The CALS Global Fellows program offers virtual opportunities with some of our partners. Please reference the placement listings for the number of available placements and the modality of participation. Please note, the CALS Global Fellows program may not fill all available spots for each opportunity. The CALS Global Fellows program has a limited number of total placements we can fill for each summer term.

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. Selected Fellows receive a stipend to offset major expenses.

The program includes three required parts: a pre-engagement portfolio (completed in Canvas), 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 2023 semester (ALS/GDEV 3105).

Suggested majors and/or professional interests: Open to all majors, though of particular interest to Biology and Society, Biometry and Statistics, Development Sociology, Communication, Information Sciences, Marketing Biological Sciences, pre-med students, global health, and disease.

One Sun Health Information Session:

Were you unable to make the information session on Nov. 12th? We've recorded the audio and video files for you to review. You can access the files in the One Sun Health box folder. Questions? Email us at calsglobalfellows@cornell.edu. 

Placement Opportunities

Placements: 2-3  

One Sun Health (OSH) is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable, locally driven solutions to public health challenges through community health education and social entrepreneurship initiatives in South Africa. Since 2011, OSH has run a 8-10 week-long field-based research internship in the Limpopo & Mpumalanga Provinces of South Africa. The internship program is designed to provide students with training and exposure to global public health research, social enterprise initiatives, and non-for-profit/small business management (fundraising, marketing/communications, operational management, etc.). Students work closely with OSH staff and community partners to expand existing programs and/or conduct research to establish new programs in areas such as malaria prevention, women’s sexual and reproductive health, and youth economic opportunity.

In the event that the conditions of COVID-19 require students to work remotely, there will be opportunities to work closely with OSH staff to shape projects that align with their areas of study and interests. Examples may include:

• Conduct a literature review and primary research on public health and economic empowerment interventions to inform our programs
• Support survey design and/or conduct data analysis to evaluate program efficacy
• Build out our strategy for program expansion and evaluation
• Develop fundraising and marketing campaigns to promote OSH work
• Update social media and website design
• Develop a partnership strategy

The OSH Global Health Internship has four main goals:

• To engage in mutual learning with local communities in order to strengthen existing partnerships and public health programs
• To gain tangible skills in research and epidemiology, evaluating programs and identifying new opportunities in close coordination with community stakeholders
• To gain experience in small business / non-for-profit management (e.g., communications, fundraising, project management)
• To build the capacity of local partners and community members

Preferred Qualifications: Beyond interest and/or experience in the fields of focus, students should be passionate and enthusiastic about the mission; prepared to live, work and communicate in rural and sometimes challenging settings; patience and acceptance around logistical constraints in-country; committed to a non-extractive experience; interested in contributing to long-term research impacts and human capacity development; joint and collaborative research engagement and cross-cultural team-building.

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.