Project: Work with Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue on this applied research program with youth in Cameroon. The project investigates the factors that help at-risk youth make a healthy transition from high school to college or work.

The project has two main arms. The first is a longitudinal study of 5,000 youth that began three years ago during the students’ high school senior year and tracks them through the next few years. The intern will help analyze the data already collected and conduct focus groups to understand the main factors driving successful outcomes.

The second arm is an experimental design to enroll selected students into an intense summer enrichment program in order to assess the possible impacts of various programmatic interventions. The intern will conduct and analyze focus group discussions and will also lead some of the summer camp training—for instance in computer literacy, English language, or resume building.

Student Responsibilities: Analyze statistical data from surveys, analyze qualitative data from focus group discussions, teach in a summer camp context, and organize and analyze the results from student evaluations.

Student Requirements: Familiarity with data analysis and qualitative data review, good communication skills, and strong interpersonal skills. Basic understanding of French is a plus, but not required.

Project: Assist Rachel Bezner Kerr in different tasks related to international research, including the International Panel on Climate Change. The intern will have an opportunity to learn about international climate change research and participatory research in international development, strengthen literature search skills, and develop writing and podcast skills.

Student Responsibilities: Conduct literature search, help with website updates for research projects carried out with an organization in Malawi, and possibly develop a podcast.

Student Requirements: Interest in ecological agriculture or agroecology, participatory research, social justice, and international development. Good writing skills and comfortable working in cross-cultural context with people of diverse backgrounds. Preferred knowledge of Microsoft Excel, some statistical background and software ability (e.g., SPSS, R), and experience in literature search.

Project: Work with Rebecca Nelson on estimating the potential for ecological sanitation (ecosan)—resource recovery from sanitation to agriculture—to improve food security via improved gut health and food production/diversification.

The project relates to territorial industrial symbiosis—the idea that various waste streams in a locality or region can be combined to provide resources for one or more productive uses. Possible uses of waste streams include production of biochar and fertilizer and production of insect-based animal feed.

Student Responsibilities: Contribute to the assessment of local and global opportunities for circular economy of organic resources. The work will involve inventories of organic resources in and around Ithaca and other locations, combined with estimation of the value that could be produced through recycling the materials through the production of fertilizer, fuel, and food.

Estimate the extent to which food security could be served through the production of soil, food, fuel, and income through circular economy in peri-urban, low-resource areas where sanitation and food security are inadequate. Tap into publicly available data and conduct literature review and interviews with our contacts and others in India, Kenya, Uganda, and elsewhere.

Student Requirements: Knowledge of the English language. Expertise in soil/crop sciences and/or engineering preferred. Design and modeling skills would be highly valued.

Project: Work with Shorna Allred to study the linkages between community-based agroforestry and community health, as well as the adoption potential of community-based agroforestry in Haiti. This is a mixed-methods study (qualitative and quantitative). GIS will be used to create vulnerability indexes and map figures based on secondary data. Qualitative data will be used to better understand the perspectives of agroforestry program practitioners and beneficiaries.

Student Responsibilities: Use a series of secondary data sets on variables—such as slope, elevation, distance to nearest city, distance to main road, population density, land use–land cover, malnutrition rates, income level data, distance to nearest health facility, erosion data, and others—to develop an index (e.g., rating of 1-5) of community vulnerability to land degradation (soil erosion, extreme weather events, drought, resource depletion). Use GIS to create map figures for the final write-up and analysis.

Student Requirements: Interest in the research subject matter. Must have taken a GIS course and be able to use the software with limited guidance once given instructions. Preference given to those who have taken the Applied Remote Sensing and GIS for Environmental Resource Inventory and Analysis course offered at Cornell or an equivalent course elsewhere. QGIS skills are a plus, but not required; must be proficient enough to do the required spatial data tasks in either QGIS or GIS ArcMap. Interest in the research subject matter. Preference given to those who will not be taking intensive summer classes or working full-time elsewhere.

Project: Work with Kristin Roebuck on historical research related to indentured labor. Indenture is a centuries-old practice of contractual labor that experienced explosive growth in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, during and after the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. Indentures bound someone to labor for a period of years, often in a foreign land, and promoted large-scale migration of impoverished people throughout the Asia-Pacific region and into Africa and the West. This project involves surveying the paradoxical “abolition” yet persistence of indenture.

Student Responsibilities: Locate and study relevant, digitally accessible sources from UN and other global archives, as well as extant scholarship on the topic.

Student Requirements: Skill and experience in historical or legal research. Research can be conducted entirely in English or, if the intern has relevant foreign language expertise, in Chinese, Portuguese, French, etc. Please detail any relevant language abilities in your application.

Project: In 2017, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology launched the Coastal Solutions Fellows (CSF) program to improve the protection and resiliency of coastal habitats along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Chile.

Shorebird populations have been declining over the last 50 years at a continental scale. One of the key issues is the loss and degradation of intertidal coastal wetlands along the Pacific Flyway, which are critical stopover and wintering habitat for these birds.

Student Responsibilities: Collaborate directly with a senior Coastal Solutions Fellow, providing support to a diversity of fellow projects in Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia. Conduct a remote-sensing analysis to map and assess the spatial and temporal availability of intertidal shorebird habitat in priority sites along the Pacific Flyway of Latin America. Collect and analyze satellite images of five priority sites of the Pacific Flyway of Latin America to generate maps and information on the available intertidal habitats for shorebirds throughout the year, as well as changes during the past 10 years.

Student Requirements: Major in natural resources, geography, planning, or related majors. Expertise in remote-sensing applications and GIS tools and a general understanding of coastal ecology. Interest in Latin America and coastal conservation, as well as in spatial analysis and landscape ecology, and capacity to collect and analyze data and generate a technical report. Proficiency in Spanish is a plus, but not required.

Project: In 2017, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology launched the Coastal Solutions Fellows (CSF) program to improve the protection and resiliency of coastal habitats along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Chile.  

Shorebird populations have been declining over the last 50 years at a continental scale. The fellows are working with shrimp farmers to help them identify best management practices to protect and enhance habitat for shorebirds, while reducing the ecological footprint of their operations and exploring markets that value social and environmental commitments.

This is an exciting opportunity for a student to partner with emerging leaders in Latin America to improve coastal resiliency along the Pacific Coast, working with a diversity of collaborators and sectors.

Student Responsibilities: Collaborate with Coastal Solutions Fellows in Mexico and Guatemala to develop marketing and communication strategies supporting improvement of sustainability practices at shrimp farms. Lead the integration of marketing and communication strategy in collaboration with the Coastal Solutions Fellows, as well as developing communications tools for the engagement campaigns with shrimp farmers, decision makers, and other stakeholders.

Student Requirements: Major in communications or marketing-related majors, with a general understanding of sustainability and environmental issues. Interest in Latin America and coastal conservation, as well as in strategic planning and stakeholder engagement. Excellent written and oral communication skills, with preference for experience generating communication products and content (blogs, websites, science communication stories, videos, etc.). Proficiency in Spanish is a plus, but not required.

Project:  Oxfam India is currently initiating a program to address the rights, entitlements, and dignity of informal sector workers in India. The program delves into the concerns of commodity supply chain workers engaged in tea and sugar production in the Indian state of Assam, with a focus on labor rights and gender concerns of migrant laborers and small holder farmers.

Student Responsibilities: Engage with Oxfam India’s private sector engagement, working with the program and advocacy team. Conduct research about the tea sector and sugar sector, entailing virtual interactions with stakeholders and presentation of learnings and assignments.

Student Requirements: Basic understanding of economics, agrobusiness, global value chains, labor issues, and gender issues.

Project: This project with the Inya Institute will undertake a mapping of U.S.-based migrant communities of Myanmar. Outside Myanmar, the U.S. has one of Myanmar’s largest migrant populations. Groups within this population represent the wide spectrum of the country’s ethnic, religious, linguistic, and cultural diversity.

The mapping will offer a preliminary data set covering the location, extent, and profiles of migrant communities across the U.S. The intern will gain knowledge of migration patterns underpinning the formation of migrant communities at specific U.S. locations and socioeconomic patterns that shape the resilience of these communities in their host country.

This internship will require extensive use of two main research methods: desk review and key interviews by telephone.

Student Responsibilities: Conduct desk review of federal government census data, research reports, media coverage of events associated with migrant communities, and other possible sources of information (to be identified by the intern) to determine the location and population of migrant groups. Identify community-based organizations across the U.S. that are associated with these migrant communities and the community colleges that receive students from these migrant groups. Conduct phone interviews with a number of community leaders to gain a preliminary view of the socioeconomic profile of migrant communities and the level of education attainment within these groups.

Produce findings that systematically draw upon a wide range of sources of information and data (both qualitative and quantitative) and are consistent with one another. Identify further lines of inquiry that may invite comparative examination of issues spanning migrant communities.

Student Requirements: Interest in the research subject matter. No language proficiency or skills requirements.

Project: This project with the Center for Khmer Studies is titled “Urban Development and Socioeconomic Transformation of Sihanoukville in the Time of COVID-19.” Given the complex system of investment practices, ethnic relations, rapid demographic changes, and unintended impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines the patterns underlying the current transformation of Sihanoukville, how they affect social and economic structures, and how the changes influence the positive development of local communities. The research intends to understand the depth and speed of growth, the transformative dynamics that are influencing the city’s urbanization, and intended and unintended impacts on the quality of life of different social groups within the local population, including marginalized populations, as well as current human capital development.

Student Responsibilities: Support editing the research report. Assist the CKS library research team in conducting an online survey, data analysis, and report writing. Work with the team to improve CKS’s outreach to universities in the U.S.

Student Requirements: Native English speaker; ability to speak other languages (French and Khmer) desirable, but not required. Good communication skills. Knowledge and/or experience in editing research and program reports and producing communication materials, such as social media posts, short articles, and newsletters. Ability to develop an online research questionnaire. Ability to conduct data analysis using Excel and produce survey report.

Project: At the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), Cornell and Brazil-based researchers are articulating traditional agroecological practices of the São Francisco Valley Region (SFVR) Terroir as a potential strategy against regional desertification. In rural northeastern Brazil, an ancient shrubland forest of the Caatinga biome exhibits over 9,000 years of climate adaptation—long periods of drought followed by intense rainfall. Like its forests, its indigenous communities practice resiliency through climate adapted farming practices. However, water-intensive agriculture is threatening regional desertification.

Student Responsibilities: Apply a set of interdisciplinary research methods to assess, analyze, and develop the conceptual framework. Contribute to the production of a simultaneously virtual and physical exhibition that articulates ancient knowledge of the Caatinga, both biome and social construct. Conduct extensive review of existing literature and multimedia immersion into the local context. The final deliverable must be produced in both English and Portuguese languages.

Student Requirements: Intermediate Portuguese (PORT 2010/2020) or higher, or heritage speaker of Portuguese.

Project: This research internship with the CoCitizens Lab seeks to participate in an existing conversation on alternative models for urbanism that includes tactical, grassroots, and participatory urbanism. It seeks to bring light to the mosaic of grassroots initiatives that have sprouted organically as a protest to the status quo of public urban policies and practices carried out in the capital city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Student Responsibilities: Map the fragmented landscape of grassroots urbanism practices in the Metropolitan area of Sao Paulo. Extensive review of existing literature and multimedia immersion into the local area of study. Participate in meetings and workshops with local partners. Process/synthesize data to produce compelling copy and graphic content for the interactive and participatory mapping platform.

Student Requirements: Intermediate Portuguese (PORT 2010/2020) or Spanish (SPAN 2095) language proficiency, or heritage speaker.

Project: Yakum has an agroforestry program with Amazonian indigenous communities of Kichwa, Shuar, Cofan, and Siekopai. This research will provide information that will help Yakum better select crops that can be grown in nurseries and then transplanted into the chakra cultivation spaces (a space where women exclusively care for the crops) within these communities . The hope is to reintroduce food and medicinal plant species that are very useful for the communities but have been disappearing due to the forces of the market economy on the agroforestry farming system.

Student Responsibilities: Investigate the changes in the gender roles within chakras: the relationship between gender and the management of the various species of plants, migration of young people to urban areas, market economy effects on production systems, and culture from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Produce findings that systematically draw upon a wide range of sources of information and data (both qualitative and quantitative). Implement social media promotions about the research.

Student Requirements: Spanish language proficiency at an intermediate/high level, or native or heritage speaker. Knowledge of Kichwa or Quechua is a plus, but not required or preferred.

Project: Help with two concomitant research and publication projects at the intersection of art history, literature, and political theory. Depending on the intern's linguistic abilities and interests, this may involve transcription (and possibly help with translation) of interviews and academic talks, preparation of texts for publication, and online archival research.

Student Responsibilities: Conduct research on a wide range of topics in the humanities in a transnational academic environment between Waseda University in Tokyo and Cornell's East Asia Program. Learn about academic publishing through the journal ARTMargins. Research materials and content will vary according to the intern's linguistic skills in Japanese and specific interests.

Student Requirements: Knowledge of Japanese would be very helpful, but is not required.

Project: Participate in Center for Democracy and Development policy research initiatives. Delve into the basics of policy research and advocacy. Become familiar with the most pressing contemporary issues that confront policymakers, democracy promoters, and development practitioners in West Africa.

Student Responsibilities: Draft briefs, attend virtual events, and scan relevant news services to track trends pertaining to democratization and development in West Africa.

Student Requirements: English language fluency is required, and French language proficiency is preferred. The intern will also be required to possess excellent analytical writing skills and a background interest in Political Science, International Development, African Studies, or a related field.