Requirements

College/School Eligibility:

  • Agriculture and Life Sciences
  • Brooks School of Public Policy
  • Architecture, Art and Planning
  • Arts and Sciences
  • Bowers CIS
  • Engineering
  • Human Ecology
  • Industrial and Labor Relations
  • SC Johnson Business - Dyson
  • SC Johnson Business - Hotel

Class Year Eligibility:

  • First Year (undergrad)
  • Second Year (undergrad)
  • Third Year (undergrad)

Open to:

  • Cornell Undergraduate Students

STUDENTS MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA TO BE ELIGIBLE:

  • Currently enrolled matriculated undergraduate student for the spring semester; must be enrolled in a degree-granting program at Cornell and in good academic standing.
    • Students who are transferring to another institution for fall and leave the institution are not eligible for funding, and/or may have funding rescinded.
  • Returning to complete at least one full-time semester of coursework towards their bachelor’s degree at Cornell following the summer experience.
    • Students who are taking a leave of absence for the Fall 2024 semester will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
  • Have a written offer for a career-related summer experience that is 1) unpaid or minimally paid* and 2) at least 4 weeks in length and at least 100 hours total. Typically, experiences are 20+ hours per week. The offer does NOT yet need to be accepted

*Examples of a minimally paid experience include: a minimum wage paying experience, a lunch allowance, small stipend, or an honorarium. Stipends and other forms of compensation should be included on the Budget portion of the application and will be deducted from the requested amount and evaluated on a case by case basis. If you are awarded and find out later that you will receive compensation, the amount will be deducted from the original award. Generally, a minimally paid experience is one where your living expenses for the summer exceed your income.

ELIGIBLE EXPERIENCES INCLUDE:

  • Any career-related experience supervised by a staff member at the organization – it does not have to be a formal internship
  • Research assistant experience supervised by a principal investigator, post-doc staff, or faculty member
  • Volunteer experience supervised by a staff member at the organization
  • Remote experience supervised by a staff member at the organization
  • Students participating in Summer on the Cuyahoga (SOTC)

INFORMATION ABOUT INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES:

The Summer Experience Grant will cover eligible experiences, including those in international locations. Once approved for funding, students must:

  • Pre-register their travel through the Cornell International Travel Registry. (Note: Students must prove they have registered their travel prior to the release of funds.); and 
  • Self-enroll in Cornell’s online pre-departure orientation for international travel: https://canvas.cornell.edu/enroll/HJL3G3
  • Cornell strongly discourages travel to elevated-risk destinations if other viable options are available. If proposing travel to an elevated-risk destination, students must complete a petition. Petitions are triggered by rules built into the Travel Registry. If your itinerary requires a petition, the Travel Registry will prompt you for additional information about and rationale for elevated-risk travel plans. It may take 2-4 weeks to obtain approval to elevated-risk destinations
  • If you are an international student traveling to your home country, note that funding cannot be used to travel from Cornell to your home country and back

NON-ELIGIBLE EXPERIENCES INCLUDE:

  • Fee based programs - any program that charges tuition or a fee. Exceptions may be made for programs in the performing arts, on a case by case basis.
  • Cornell programs:
    • Cornell in Washington
    • Cornell Urban Semester (Practicing Medicine, Practicing Health Equity)
    • Cornell Pre-Law Summer Program
    • Engineering Project Teams
    • Global Health minor programs
    • Harold Tanner Dean's Scholars Program
    • Milstein First-Year Summer Program in NYC
    • most other college-based program charging tuition/program fees (at Cornell or any other university)
  • Research that is supervised by a graduate student. Research experiences must be supervised by a Principal Investigator or faculty member
  • Independent research projects, such as an honors thesis, personal projects, research projects attached to academic credit, or personal entrepreneurial ventures
  • Student or student-run entrepreneurial ventures
  • Student organization related projects
  • Summer courses at Cornell or elsewhere
  • Any experience supervised by another student
  • Work at an organization owned by a personal family member, or where you are directly supervised by a family member.  A family member may include, but is not limited to: parent, sibling, spouse, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or cousin

If you believe that your experience should qualify, contact seg@cornell.edu.