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Undergraduate Research

Summer Research Fellowships

The College funds Summer Research Fellowships for Union students doing scholarly work with Union faculty members. The goal of this program is to give students the opportunity to pursue a subject in-depth over the summer, under the guidance of faculty mentors. The range of supported activities is broad – bibliographic work, field surveys, and laboratory research, among others. While the goal of this program is to give students an opportunity to work with faculty on scholarship, but we also encourage innovative student-generated projects, as long they have faculty sponsors.

**The application is not yet open, please check back in Winter 2025. The deadline for submitting will be Thursday, February 6, 2025, at 11:59pm.**

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

Summer Research Fellowships are open to student enrolled at Union College at the time of application and when the fellowship work would occur. We fund projects across all areas of the College. This is a highly competitive process and applicants are selected based on a number of criteria by the Committee on Undergraduate Research.

  • Eligibility Criteria
    • All Summer Research Fellowship applicants must be currently enrolled at Union College.
    • All participants in the Summer Research Fellowship program must enrolled at Union College for the duration of their fellowship. Graduating seniors are not eligible for summer research fellowships following their graduation.
    • You must have met all of your prior obligations for funding received from the Undergraduate Research Office. If, in the past, you received a Summer Research Fellowship from the UGR Office, but did not complete an exit survey and a final report that has been approved by your advisor, you are ineligible for further fellowship funding.
  • Selection Criteria
    • Quality of the proposal.
    • Level of faculty mentor support. Faculty will be ask to write brief recommendation for the project and student.
    • Student class year. Juniors, sophomores, then first-years, in order of decreasing priority, except for Scholars fellowships, where first-years and sophomores have priority.
    • Student GPA.
    • Faculty mentor rank. Junior faculty have priority.

Fellowship Duration, Expectations, & Sources

  • Fellowship Duration & Total Hours

    We award 4-week, 6-week, and 8-week fellowships. Fellows receive hourly pay for up 35 hours per week of their fellowship.

    • A 4-week fellowship is 4 weeks x 35 hours per week = 140 total hours
    • A 6-week fellowship is 6 weeks x 35 hours per week = 210 total hours
    • A 8-week fellowship is 8 weeks x 35 hours per week = 280 total hours
    Important Dates
    • Earliest date you can start work: Monday, June 16th, 2025
    • Summer program events end: Friday, August, 1st, 2025
    • Guaranteed summer housing ends: Friday, August 8th, 2025
    • Latest date you can work: Sunday, August 31st, 2025
  • Expectations of Summer Research Fellows
    Expectations for Work
    • Work Schedule – Fellows must work full time for the duration of their fellowship over consecutive weeks, corresponding to the length of their fellowship, or on an alternate schedule that adds up to the same number of hours over the summer. The number of hours and the daily schedule will be determined by the fellow and their faculty mentor and will differ from project to project. All such arrangements must comply with federal, state, and local laws and College policy for temporary student hourly employees.
    • Regular Mentor Meetings – Fellows must meet regularly, in person or via teleconference, with their faculty mentor during the summer.
    Obligations to Share your Work and Experiences
    • Presentation – Fellows must present the results of their summer project in an appropriate venue selected in consultation with their faculty mentor: the summer seminar series, in a poster session at Homecoming/Family Weekend in the fall, at the NY6 Symposium, at the Steinmetz Symposium, or at an appropriate discipline-specific venue.
    • Exit Survey – Fellows must complete an exit survey about their summer research experience to help improve and assess the Summer Research Fellowship program. Fellows that do not complete the exit survey will be ineligible for future funding from the Undergraduate Research Office.
    • Donor Thank-You Note – If the student has received a name fellowship, the fellow must write a thank-you note to the donor at the end of the summer.
    • Final Report – The fellow's faculty advisor may require that the fellow submit a final report to the Undergraduate Research Office that summarizes their summer project, in a format provided and approved by the faculty sponsor.
  • Summer Housing
    • On-campus summer housing will be available in the Minerva Houses.
    • Fellows must make all on-campus housing arrangements with the Office of Residential Education & Housing. The summer housing application will be open May 12th - May 30th, 2025. If you do not complete a timely housing application, you will not be able to reside on campus.
      • Housing arrangements can only be made for contiguous weeks.
      • Fellows are required to pay directly for their for campus housing.
      • If beginning research immediately after Commencement, fellows may be able to move directly into their summer housing from their spring housing. However, if beginning later, fellows will need to leave campus, with their belongings, and return when their housing assignment starts.
    • On-campus housing for the summer program ends Friday, August 8th, 2025.
      • On-campus housing is not guaranteed after this date.
      • If you do not have on-campus housing for the fall term, you will not be able to reside on campus beyond this date.
  • Summer Dining
    • On-campus dining options are very limited over the summer.
    • Some dining services will be available on campus for a fee:
      • Dutch Hollow is typically open midday Monday-Friday.
      • Some other dining halls may be open on different, limited schedules.
      • Meal swipes and declining are not available for use over the summer.
    • Fellows have access to kitchens in Minerva houses to prepare meals.
      • Fellow must provide their own ingredients, cookware, and utensils.
      • The kitchens are a shared resource---you are expected to use them responsibly, keep them cleans, and respect others and their property.
      • The College runs a weekly shuttle to allow regular grocery shopping.
    • Lunch is provided during the Summer Seminars on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
    • We are investigating additional ways to support food access for fellows.
  • List of Fellowships

    Fellowship funding is provided by a variety of sources and donors, some of which have disciplinary, or other, restrictions.

    • Askenazy: One full-summer fellowship, limited to biochemistry, chemistry, and biology
    • Bittleman: One full-summer fellowship, limited to visual arts and art history
    • Booth-Ferris: One full-summer fellowship, limited to biological sciences
    • Brayton: One full-summer fellowship, limited to the biological sciences
    • Davenport: About 20 full- and partial-summer fellowships, preference to engineering, chemistry, biology, physics, or geosciences
    • Endowed Fund for S.T.E.M. Research: One full-summer fellowship, limited to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
    • Feingold: One partial-summer fellowship, limited to humanities and social science as they relate to healthcare and healing
    • GLOBALFOUNDRIES: One full-summer fellowship, limited to semiconductor technology, chemistry, physics, and engineering
    • Kelsey Hastings Golitz Memorial Fund for Cancer Research: One half-summer fellowship, limited to research that is related to or might contribute to the understanding of the causes of cancer or improve the diagnosis or treatment of cancer illnesses
    • Kelly Adirondack Center: One full-summer fellowships, limited to research on the Adirondack region.
    • Laudise: Two full-summer fellowships, limited to chemistry
    • McMath: One half-summer fellowship, limited to civil and environmental engineering
    • Merck Foundation: One full-summer fellowship, limited to chemistry
    • Nynex Foundation: One full-summer fellowship, limited to education and students receiving financial aid
    • Panoff: Two full-summer fellowships, limited to electrical engineering
    • Potter: Four full-summer fellowships, limited to transportation systems research or students in the ESPE program
    • Rosen: One partial-summer fellowship, preference to underrepresented or first-generation college students
    • Smith: Two full-summer fellowships, limited to engineering and sciences, with preference for biomedical engineering
    • Sciortino: Five full-summer fellowships, limited to cancer-related research
    • Sommer: Three full-summer fellowships, limited to medicine and public health
    • Surdna: Three full-summer fellowships, limited to chemistry, biology, and physics
    • Union College: About 40 full- and partial-summer fellowships

Application Instructions

Students must find a faculty mentor willing to work with them on a summer research project and then prepare a proposal with their faculty mentor's guidance. Faculty mentors need to complete a recommendation for each student that applies to work with them.

  • Directions for Students
    1. Find a faculty mentor. Many faculty expect that you'll have reached out to them at least several weeks before the application is due.
    2. Read through the eligibility & selection criteria and expectations of fellows above. Ensure that you are eligible and willing to meet the expectations.
    3. Prepare a resume. Include at least your name, address, email, major, GPA, education with relevant coursework, and any other relevant activities. See the Becker Career Center for guidance on how to structure a resume.
    4. Prepare a project proposal in consultation with your mentor. It should be at least two pages long and include the following sections:
      1. Framework: Discuss important background and context, with appropriate citations to prior work, addressing how your project relates to the work of others.
      2. Goals: Clearly state the research question(s) that you hope to answer, including tentative hypotheses, and/or the anticipated outcomes of your project.
      3. Impact: Describe how successfully completing this project will advance or contribute to your discipline and society.
      4. Plan: Describe the steps you will take to carry out this project, including any analysis, interpretation, or evaluation you will do.
      5. Personal Goals: Explain how the work you will do on this project contributes to your personal goals: academic, career, or otherwise.
    5. Submit out the Summer Research Application. The application is not yet open, please check back in Winter 2025. The deadline for submitting is Thursday, February 6, 2024, at 11:59pm. Submitting the application will automatically request your faculty advisor submit a recommendation on your behalf.
  • Directions for Faculty

    You will receive an automated email each time a student applies for a summer fellowship with you as mentor. If the student has more than one mentor, only the primary mentor will be emailed. This email includes the content of the application. Please use the link contained in this email to complete the recommendation for your student. Note: A separate recommendation must be completed for each student.