The summer internship program at the Harvard Laboratory of Developmental Studies began this Monday.
Lots of labs take interns. In fact, if you seem motivated, smart and competent, I suspect pretty much any lab would take you on as a volunteer for the summer. What makes the LDS internship program different is that it’s an actual program.
The labs (primarily the Snedeker Lab and the Carey Lab — Spelke Lab does not participate directly, though there is so much sharing between the three labs they often do so indirectly) take about a dozen undergraduates each summer. Each participant is assigned to a specific research project run by a specific graduate student. The projects are chosen such that there is a good chance they will be completed successfully before the internship program ends, making sure the interns have something to talk about at future job or school interviews. The faculty advisers are very concerned that the interns don’t just do busy work but actually learn something, so interns participate in a weekly reading group as well as a weekly lab meeting.
In addition, there are activities such as the twice-monthly barbecue (organized this year, in part, by yours truly). Oh, and many of the summer students get financial support, which is a definite plus.
Anyway, it appears to be a good program. This is my first summer participating (my intern will be studying pronoun use), so we’ll see how it goes.
