The CALS Global Fellows Program supports CALS undergraduate students from any major in pursuit of challenging, professionally-focused summer internships and research placements that enhance and complement their career goals and academic progress, while enriching their undergraduate experience with diverse cultural and international immersion. Through key partnerships, the Global Fellows Program provides a platform for students to make positive and definable contributions to global organizations and communities.

Acceptance to the program is competitive and a limited number of students are selected each year. 

Students who are accepted into the CALS Global Fellows Program will be required to complete 3 parts to the program:

• 3 in-person Spring 2024 pre-engagement workshops focusing on health and safety, cultural awareness and logistics; 
• a continuous 7–8-week internship or research placement in an international setting,
• and a 1-credit post-engagement course in the first 7 weeks of the Fall 2024 semester (ALS/GDEV 3105).

Information Session:

• CALS Engaged Symposium on Thursday, October 19 from 4-5:30pm.  Location: Mann B75There will be a FALL 2023

For details on the estimated cost of this program and more information on possible funding opportunities, visit the cost tab.

NUS is a Cornell Global Hub partner university. Global Hubs are Cornell's collaborative centers of engagement around the world. Hubs will give students exciting opportunities for semester-long and short-term study abroad, field experience, participation in faculty-led research, curricular pathways through majors, internships, and more.

Placements Opportunities

Placements: 2-3 (in-person)

CALS in partnership with the National University of Singapore (NUS) will support selected Fellows in the process for selecting a placement through the Undergraduate Research Attachment in Science Program (URAPS). Prospective applicants identify and contact NUS Faculty of Science professors they would like to work alongside. Placements will vary depending on interest and the faculty member the student chooses to work with. Students have the opportunity to work in research, in a lab setting, or conduct data analysis. This is a proactive placement and students must work with the NUS faculty directly to secure a placement. 

Students may contact faculty prior CALS' decision to move your application forward in the review process for the Global Fellows Program. Past participants who have been accepted, found it easier to secure their placement at NUS when they had made contact prior to CALS' decision. It has also been beneficial when writing a statement of purpose.

Please follow the instructions below to find a faculty member you would like to work with. 

1. Contact supervisors in departments in the Faculty of Science or School of Medicine only.

• Department of Biological Sciences
• Department of Chemistry
• Department of Mathematics
• Department of Food Science and Technology
• Department of Pharmacy
• Department of Physics
• Department of Statistics & Applied Probability
• Department of Anatomy
• Department of Biochemistry
• Department of Microbiology and Immunology
• Department of Physiology    
• Department of Pharmacology

2. When contacting faculty, include the "Summer UROPS Project Details" form (email calsglobalfellows@cornell.edu for form), academic record, CV with publication list (if any), area of research interest and other documents as requested by the faculty member. 

3. If a faculty member is available and willing to supervise, they will confirm via email. 

NOTE: Confirmation of a placement by a NUS faculty member/PI prior to application review through the Global Fellows Program and URAPS, does not mean acceptance to the Global Fellows Program. 

Past participants research has been in:

• Comparative Proteomics of Nicotianatobacum Cross Protected by a Mutant Strain Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Infected with Cucumber Mosiac Virus"
• Characterizing Dynamics o the Bicoidgradient Using Confocal FCS
• Motivating Students: Precision Education in Singapore

Suggested majors and/or professional interests: Biology, Biochemistry, Biometry & Statistics, and Entomology focusing on microbiology, immunology, statistics and applied probability

Learn more about Singapore

Singapore, is a city-state and a gateway to South East Asia, with Indonesia to its East and Malaysia directly north. Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. English is the common language of the nation and is the language of business, and education. Singapore is the world's fifth-leading financial center, a global commerce, finance and transport hub, and its port is one of the five busiest in the world. While it is one of the smallest countries in Southeast Asia, it is also one of the most prosperous. CALS students have also enjoyed the fact that it is possible to drive 10 minutes from the city center to trek through a tropical rainforest, with more species of flora than in the whole of North America.

Research, Academics:

• The Story of How Singapore became a Research Nation by Yojana Sharma

We encourage you to apply to your first choice program only. There is a space within the application to indicate if you have a second choice. If you are interested in two opportunities that are very different from one another and would prefer to write two statements of purpose, you may upload both to the same application in ONE document. Make sure they are clearly titled with the correct placement opportunity IF you are writing two statements. For reference, click here to review examples of statements from past participants. 

You may preview the application without starting an application by clicking on the “preview application” button next to the apply button. All applications contain the same questions and all information related to the program can be found within the experience page. There is no additional information within the application.