Summer Enrichment Experiences

This past summer, I had the invaluable opportunity to intern for 10 weeks at Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division within their Healthcare Group. Going into the internship, I was both excited and nervous, uncertain about what to expect. Looking back, the experience exceeded my greatest expectations.During the internship, I worked directly with major healthcare companies, which were valued in the multi-million to billion-dollar range. I took on various responsibilities, including conducting detailed financial… read more about Victoria Quimper '26 - Investment Banking Internship in NYC »

This past summer, I conducted research as an intern for the Duke University Superfund Research Center (DUSRC). The DUSRC is supported by a federal grant and focuses on environmental contaminants and their developmental impacts. I worked in the Analytical Chemistry Core in Dr. Lee Ferguson’s lab and Dr. Abigail Joyce’s mentorship. My project was divided into two parts.The first part was method development for detecting unknown per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in river samples. PFAS compounds that are often labeled… read more about Yumi Mizobuchi '27 - Duke University Superfund Research Center Internship »

This summer, I participated in the Duke in Alicante study abroad program, and had the unique opportunity of complete immersion in Spanish language and Culture. For 6 weeks, I lived with an incredible host family from Alicante, and attended intensive Spanish classes at the University of Alicante in the heart of the city.As a part of our program, we took several weekend trips and visited 6 major Spanish cities and towns, including Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Valencia, Guadalest, and Altea. During these trips, we bonded through… read more about Erika Rispoli '26 - Duke in Alicante Study Abroad »

This summer, I interned as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York City. More specifically, I worked their Financial Institutions Group, covering FinTech, insurance, asset management, etc. I worked on multiple live deals as well as client service projects, diving deep into different business models. It was an incredible experience, full of challenges, successes, and a lot of learning. Of the nine-week internship, we had one week of training and eight weeks of work on the desk. The first week,… read more about Sophia Liu '26 - Banking Analyst Internship at Goldman Sachs »

This summer I worked in San Jose, California as a Construction Management Intern with Gilbane Building Company, a leading general contractor across the globe. Gilbane works to collaborate with their clients at they highest level to produce quality projects that directly impact both their communities and society worldwide.My assigned project was in Santa Clara, CA, the heart of the semiconductor manufacturing industry, where Gilbane had partnered with Intel Inc. to expand and streamline the design of their photomasks. These… read more about Kennedy Robinson '25 - Construction Management Internship at Gilbane »

I had an incredible opportunity to work at the UTHealth Houston McGovern Medical School this past summer. I participated in the Microbiology Summer Undergraduate Research Program (MicroSURP), a ten-week program for students interested in pursuing a PhD in microbiology or related biomedical sciences. I worked alongside Dr. Anna Konovalova, whose research focuses on how Gram-negative bacteria build and maintain the integrity of their cell envelope. My project involved studying an envelope stress response known as the… read more about Arielle Kim '26 - Microbiology Summer Undergraduate Research Program »

This summer, I researched colorectal cancer at Duke in Dr. Christine E. Eyler’s lab as a Dean’s Summer Research Fellow. My project involved two parts- the first involved creating isogenic cell lines with clinically relevant colorectal cancer mutations. We then irradiated these at varying doses, hoping to assess whether there is genotype-specific epigenetic re-organization. I was able to utilize CRISPR-Cas9 and electroporation techniques to do gene editing. Long term, we’re planning to do drug screens post-radiation… read more about Megan Tandar '27 - Dean’s Summer Research Fellow »

This summer, I worked as an IT Business Analyst Intern at Elevance Health in Norfolk, VA. Elevance Health is a major American health insurer that strives to improve the health of humanity on a holistic level. Some key themes from my summer of personal and professional growth include embracing change, thinking critically, and staying curious, where I have been challenged to view shifts in direction as opportunities for momentum, explore different angles with creativity, and dive into new topics.I worked predominantly with… read more about Jennifer Lee ‘26 - Business Analytics & Product Management Internship at Elevance Health »

This summer, I continued my research with Dr. Kate Scholberg in the Duke Neutrino Group on modeling neutrino emissions from a special, new type of Supernova, called a PDE, or Phase Driven Explosion. A PDE differs from the two known mechanisms that act as a catalyst for a Supernova Event, Neutrino Driven Explosions (NDEs) and Magnetorotational Explosions (MREs) in that its collapse occurs in two segments. When a massive star hits a critical energy density at the end of its lifetime, the matter at its core begins to… read more about Madeleine Roberts ‘25 - Research with Duke Neutrino Group »

This summer I had the opportunity to participate in the Bonaventura Summer Research Fellows Program at Duke’s Marine Lab. The Bonaventura Program is a 10-week paid intensive summer research initiative for undergraduate students. Fellows work alongside a member of the DUML faculty to formulate, conduct, and present their research. I worked in Dr. Dana Hunt’s lab which focuses on studying bacterial interactions with the environment. During the program, my goal was to isolate approximately 200 strains of bacteria to… read more about Akshaya Mohan '27 - Bonaventura Summer Research Fellows Program »

This summer I participated in the Duke in Australia Program, a monthlong immersion up and down eastern Australia that consists of one all-encompassing course called Biogeography in an Australian context. After meeting up with my peers in Los Angeles at the airport, we flew together to Sydney where we met our professor, Dr. Alex Glass, and Teaching Assistant, Jen Glass. After acclimating to the new time zone and unfamiliar location of a new continent, we explored Sydney for a little over a week, journeying through botanical… read more about Alexandra Schaffer ’27 - Duke in Australia »

I spent this summer working at First Eagle Investment Management in New York City as a Business Optimization intern. In this position, I researched how Generative Artificial Intelligence will affect business processes. I had to constantly present new operational plans based on integrating this new technology to executive-level management. I sharpened my public speaking, PowerPoint, and analysis skills. I was able to not only learn how an efficient investment firm is built and run but also learn how these new technologies… read more about Carlos Penzini '26 - Investment Management Internship in NYC »

This summer I was a part of the University of Southern California Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (USC SURE) program which brings in a cohort of students to conduct research at multiple USC laboratories. I was fortunate to work in the Khan Lab under the mentorship of Yasser Khan, Ph.D. and Mohammad Shafiqul Islam. I developed a Spiking Neural Network to detect whether someone is dehydrating during physical activity based on the sodium concentration in their sweat. The previous method requires the sodium… read more about Jaden Coward '26 - Summer Undergraduate Research Experience at USC »

This summer I participated in the Pratt Research Fellows program under Dr. Timothy Dunn and PhD student Kyungdo Kim. My project explored the application of an autoregressive hidden Markov model on behavioral data from Parkinson’s patients. These patients go through various behavioral tests such as walking or finger-tapping since the disease partially manifests as motor disorders, and I would analyze this data to identify clinically meaningful behavioral markers that can classify healthy and unhealthy subjects. This work is… read more about Juliet Jiang '25 - Pratt Research Fellowship »

This summer, I participated in a short-term HIV/AIDS Outreach Virtual Project in partnership with Global Health Uganda (GHU). This project aimed to facilitate the exchange of information, education, and communication about the management of HIV/AIDS for prison inmates in Uganda. This project required doing background research and developing infographics to be translated and distributed to individuals in prisons. More specifically, my research was in regard to how HIV/AIDs is managed by prisoners and sex workers in LICs. Our… read more about Lexie Brzoska '25 - Project with Global Health Uganda »

Over this past summer I got the privilege to travel to Switzerland for Summer Session II as a part of the Duke in Geneva summer program. I was able to take classes in international business and the political philosophy of globalization. Two subjects I had no prior knowledge in WHATSOEVER. A particularly eye opening part of this experience for me was being able to read books in our curriculum about how economies arise and persist, but also seeing how these factors manifest in day to day life in a foreign country.Not only did… read more about Genevieve Jean-Pierre '25 - Duke in Geneva »

I spent my summer of 2022 at Fidelity Investments’ Raleigh-Durham office, working as a full-stack software engineer. It was an invaluable opportunity that allowed me to gain practical industry experience and insights into the constantly evolving world of software development. I enjoyed my experience so much that I decided to return there for my summer 2023 internship, and although I was once again a full-stack developer, my experience could not have been more different! Having two varied experiences allowed me to broaden my… read more about Sharan Sokhi '24 - Software Engineer at Fidelity Investments »

This summer I had the amazing opportunity to participate in the Amgen Scholars Program at Columbia University in New York City. The Amgen Scholars Program is a fully funded research program that allows undergraduate students to conduct hands-on research in the lab alongside top faculty, participate in seminars and networking events, and take part in symposia with their peers and leading scientists. I worked in Dr. Christine Denny's lab, which focuses on studying the molecular mechanisms underlying learning… read more about Carmen Miller '25 - Amgen Scholars Program at Columbia University »

Over the summer, I conducted a 12-week research project with the Duke Cosmology Group. I specifically worked with Erik Peterson, a PhD candidate, and Dr. Dan Scolnic, to evaluate supernova 'siblings', which are supernovae within the same galaxy. A supernova is an extremely bright explosion which generally explodes the same way each time. We can use these bursts of light (which we deem 'standardizable candles') to measure distance and trace the expansion history of our universe. My project will be the first analysis of… read more about Arianna Dwomoh '24 - Research with Duke Cosmology Group »

This summer, I interned at SAS as a Technical Intern on the Cloud Engineering team. My team is primarily concerned with maintaining and improving the cloud-based services used to support and deploy the SAS Customer Intelligence software, though I was tasked with improving the development process for any new engineers on my team. Specifically, I was tasked with creating a brand new command line tool to streamline the development process so that new engineers could begin writing and deploying code for Cloud Engineering on… read more about Trevon Helm '24 - Technical Internship at SAS »

Over the summer, I had the incredible opportunity to work as a Post-Market Engineering Intern within the Supplier Engineering Team (specifically the Metals, Coatings, Facilities & OEM subgroup) at Cook Medical- a privately owned, global medical device company based in Bloomington Indiana. Cook Medical focuses on the design and manufacture of minimally invasive devices for various applications in healthcare. One common application includes the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). As part of the post-market… read more about Christian Pile '25 - Post-Market Engineering Internship at Cook Medical »

This summer I took part in Code Plus which was by Duke OIT. I worked in a team of five to develop a web app under the mentorship of Duke OIT professionals. We worked on essentially building a “data warehouse” for the institutional data at Duke like HR data, Student data and Card Swipe data. I learnt a lot during the program in regards to technical skills as well as how to work and collaborate in a team. I am a computer science major so I really enjoyed being immersed in the experience and having the freedom to build… read more about Hala Mohammed '26 - Code+ Program at Duke »

This summer I was granted the amazing opportunity to intern at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters. I interned under the company’s Digital Security and Resilience organization for 12 weeks as a Technical Program Manager intern. This was my first PM-related role so I learned a lot about the functions of strategizing, planning, and collaborating in order to apply new security controls to Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. My team specifically interacts with other teams such as the Data Intelligence team to gain insight on security… read more about Mitchelle Mojekwu ’24 - Technical Program Manager Internship at Microsoft »

This summer I worked at BlackRock as a summer analyst. I was in the technology arm of the firm as an intern on the Aladdin Client Services team. Aladdin is Blackrock’s end to end investment platform. The Aladdin Client Services team works with clients that include respected investment institutions to solve their problems and educate users to improve client experience and improve Aladdin.  During the course of my 10 week internship, I gained an in-depth understanding of Aladdin, various Aladdin clients, and the… read more about Alice Wu '23 - Summer Analyst Internship at BlackRock »

This summer, I did gravitational wave research at Caltech through the LIGO Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program. The LIGO collaboration is dedicated to detecting gravitational waves, which are ripples in spacetime that are caused by violent processes in the Universe. During the 10-week program, my research project focused on determining the feasibility of using matched filter searches for core-collapse supernovae. Gravitational waves have yet to be detected from core-collapse supernovae, so matched… read more about Pavani Jairam '23 - LIGO Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow at Caltech »

This summer I was pleased to work with Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy, the university’s leading research, education and engagement capabilities to inform policymaking and implementation for better health and health care. I worked at the Durham office for 10 weeks over the summer to research  and make a case for a  Medical Legal partnership at Academic Medical Centers, such as Duke Health. A Medical Legal Partnership (MLP) is an interdisciplinary collaboration between a medical entity such as a hospital… read more about Breanna Barrett '25 - internship at the Margolis Center for Health Policy »

This summer, I had the amazing opportunity to intern at Blur Product Development, a start-up in Cary, NC, that works on developing and manufacturing medical devices for clients. I worked in person as an R&D Engineering intern with a focus on electrical engineering. Throughout this summer, I had the chance to work on multiple projects, varying from those that were nearing the end of their development cycle and only had testing remaining, to those that were still having active research and iterative prototypes created.… read more about Riddhi Ranjithkumar '23 - R&D Engineering Internship at Blur Product Development »

This summer, I was able to work as a STEP Intern in the Google office in New York City. This was my second STEP internship with Google and my first in-person internship with the company, and I chose to return after interning virtually last summer to get a stronger feel for the company culture that I couldn’t really get through a computer screen. I soon found that culture to be particularly informal and encouraged creativity as well as a willingness to seek help, both of which helped make my internship a positive experience… read more about Jamael Smith '24 - STEP Internship at Google »

This summer, I had the pleasure of interning at Schneider Electric, a multinational company that works to power homes, buildings, data centers, etc., using sustainable energy technologies, automation, software, and services. I worked at the office in Morrisville, NC as a systems and testing engineer. This was my first internship, so it was my first experience applying what I have learned in my classes to industry and finding what aspects of electrical engineering I enjoy most. My main work this summer was focused on… read more about Jenna White '23 - Electrical Engineering Internship at Schneider Electric »

This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to intern at Truveta, a health-tech startup based in Seattle, WA. This was my second summer at Truveta, and I decided to come back because of how welcoming they were and the company culture, which focused a lot on growth and knowledge sharing. I was especially excited about this summer because I had the opportunity, unlike last summer, to intern in person. This was my first in-person internship since high school, so it was truly amazing and rewarding to get to experience living… read more about Arushi Bhatia '23 - Health-Tech Internship at Truveta »