Join us on Monday December 8th at 4:00pm at Sonett Space Sciences for our next Astrobiology Ambassadors meeting as we partner with the Astrobio Journal Club to explore some of the most notable astrobiology science journalism articles from 2025.

This is a great opportunity for students from all majors to learn about current developments in astrobiology. Whether you’re new to astrobiology or already passionate about the science of life in the cosmos, you’ll leave with fresh insights and inspiration! Light refreshments will be provided!

As a high-level overview, the internship is geared towards undergraduate pre-med students who are interested in gaining lab-based/computational biomedical research skills under the mentorship of research faculty and their teams. Interns complete a guided research project throughout the summer and then present their findings to the college and our partners at the Flinn Foundation. Interns are also provided with weekly networking opportunities (other researchers, past interns, current medical students, college leadership, etc.). We also collaborate with our admissions teams for medical school prep crash courses and mock interviews. It's a great opportunity for students who want to explore the MD/PhD pathway, envision research as part of their professional career, or just want to gain more technical research skills. Our past interns have come from many academic backgrounds: everything from biology to biomedical engineering to studio art. As long as interns are passionate about biomedical research and translational science, they will succeed.  

The internship does take place on-campus in Phoenix, Monday-Friday, from early June - early August 2026. Since we do not have any dorms up here, interns are required to have housing in the Phoenix metro area. Interns are paid via stipend ($4000). The application will be open mid-December through mid-January. Students can fill out this form to be notified of when it opens (also included on the flyer). Application requirements are listed on the website. 

Dear Interested Participants,

My name is Megan Hokama, and I’m a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Arizona. This winter, Dr. Kat Cheng  and I are offering a free educational workshop, StatQuest—an introductory statistics and R-programming workshop with an educational game component. This workshop will be from December 15th to 17th from 10am to 12pm each day, online via Zoom.

Participation in the workshop is open to all students and is not part of a research study. However, we are also conducting a separate research study to help us evaluate whether learning experiences like StatQuest may enhance students' confidence and skills in research-related areas.

If you choose to participate in the research study, here's what that would involve:

• Completing short surveys about your experiences throughout the workshop ($20 e-gift card for your time).

Participation in the research is completely voluntary and your decision to take part (or not) will not affect your access to the StatQuest workshop.  Your responses will remain confidential, and the data collected will be used solely for research purposes. If you’d like to take part, please click the link below to access the survey and review the informed consent details:

👉 https://uarizona.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_25FhRK3lFq3HQX4

The research study [RA2] has been reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board [IRB #00006058] at the University of Arizona to ensure it meets ethical standards for research. For questions about your rights as a participant in this study, or to discuss other study-related concerns or complaints with someone who is not part of the research team, you may contact the Human Subjects Protection Program Director at 520-626-8630 or online at https://research.arizona.edu/compliance/human-subjects-protection-program.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to myself (meganhokama@arizona.edu) or Dr. Cheng (katcheng@arizona.edu)!

Best,
Megan Hokama
Ph.D. Candidate, Educational Psychology
University of Arizona

 [RA1]Please update the script to separate out the workshop from the research study so it’s clear to subjects what’s part of the research and what’s not.

Additionally, it should be clear that the research component is being done for research purposes.

 [RA2]I revised this for clarity as only the research study is approved by the UA IRB.

As the semester progresses, now is the perfect time to start thinking about internship opportunities for Spring 2026!

About Project FOCUS: Project FOCUS is an inclusive transition program for students aged 18–22 with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Our students take classes, work on campus, and engage socially with peer mentor interns like you.

Internship Details:

• Peer mentor interns earn 3 units per semester.

• Commitment: 9–10 hours per week (between 9:00 AM–4:00 PM, Monday–Friday).

• Availability: At least 12 hours per week to allow scheduling flexibility.

• Training: Initial training at the start of the semester, with ongoing training via D2L.

• No prerequisites required.

Next Steps: To get started, please complete this application: https://forms.gle/9wfujcNEYvRdFfEt7

Contact Sylvi Gonzalez with questions: sylvig@arizona.edu  

An internship with Project FOCUS is both fun and meaningful, here is a quick Peer Mentor recruitment video to show some enjoyable highlights!  https://youtu.be/URgZom9yQNI