Fellowships and internships can make a huge difference in a young scientist or engineer’s career. They provide experiences that can shed light on career options, provide opportunities to explore new areas of science, and build skills, to name just a few benefits.
Berkeley Lab has many such fellowships and internships as a part of its commitment to training the scientists and engineers of tomorrow. These programs are also an initial step in developing a diverse workforce at the Lab.
GEM fellows virtual site visit in August 2020
The National GEM Consortium (GEM), for example, is one of the many fellowship programs hosted by Workforce Development and Education. This prestigious fellowship provides an internship at one of the national laboratories or several Fortune 500 Companies for under-represented minority students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees. It includes amongst its alumni chief executives and senior leaders in industry, as well as half of the minority female deans of engineering and several male counterparts at U.S. universities. The office of the Deputy Lab Director for Research has been supporting three GEM fellows each year; read this story about this year’s GEM fellows.
The Berkeley Bridge Graduate Summer Fellowship (Bridge Fellowship), hosted by the Career Pathways Office, is a collaborative effort between the Lab, UC Berkeley’s Division of Equity and Inclusion, and the Office for Graduate Diversity.The Fellowship encourages top first-year UC Berkeley graduate students to take part in research at the Lab during the summer, providing them firsthand research experience and exposure to what working at a national laboratory is like.The program also creates additional opportunities for collaborations between Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley. Read a recent Elements story about this summer’s Bridge fellows.
Another example of an internship program to help train future scientists and engineers from under-represented communities is the internship program hosted by EESA for Cal State University East Bay (CSUEB), which engages master’s-level students from the nation’s fifth most diverse university. This year, three students are participating in year-long research projects with EESA scientists. As with the other internships and fellowships, these projects are being conducted through telework. Read an EESA story about the internship.
The Lab also supports students who are in earlier stages of their training, through undergraduate internships. Cal Energy Corps is a collaboration with UC Berkeley for talented undergraduates interested in climate and energy research. The Lab is supporting five students in this program this summer.
Outreach programs like the above are vital to training tomorrow’s scientists and engineers, as well as building and retaining a diverse workforce. Connect with the programs above for more information about opportunities to engage or keep a lookout for relevant posts in Elements.