Department of Pediatrics Summer Internship

This internship offers a unique opportunity for undergraduate students passionate about child health advocacy and health policy. Interns will gain hands-on experience in advancing initiatives that impact children’s health through education, advocacy, and policy development related to Medicaid and children’s access to quality, affordable care.

Under the guidance of experienced pediatric department faculty and advocates, interns will:

• Collaborate on projects focused on child health advocacy and Medicaid policy
• Research Medicaid policy to develop resources to educate healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public
• Help support advocacy campaigns aimed at improving child health outcomes and equity

This internship is ideal for undergraduate students considering careers in medicine, public health, health policy, or healthcare advocacy, offering valuable experience in research, policy writing, communications, and driving meaningful change for children’s health and wellbeing.

Project Leader: Ilina Ewen 
Division: General Pediatrics
Duration: 6 weeks
Workplace: Fully remote

We are seeking dynamic and motivated interns to join our behavioral health team under the guidance of Dr. Corinne Catarozoli. Corinne Catarozoli, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in evidence-based interventions for children, adolescents, and young adults with anxiety and related conditions. Dr. Catarozoli specializes in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP) for anxiety disorders as well as pediatric psychology and the application of behavioral health interventions for children and adolescents coping with acute or chronic medical illness. She provides a variety of clinical services including diagnostic assessments, therapy, and consultation.

This internship provides a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in a clinical setting and contribute to the well-being of individuals facing behavioral health challenges. Responsibilities include participating in case management, shadowing under Dr. Catarozoli and the behavioral health team, and assisting with data entry for program evaluation and outcome measurement. As an intern, you'll benefit from regular supervision and training sessions with Dr. Catarozoli, gaining exposure to a diverse range of behavioral health issues and evidence-based interventions. Ideal candidates are enrolled in graduate programs in psychology, counseling, or related fields, possess strong interpersonal and communication skills, and are committed to upholding confidentiality and ethical standards. This is a unique opportunity for professional development, networking, and making a meaningful impact in the field of behavioral health.

Project Leader: Corinne Catarozoli, PhD
Division: General Pediatrics
Duration: 6 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

A major focus of the Travis Lab is how the early language environment of infants born preterm impacts neurodevelopment. There is strong evidence to suggest that maternal speech input in utero may be important for promoting healthy brain and language development in typically developing children. However, infants born preterm are often deprived of this normal auditory environment when cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In our lab, we are currently investigating in a randomized clinical trial whether a language intervention, which involves playing recordings of a mother’s voice to preterm infants, is an effective treatment for promoting healthy brain and language development in preterm babies. Related projects will also examine how parent involvment in NICU care practices also impact brain development and later outcomes in children born preterm. Involvement in these projects will provide experience with human subject research, medical chart review, and human MRI methods including diffusion and quantitative neuroimaging. Our lab community is engaging, supportive andproductive. Involvement in the proposed projects would provide excellent preparation for honors research in child development. We welcome undergraduate students, medical students and fellows to engage in these projects. 

Project Leader: Katherine Travis, PhD
Division: Child Neurology 
Duration: 10 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

The focus of our research is chronic kidney disease in children. Specifically, we are interested in understanding iron metabolism alterations in children with chronic kidney disease and developing strategies to utilize this knowledge therapeutically and ultimately to improve outcomes in children with kidney diseases. In our work we use animal models, cell culture models, patient samples and datasets, as well as conduct clinical studies, including clinical trials. We primarily welcome applicants who are interested in basic science nephrology research, although the opportunities for translational and clinical research also exist.

Project Leader: Oleh Akchurin, MD, PhD
Division: Nephrology
Duration: 10 weeks
Workplace: Fully On-Site 

This internship opportunity allows a college/graduate student to familiarize him/herself with the quadripartite mission: clinical, education, research, and mentoring in the academic health system with the day-to-day operations in one of the largest Departments in a top-ranked medical school. The intern will assist with a wide range of duties, including analyzing data, models preparing financial reports, data entry, and collaborating with the Chief Administrative Officer and other administrative staff on program development. In addition, there will be opportunities to shadow clinical operations, learn about access and practice efficiency. A background in finance, health administration, economics, or accounting is preferred. Proficiency in Microsoft Office is required.

Project Leader: Anita Mesi, MBA
Department: Pediatrics
Duration: 6 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

Health for Life is a family-centered lifestyle intervention program for children and adolescents with elevated BMIs. The multidisciplinary team works with patients and their caregivers to provide individualized nutrition and physical activity goals. We are seeking an intern to volunteer with our team this summer, with a focus on supporting the Fitness Specialist, Nutritionist, and Program Lead. Opportunities would include compiling physical fitness resources (both in-person and on-line) appropriate for our patient population, developing patient education materials around nutrition and exercise, and helping at community outreach events around NYC. Most of the intern’s time with Health for Life will be spent participating in the Family Activity Week, where we invite our families to join us for summer programming focused on movement and health.

There will also be opportunities to shadow physicians in our program, work on literature review projects related to childhood obesity, and participate/learn from ongoing research projects

Project Leader: Marianne Sharko, MD, MS
Division: General Pediatrics
Duration: 6 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

Work with the laboratory of neonatal immunity (PI: Permar) to assess immune responses against early life infections, such as HIV, cytomealovirus, rotavirus, and SARS-CoV-2, in both animal models and human cohort studies.  Candidate will learn how to perform measures of antibody and/or cellular immune responses and relate those responses to protection/susceptibility to infection and/or diagnostic outcomes.

Project Leader: Sallie Permar, MD, PhD
Division: Infectious Diseases
Duration: 10 weeks
Workplace: Fully On-Site 

This internship opportunity allows a college/graduate student to learn about Adverse Events (AE), preventable (safety Events) and non-preventable AE and methods to analyze safety events including retrospective views such as Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and a prospective view such as Learning from Excellence and Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA). The intern will have an opportunity to join an existing project which focuses on implementing intervention/s to improve patient safety.

Project Leader: S. Nena Osorio, MD
Division: General Pediatrics
Duration: 6 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

Dr. Grinspan’s lab conducts clinical research to improve care for children with epilepsy.  Projects may include studies in comparative effectiveness, surveillance and epidemiology, quality improvement, health services research, or population health. The lab also works closely with advocacy groups for rare diseases on projects related to clinical trial readiness, such as outcome measure development and selection, disease concept models, and pilot clinical trials. Dr. Grinspan works closely with students to design and execute projects aligned with their interests and passions.

Project Leader: Zachary Grinspan, MD, MS
Division: Neurology
Duration: 10 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

This internship offers an immersive experience into basic methodology used to improve Quality of Care provided to pediatric patients in both, inpatient and outpatient setting. Interns will have an opportunity to join an existing QI project, design intervention/s and test their intervention via 1-2 Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles.

Project Leader: S. Nena Osorio, MD
Division: General Pediatrics
Duration: 6 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

Work with a pediatric nephrologist in better understanding pubertal development, sexual maturation, and reproductive health in children/adolescents with chronic kidney disease. Puberty is already a stressful time in life! Explore how this period of life is different for those who carry the burden of chronic illness. Candidate will be asked to be involved in research on menarche and menstrual habits in females with chronic kidney disease by obtaining informed consent for research from participants, collecting clinical research data, and processing collected data. There is opportunity to continue to be involved after completion of the internship remotely as the project continues through data analysis phase (if desired).

Project Leader: Hannah Kim, MD
Division: Nephrology
Duration: 10 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

Dr. Liu is a biological engineer and biomedical researcher with an interest in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of heart muscle cell proliferation. We are seeking a summer student interested in cell culture and immunofluorescence microscopy imaging. The student will acquire skills in the primary culture of neonatal rat heart muscle cells and immunofluorescence microscopy techniques, including the use of Fiji/ImageJ software for image processing. Strong communication and interpersonal skills are essential for this role.

Project Leader: Honghai Liu, PhD
Division: Cardiology
Duration: 6 weeks
Workplace: Fully On-site

Dr. Lee is a health services researcher with an interest in improving the quality of hospital discharge for pediatric patients with medical complexity. We are seeking a summer student who can conduct a literature review and recruit parents of children with medical complexity to participate in a research study aimed at understanding their hospital discharge experiences. The student will also acquire knowledge in principles of study design and scientific writing. 

Strong communication and interpersonal skills are essential for this role. Proficiency in Spanish is an asset, as we aim to recruit a diverse patient population.

If interested, clinical shadowing experience in pediatric hospital medicine can be arranged in addition to the research component.

Project Leader: Jimin Lee, MD, MS
Division: General Pediatrics
Duration: 6 weeks or 10 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

The internship is a unique opportunity for undergraduate students interested in exploring the field of medical education. Interns in this program will gain hands-on experience in curriculum development, assessment, and educational research. Under the guidance of experienced medical educators in undergraduate and graduate medical education, interns will gain experience in the design of learning activities for students and residents, participate in educational research, and support various educational initiatives. The intern will also gain knowledge in medical education theory through assigned readings on medical education, participation in a medical education journal club and in meetings related to medical education administration, and a weekly debrief meeting with the Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Pediatrics. This internship is ideal for students considering careers in medicine, medical education, or healthcare administration, providing them with foundational skills and insights to advance their interests.

Project Leader: Jennifer DiPace, MD
Division: General Pediatrics
Duration: 6 weeks
Workplace: Hybrid

Crohn's disease is a chronic progressive inflammatory disease affecting the gastrointestinal tract for which there is no cure. Two hallmarks of Crohn's disease that correlate with disease complications leading to the need for intestinal resection surgery are 1) abnormal mesenteric adipose tissue wrapping around inflamed portions of the gut, and 2) circulating anti-microbial antibodies. We hypothesize that these hallmarks of unknown etiology are linked, and that the sustained microbial translocation to fat seen in Crohn's disease drives the activation of fat B cells in turn leading to their differentiation into microbiota-specific inflammatory antibody-secreting plasma cells. The student would learn from researchers in the lab to address this hypothesis using human samples, gnotobiotic models, in vitro, ELISA and flow cytometry assays.

Project Leader: Emilie Grasset, PhD
Division: Gastroenterology 
Duration: 10 weeks
Workplace: Fully On-Site