INSIGHT: Summer Research Program

The range of projects we have each summer are dependent on a number of factors such as availability of mentors and timelines for completion. Additionally, some projects have specific requirements such as having a statistical background. We strongly consider primary research interests of students, but ultimately make a best fit determination once we have determined our cohort of students which takes all these factors into consideration. Therefore, we invite you to look at our recent research projects and explain your specific research interests and/or skill set in our application. Accepted students will be informed of their research project and mentor prior to the start of the summer program.

Mentors include health sciences faculty from across the University of Washington, including medicine, public health, nursing, law and other disciplines.

Yes, you must be able to attend the in-person events.

Students are responsible for their own travel arrangements, accommodations, and other related expenses. If you believe you have a hardship that precludes you from attending the in-person symposium, but still wish to apply, please contact injuryed@uw.edu. This will not impact your selection to the program. 

Yes, however, we give preference to undergraduate students entering their junior or senior year in Fall 2025, and students graduating in Spring 2026.

Yes, however, we give preference to undergraduate students entering their junior or senior year in Fall 2025, and students graduating in Spring 2026.

Yes, you are eligible to apply.

To be eligible, you must either be a current undergraduate or graduate student, or enrolled in an undergraduate/graduate program in Fall 2025.  If you are not in either group, you are not eligible for the INSIGHT program.

Yes, you are eligible to participate if you are attending an accredited 2 or 4 year college or university on a student visa, or are a student with DACA status. Students must be able to provide a physical copy of their Social Security card and necessary Form-I-9 Documents.

The INSIGHT committee will notify you, if your transcripts are required for the final selection process.

Prior research experience is not required.  However, strong candidates should be able to articulate their interests in the INSIGHT program and have demonstrated strong academic performance in the STEM fields.  Similarly, having a STEM field major is not required.

The application review is holistic in nature and consideration is given to all parts of a student’s application including personal statement of interest/background and academic trajectory.  Grade point averages are just one of the many factors included in the overall evaluation of a student’s application, but a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 is required, must be ≥ 3.0.

If this situation applies to you the INSIGHT committee will notify you, if your transcripts are required for the final selection process.

We will notify you if your transcripts are required for the final selection process.

While having a STEM field major can be helpful in preparing you for internship program such as INSIGHT, it is not required. INSIGHT is made up of a cohort of students with a diverse array of backgrounds and interests. However, strong candidates should still be able to articulate their interests in the INSIGHT program and have demonstrated strong academic performance in the STEM classes they have completed.

Out of fairness to others, we cannot give early notice of acceptance.  All applicants will receive notification of their application status in *early April.

Accepted students are expected to commit to the INSIGHT Program for the duration, from June 16th – Aug. 8nd, 2025.

We cannot accommodate late starts, long vacations, or early departures that significantly affect student attendance and participation.

The INSIGHT Program is a full-time, 40 hour per week summer internship. Interns are expected to be available to attend the program during regular business hours.

Accepted students are expected to commit to INSIGHT  for the duration of the program.  We cannot accommodate late starts, long vacations, or early departures that significantly affect a student’s participation in the program.

The INSIGHT Program is a full-time, 40 hour per week, summer internship.  Interns are expected to be available and participate in the program during regular business hours.

The regular program schedule runs from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.  Clinical virtual shadowing opportunities will be available through UW School of Medicine.  Much of the time is dedicated to working with your Faculty Mentor on a research project. Seminars, tours, meetings and social activities are also scheduled throughout the week.  A  program calendar will be provided to accepted students close to the start of the program.

The INSIGHT Program takes place on Harborview Medical Center’s main campus in the Pat Steel Building.  All students are expected to follow the dress code as designated by Harborview’s stated policies (i.e.: no blue jeans, shorts, or t-shirts with insignia).  This will be explained in further detail during the program’s orientation. Similarly, students will be expected to maintain a full time schedule for the duration of the program.

*For 2025, the INSIGHT Program for graduate and undergraduate students has been adapted to an online format.

Each accepted student receives a stipend of $3,200 midway through the program.

Please contact us at: InjuryED@uw.edu

• “This has been a fantastic opportunity. I genuinely wake up and am grateful I was chosen to be part of the program. I have learned so much, and connected with so many awesome people. I will carry these lessons forward into my career, and I know it will make a difference.”
• “The program exposed me to new avenues of public health, especially with being able to meet professionals from a variety of fields and educational backgrounds. It also provided me with a unique research experience outside my major, widening the scope of my future career possibilities.”
• “This program offers a multitude of perspectives from an array of different fields in research, healthcare fields, and current standstill issues in our world today. This program taught me how to think similarly to a researcher and encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone to connect with professionals who have given me insight on my future career path and goals. Through INSIGHT, I had the opportunity to conduct research on a topic that I had my own personal stakes in and what I was passionate about.”
• “I recommend the INSIGHT Program to other students because it is an amazing opportunity to learn about research, participate in a research project, while at the same time, learning about the why. Why do we need to do injury prevention research? Why are people getting injured and how can we make the world a safer place for all people.”
• “I’ve really enjoyed the mix of time to work on a project and the time spent in topic and lecture seminars. I feel that the seminars have been super informative and have helped to build up my practical and theoretical knowledge. They’ve also really helped to inform questions that I ask and how I view public health as a field. All the speakers have been great and also super sensitive and responsive to us.”

• “As a public health student pursuing a career in medicine, the connections that I have developed at HIPRC are truly invaluable. This program allowed me to connect with researchers, academics, and physicians that I would only hope to meet in medical school, and encouraged independent exploratory research with the support of a great staff and a phenomenal mentor, Dr. Lynn Stansbury. Thank you for creating this space for students to learn.”
• “I cannot recommend this program enough to my fellow students at George Washington University. I look forward to remaining involved as INSIGHT alumni and helping with TTRIG & the BRISK Project. Thank you again!”
• “I have learned more about medicine in general, my future path in it, and strengthened my understanding of the future profession. I have further realized that medicine is my true calling. I believe that I have contributed to valuable research and this is the most rewarding part of this internship. The best thing about being an alumna, though, is the lasting relationships I have made even though the program was virtual.”
• “This experience and the people that made it possible have reaffirmed my confidence in my decision to pursue a career in health. The program’s emphasis on health equity and my own research question prompted me to consider different options (specifically rural healthcare and research).”
• “Within medicine and public health, there are so many interesting ways to make an impact. I don’t need to go to medical school to join public health. For example, I could go into research/statistics, Epidemiology, or nursing. Also, injuries are very prevalent issues – and they can occur in different forms. So, injury prevention is something I realized I am interested in!”
• “I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity. Nowhere else is there a program quite like INSIGHT. The faculty/staff are world-class and fantastic at what they do. The community is kind and thoughtful. I felt supported and challenged at the same time. INSIGHT pushed me to be better, more analytical, and open-minded. I am so glad and fortunate that I got to spend my summer in the INSIGHT Program. I wish I could do it all over again!”
• “This was a great program that was run well by really amazing individuals! I truly appreciate the opportunity and look forward to connecting with people that I have met this summer in the future and seeing what they have accomplished!”
• “Thank you for such a fulfilling and rigorous program, INSIGHT even through an online format exceeded my expectations.”

• “I have really enjoyed the mix of structure provided by the seminars as well as the independence when working on the research project.”
• “I enjoyed being able to explore so many sides of injury prevention research, public health, and medical areas in a focused environment alongside my peers. This program was the best possible mix of anything I could have wanted. The seminars, time with peers, and opportunity to complete a mentored research project (while working on assignments such as abstracts, posters, and presentations) made for a complete program that gave me the best possible education in the health field that I could have asked for! The mix of everything, in an effective manner, was my favorite part of the entire program.”
• “I definitely thought that this program was great to experience what clinical research is like and what all goes into it. I loved learning the diverse viewpoints of my classmates and the presenters throughout the course of the project, and it really helped me to gain a better perspective on clinical research and explore my interests.”
• “I am so very grateful to have taken part in the INSIGHT Program. I cannot stress enough how beneficial and path-opening this program was for me. One of the strengths of the entire thing is the amount of different areas that we all were so well exposed to, and I am sure that this will only continue stronger and stronger going forward. Thank you all so much again, and I am very much looking forward to continuing work with my research mentor and applying to be an alumni mentor for next year’s cohort. This experience was so amazing for me, thank you all very much.”

“I just want to thank you all for all the work that you’ve done. I think when I knew that the program was going to keep going. I was very worried about how this was going to work because I got into this program because I wanted to do all the shadowing with the doctors with the team and everything. And with everything being online, I was just like how am I going to have the motivation, how am I going to have those connections. And I think you did a great job. I loved all the seminars, I learned so much. And I can’t imagine how much work you had to coordinate. I’m so grateful that you were able to do that for us.”

“This whole experience has been so rewarding. Even talking to my mentor a few times, a week and working with my partner, I’ve learned so much from both of them as well as the rest of the cohort. It’s been really helpful to learn about science and understand that it’s a team process.

I just want to say thank you so much for this opportunity again. I think I had a really singular view coming into this experience about what research is like working in a lab. When I came in here, pretty much like multiple times a week, “Oh research can be this.” Just being able to talk to other doctors and researchers. It’s been absolutely amazing, especially during these unprecedented times.”

“I also want to say thank you. And I think this program has really pushed me to like to pursue research more in my career, which is really exciting.”

“I would like to thank everyone. Because coming into this program, I did not really know what to expect. I can just imagine how hard everyone must have worked through the pandemic to do this program this way. I’m thankful for this opportunity because I feel like in my field moving forward, I can expect on what to do.”

Please share your recent academic or professional accomplishments with us! We feature alumni news in the alumni newsletter.

Undergraduate Alumni are encouraged to join the HIPRC INSIGHT Alumni Facebook group as well. For access contact, insightalumni@gmail.com. 

Currently enrolled students, working on injury and violence prevention research, are invited to join the HIPRC Student Interest Group for mentorship, research support and presentation opportunities throughout the year.

Prior participation in INSIGHT is not required – this program is open to students currently enrolled at any college or university.