Sponsored internship opportunities play a crucial role in BU PhD students’ career and professional development, refining not only their discipline-specific technical skills and research acumen but also imparting invaluable practical knowledge. Beyond honing these technical skills, students will gain firsthand insight into the intricacies of workplace dynamics, providing opportunities to build skills that they may not develop in their traditional PhD training.
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Boston University PhD Internships
PDPA offers three internships for BU PhD students in local organizations with the support of an NSF Innovations in Graduate Education grant as well as the Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center. In 2024, PDPA offered internships with three companies: Lightcast and two BTEC member companies, Novartis BioMedical Research and Draper.
The Office of the Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GRS), and the BU Center for the Humanities, and the Center for Innovation in Social Science (CISS) offer summer stipend support for six humanities PhD students and five social science PhD students annually. Interns undertake substantive research and writing in Boston-area cultural, governmental, and other organizations, with the aim of exposing PhD students to possible career opportunities outside of higher education.
Additional internship or experiential learning opportunities are available through the BU URBAN Program (Urban Biogeoscience & Environmental Health), which is open to students in Biology, Earth & Environment, Environmental Health, and Statistics. The Activist Lab at the School of Public Health and the BU Initiative on Cities both offer experiential learning fellowships that are similar to other internship programs.
All BU-supported summer interns will be required to participate in the Summer PhD Internship Cohort.
Summer PhD Internship Cohort
To help our students get the most out of their summer internships, PDPA facilitates a PhD Internship Cohort/learning community. The benefits of the team-based learning model are illustrated by considerable research, which demonstrates that peer learning and the support systems it provides can significantly enhance students’ experiential learning opportunities.
While any BU doctoral students participating in summer internships may register for the cohort, participation is required for all interns with the Center for the Humanities, Center for Innovation in Social Science, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and Professional Development & Postdoctoral Affairs.
PhD Progression Internship Preparation Pathway
PhD Progression is an online micro-credentialing platform designed specifically for doctoral students at BU. Through short learning modules, students can explore and develop skills to supplement their doctoral education. We have created the Internship Preparation pathway to provide summer interns with scaffolded learning modules to support them in and prepare them for their internships.
This pathway has four steps: Career Planning, Preparing for the Work Environment, Professional Growth, and Collaboration Tools. Interns should complete the individual modules in these steps before or early on in their internships.
Cohort Meetings
During the spring semester, PDPA will host two meetings of the entire cohort prior to the start of their internships. These meetings will give interns a chance to meet each other, share expectations for their internship experiences, and set goals for professional and personal growth over the course of the summer.
While interns are engaged in their work during the summer months, PDPA will host informal, coffee chats at varying times every two weeks. These meetings, which will be offered both in person and via Zoom, will provide interns an opportunity to connect with colleagues about the positive aspects of their work, challenges they are facing, and shared experiences in their internship placements. Interns will be required to attend at least two drop-in session during the summer.
Closing Reception
At the end of the summer, mentors and host sites will be invited to a reception at Boston University to meet each other and hear about the work their interns have conducted over the summer. Interns will be required to present lightning talks on their internship experiences.