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 4 parts of the program:

• An in-person 7-week, Spring (session 2) pre-engagement 1 credit course ALS 2300, focusing on health and safety, cultural awareness, logistics and more. 
• a continuous 7–8-week internship or research placement in an international setting
• and a 7-week, 1 credit post-engagement course in the first half of the Fall 2025 semester (ALS/GDEV 3105)
• Poster Symposium in Fall 2025

Information Session:

• None

Placement Opportunities

Learn about recent CALS GFP Intern, Sushmi Majumder '25 and her time with the S M Sehgal Foundation

The Sehgal Foundation has multiple internship opportunities.  A list can be found here. 
However, priority topics include:

• Assessing drinking water quality and its health impact in selected villages of Nuh district, Haryana. 
• Agriculture research 
• Assessment of the economic impact of kitchen Garden on the livelihoods of women in rural area
• Comparative study of different wastewater treatment and reuse systems suitable for rural areas
• Assessment and development of a business plan for oil extraction unit operated by women 
• Viability assessment of custom hiring center managed by women's group
• Assessing the Impact of Desiltation on Community Development and Agriculture and ways to improve the participation of women in water management interventions
• Assessing the Impact of Agriculture development interventions on empowerment and capacity building of women farmers
• Documenting Innovative Water management interventions being implemented by NGOs, CSR companies, government departments and others
• Scoping of digital Agri innovations in rural regions of India 

Placements: 2-4 (in-person) 

S M Sehgal Foundation (“Sehgal Foundation”) is a public, charitable trust registered in India since 1999. Our mission is to strengthen community-led development initiatives to achieve positive social, economic and environmental change across rural India.

Based in Gurugram, Haryana, S M Sehgal Foundation is working in about 1000 villages across eleven states of India. With support from our donors and partners in the corporate, government and social sectors, the organization advances its mission by working with rural communities to increase agricultural productivity, manage water resources, strengthen grassroots democracy and facilitate citizen participation through good rural governance and community media, putting a strong emphasis on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Through research and dialogue, we design and deliver rural development interventions that create opportunities, build resilience and provide solutions for India’s poorest communities to overcome their most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges.

You can read about the founders of Sehgal Foundation in ‘Seeds for Change: The Lives and Work of Suri and Edda Sehgal by Marly Cornell (available at the Cornell Library).

The internship program at S M Sehgal Foundation is designed to provide experience to students of the real challenges faced in various facets of rural development. During the course of the internship, students put to use their academic learning for real-life contexts.  Interns obtain experience in their field of study and acquire skills which are helpful in their professional life.

An internship is offered for a specific project under the supervision of the Internship Coordinator and the guidance of one or more Project Supervisors. The duration of virtual internship will be two months.

Suggested majors and/or professional interests (varies accordingly to internship): Communications, Information Science, Agricultural Science, Global Development, Applied Economics and Management, with interests in community, digital and mass media, journalism, rural development, adaptive technology, gender studies, water studies, research and development, and computer programming. 

In-Person Internships

Please visit: S M Sehgal Foundation website. In the extreme right corner choose the drop-down from 3 lines, choose the "Internships" micro page, and then choose "List of Regular Internship Projects" and/or "Policy for Interns from Abroad".  Please take a close look at the projects that will be available for Summer 2025 and choose the one that best aligns with your interests.  Please note: you may apply to internships as an undergraduate even if a "masters" is listed under qualifications. 

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.