-August intern will have a flexible end date due to the session’s proximity to the start of Cornell’s school year.
Deadline: See contact below for application deadline and requirements.
Description: The purpose of the internship is to assist the educational programming and community activities related to all aspects of Chautauqua Literary Arts. The interns will participate in and contribute to a vibrant artistic community, learn skills in arts administration, publicity, marketing, and creative writing pedagogy, study and network with some of the most exciting writers on the American literary scene.
Position Expectations:
- The interns will be mentored by Sony Ton-Aime, Director of Literary Arts at the Chautauqua Institute, and a graduate fellow—a student from a graduate program in Creative Writing. They will report to Mr. Ton-Aime.
- The interns will participate in four weekly Writers’ Center workshops, to be led by some of the most exciting contemporary American authors; they will also provide some administrative support for the workshops.
- The interns will meet regularly with the graduate fellow about their writing.
- The interns will coordinate and contribute to the public events organized by Chautauqua Literary Arts, including
- the management of the Poetry Makerspace, where they will be able to interact with the community, get to know this wonderful exhibit, take part in poetry readings, and work with other interns and the graduate fellow.
- social-media promotion for Chautauqua Literary Arts events;
- administrative support for events and the opportunity to lead a breakout session if desired;
- Perform any other reasonable duties as assigned by the mentor/supervisor that should be necessary to meet the needs of Chautauqua Literary Arts.
- Represent Chautauqua Literary Arts with a welcoming attitude towards students, visitors, and other community members you encounter throughout the internship.
Interested students should email Professor Rebecca Entel in the English Department for consideration, next steps, and a direct referral.
Children’s Hospital Colorado, Orthopedics Institute / Musculoskeletal Research Center / Center for Gait Movement and Analysis
Location: Aurora, Colorado
Timeframe: Summer
Deadline: TBD 2025
Description: The intern will work collaboratively with members of the Center for Gait Movement and Analysis and the Orthopedics Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado on a variety of projects looking at ways child patients walk or perform certain functions related to walking. A specific project will be assigned to the student based on interest and work being conducted in the lab. Opportunities to work with patients, members of the Center’s staff, and practicing physicians in the hospital comprise the bulk of the fellowship experience. Individual assignments are subject to change.
Interested students should email Sydney Meeker for consideration, next steps, and a direct referral.
University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus
Location: Aurora, Colorado
Timeframe: Summer
Deadline: TBD 2025
Description:This internship is a research position at the University of Colorado at Anschutz Medical Campus (part of CU Denver) and/or the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center. The internship is open to students of all years in all majors but is designed for a student interested in biomedical research and healthcare.
Applicants must meet the following prerequisites prior to the start of the internship:
- Demonstrate basic laboratory skills, including the ability to work well with their hands and use a pipette.
- Have successfully completed BIO 141 (Foundations: Cellular Biology) and BIO 142 (Foundations: Organismal Biology). Completion of CHE 121 and 122 (Chemical Principles I and II) or CHE 161 (Accelerated General Chemistry) is strongly preferred.
- Be a US citizen (due to VA requirements).
Interested students should contact Sydney Meeker for consideration, next steps, and a direct referral.
University of South Carolina
Location: Columbia, South Carolina
Timeframe: Summer
Deadline: Open until filled (Early applications and inquiries welcome)
The intern will be matched with a site on or near the University of South Carolina. Possible projects include research on pelagic fishes in the Gulf of Mexico, research on policies and practices related to environmental law, or sustainable seafood practices involving the seafood industry, tourism, and economics. Past interns have been placed with the Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies and at the South Carolina Aquarium.
Interested students should email Professor Rhawn Denniston in the Geology Department for consideration, next steps, and a direct referral.
Sleep Neurophysiology Lab, Center for Sleep Medicine, Mayo Clinic
Location: Rochester, MN (with the possibility of internship transitioning to virtual if needed)
Timeframe: Summer
Deadline (priority): TBD 2025
Description: The student will become familiar with the analysis of polysomnogram (sleep study) neurophysiologic data by active participation in the Mayo Sleep and Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory. The student will initially become familiar with standard clinical and research techniques for analysis of sleep stages, arousal, and respiratory events during sleep. The intern’s work will especially focus on learning and applying our laboratory’s scoring methodology for REM sleep muscle activity, known as REM sleep atonia loss (or, REM sleep without atonia (RSWA)) in polysomnography, used in research of the human neurological disorder REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), in which people act out their dreams during sleep. Recent evidence has shown interestingly that human RBD is actually a prodromal form of neurodegeneration known as synucleinopathy, the type of disorder underlying Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.
The student will then learn to apply neurophysiologic techniques in analyses of humans with this and other neurological sleep disorders, and gain experience with experimental design and conduct in clinical research. There will be opportunities to regularly attend scheduled laboratory learning sessions and meetings, journal clubs involving critical discussion of scientific articles, provide written assessments of their experiences reflecting self-learning, and depending on progress, the student may participate in analyzing and interpreting experimental data through the summer experience and, if applicable, participate in the generation of future research abstracts and manuscripts.
Goals and Learning Objectives of the Internship for the Student: Learning Objectives:
- To become familiar with techniques for analysis of sleep staging, respiratory and arousal event scoring, and REM sleep muscle activity scoring in polysomnography (sleep studies).
- To apply neurophysiology and related techniques in analyses of humans with neurological and sleep disorders.
- To gain experience with experimental design and conduct clinical research.
Assessment and Evaluation Criteria for the Internship:
- The student will regularly attend scheduled laboratory learning sessions and activities.
- The student will demonstrate familiarity with techniques of polysomnography analyses.
- The student will regularly provide written assessments of his or her experiences reflecting self-learning.
- The student will participate in analyzing and interpreting experimental data through the summer experience and, if applicable, participate in generation of future research abstracts and manuscripts.
Interested students should email Sydney Meeker for consideration, next steps, and a direct referral.