Opportunities

Rural Significance

Significant and unique challenges of rural health.

Unique challenges to rural health include limited access to diagnostics and treatments, uneven understanding of underlying causes and outcomes, and a sense of isolation in the absence of connection to healthcare, education, and research resources.

Significant opportunity to recruit and retain those who identify with the state of Montana.

Our recent recruitment process, resulted in more than 175 applications, with those who identify with the state of Montana greatly over-represented.

Significant combination of strengths and resources.

We bring to the table, the first center in Montana to combine the basic and translational research strength of the only independent biomedical research institute in the state, with training opportunities and research resources of the only nonprofit medical school in the state, and the clinical strength of the largest comprehensive health provider system in central Montana. This combination enables new opportunities as we move forward in terms of: Faculty recruitment, building of research infrastructure in a rural medical setting, training for physician scientists, internship and educational opportunities for faculty and students in adjacent regions, and for Montanans to access resources often confined to distant medical center strongholds.

Employment

Summer Internships for
High School & College Students

McLaughlin Research Institute is committed to serving as an educational resource for students and teachers in Montana. Successful applicants will spend 8 weeks, from Monday, June 17, 2024 through Friday, August 9, 2024, in the laboratory of one of the Institute’s faculty or in the Animal Resource Center actively engaged in a current research project under the direction of the scientist, postdoctoral fellow, or research assistant.

In addition to providing hands-on experience in investigatory science, the students will observe and interact with other high school and college students in a laboratory-learning environment rather than a classroom. Journal clubs and seminars supplement the research experience. Each student will give a formal presentation at the end of the 8 weeks summarizing his/her project.

Requirements

Students who have completed their junior or senior year of high school, or freshman through senior year of college are eligible. Students should be on track for four years of math, biology, chemistry and/or physics.

Successful applicants to the program must agree to fully commit 8 weeks of their summer to the internship.

Applications will open December 1, 2023 and close March 11, 2024.

Application

Applications will open December 1, 2023 and close March 11, 2024. Decisions will be made by late March; each applicant will be contacted via email regarding their application status. Thank you for your interest in the summer internship program!

Internships begin Monday, June 17, 2024 and final presentations will be held Friday, August 9, 2024.

To apply, include a letter of application highlighting your interest in science, a resume, official transcripts, ACT or SAT scores (high school applicants only), and two letters of recommendation (in sealed envelopes signed across the flap), preferably from instructors in the science/math disciplines.
If emailing your application, recommendation letters should be sent from the recommender’s email address and written on the recommender’s institutional letterhead.

Address Applications To:
MRI Internship Program
1520 23rd Street South
Great Falls, MT 59405

Summer research internships for talented high school students have been available since 1954, when Great Falls High School student, Irving Weissman, worked in the lab of the Institute’s founder, Dr. Ernst Eichwald.  Dr. Weissman now chairs the Institute’s Scientific Advisory Committee and is Director of Stanford University’s Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Institute.

Our internship program is made possible by the generous support of Gene Thayer.

Program

Successful applicants will spend 8 weeks, from Monday, June 17, 2024 through Friday, August 9, 2024, in the laboratory of one of the Institute’s faculty or in the Animal Resource Center actively engaged in a current research project under the direction of the scientist, postdoctoral fellow, or research assistant.

This real-life experience participating in cutting edge research at a center with world-renowned scientists and ties to prestigious research universities. Many of our interns have gone on to successful careers in research or medicine.