Summer Field Research Internship

Position Overview

RESPIRAR is recruiting for paid summer research internships to support our outreach team in conducting fieldwork throughout Maryland’s Eastern Shore this upcoming harvest season. The intern's primary responsibilities include recruiting farmworker participants, administering questionnaires, and collecting environmental and human biosamples.  

This position reports to the Project Coordinator and works within the Payne-Sturges Environmental Health Systems and Policy Lab. This position is open to current undergraduate and graduate students.

Position duration:

Eight weeks during the summer (May-August). The intern is expected to work 30-40 hours per week, including evenings and occasional weekends.

Responsibilities:

  • Help recruit more farmworkers to participate in the RESPIRAR research study

  • Administer questionnaires with farmworkers

  • Collect environmental and biosamples for processing

  • Learn and help implement system science methodologies

  • Use and administer sensors to measure and monitor indoor air quality  

  • Participate in meetings located at various community-based sites

  • Education: public health, environmental health sciences, health policy and management, global health, or another related field

  • Excellent organizational and communication skills (oral and written)

  • Comfortable working independently

Minimum Qualifications:

  • Incumbent is an undergraduate or graduate student

  • Education: public health, environmental health sciences, health policy and management, global health, or another related field

  • Excellent organizational and communication skills (oral and written)

  • Comfortable working independently

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Prior experience working in field and laboratory studies, ideally focused on environmental health

  • Knowledge of exposure assessment and survey research

  • Experience using REDcap

  • Proficiency in Spanish and/or Haitian Creole languages (this is highly valued)

Special Conditions Required:

  • Ability to independently travel throughout Maryland’s Eastern Shore  

  • Access to a vehicle

  • Must obtain and maintain current CITI training and certification in Biomedical Research

  • Must attend a week-long orientation training that will be conducted in Salisbury, MD in May (dates TBD)

Compensation:

A $6,000 stipend will be provided.  

To Apply:

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Please send all materials to Stephanie Hernandez at respirarproject@umd.edu with Summer Internship in the subject line:

  1. Resume/CV

  2. Cover letter describing:  

    • Your motivation for applying

    • Relevant skills and experiences

    • How you see this internship aligns with your future career goals

  3. Contact information for three references

About RESPIRAR

The RESPIRAR project aims to uncover insights to help inform policies and best practices protecting the health of vulnerable and essential farmworkers. We are unpacking how institutional policies, regulatory responses, and practices, historic and contemporary, shape respiratory health trends among migrant seasonal farmworkers.

Our research is comprised of three primary aims: 1) monitoring the living conditions and respiratory health of farmworkers; 2) evaluating farmworker protection laws and policies through a legal analysis; and 3) examining how policies and practices are affecting farmworkers through a community-based system dynamics approach.  

We hope our findings will inform the design of policies and best practices to improve the livelihood of essential farmworkers.  

RESPIRAR is made possible through a partnership with the National Institute of Health.