The CVRC Undergraduate Student Summer Fellowship training program targets undergraduate junior or senior level college students with the goal to perform cardiovascular research. Cutting-edge therapies require modern technology as well as dedicated and innovative researchers. Sponsored by the UW-Madison Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC), the program requires mentors to be CVRC members who are experts in a cardiovascular field and have a demonstrated interest in mentoring successful scientists.
Collaboratively, we will provide a 10-week training experience for undergraduate trainees in laboratories that address diseases including:
- cardiac arrhythmia
- heart failure
- myocardial regeneration
- peripheral vascular disease
- valvular disease
On the last day of the training period, we will celebrate trainees’ completion of the program with a “mini symposium.” All student trainees, their sponsors, and the graduate students and/or postdocs who mentored student trainees will gather to recognize trainees’ achievement through their presentations.
Key program information
- Application deadline: March 15, 2025
- Program dates: June 4, 2025 – August 6, 2025
Support and benefits
- $6,000 stipend
(Stipends will be disbursed in accordance with UW-Madison payment guidelines and will be included in year-end reporting documentation.)
- 10 week research experience
- There will be funds to participate in the American Heart Association conference taking place in Chicago in the summer. Travel to be coordinated through the CVRC
Strongly encouraged to apply
- Individuals with disabilities. Accommodations are available. For more information please visit the McBurney Disability Resource Center website.
- Individuals from low-income backgrounds OR who are the first in their family to attend college.
- Students who attend small institutions without broad research facilities are strongly encouraged to apply.
Eligibility Requirements
- To be eligible for this program, an undergraduate student must be classified at the junior or senior academic status at the time of award activation, or may complete the fellowship immediately following graduation.
- Student must have been enrolled full-time in the previous Spring semester and/or a recent graduate of an undergraduate degree program at a four-year college or university.
- At the time of application, student must be a United States citizen, or a foreign national holding a student, exchange or permanent resident visa, including an F-1, H1, H1B, J1, PR, TC or TN visa.
Application Requirements
- Resume
- Letter of Recommendation – if you have prior research experience, it will be helpful to have a letter from your research mentor
- College transcript; unofficial transcripts are acceptable
- Four short personal essays (3900 character maximum per essay)
- Future goals and career plans: Describe how your participation in a summer research program at UW-Madison will contribute to your future goals and career plans.
- Research area(s): Which area(s) of research are of interest to you and why? Include your reasons for applying to the UW-Madison summer program; you may include specific UW-Madison faculty members, programs, facilities or resources.
- Research experience: Although previous research experience is not required to be considered for participation in our summer program, please describe any past research experience. This may include research as part of a course if you do not have other research experiences.
- How have your background and life experiences, including cultural, geographical, financial, educational, or other opportunities or challenges motivated your decision to pursue a research opportunity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?
APPLICATION LINK IS CLOSED
Contact us
For more information email: CVRC Summer Program
Leadership team
- Dr. Hector Valdivia, MD, PhD, Program Director
- Eric Schafer, BA, Administrator
- Katie Randall, BS, Administrative Specialist
SUMMER 2024 COHORT
Greta Boehm
Greta is a current junior at UW-Milwaukee expected to graduate in May 2025 with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. She grew up in the Madison area and graduated from Verona Area High School in 2021. Greta is involved in the Society of Women Engineers and Biomedical Engineering Society and helps out the UWM College of Engineering and Applied Science as a tutor and student ambassador. She’ll be wrapping up her first research and development internship experience at A.O. Smith this spring and is thrilled for the opportunity to expand her skill set by participating in the CVRC research fellowship.
Arun Hajra
Arun is a junior majoring in microbiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research focuses on how the gut microbiome affects cardiovascular health. Specifically, how bacterial metabolites from bile acids may influence the development of atherosclerosis.
Pavan Yilayavilli
Pavan Yilayavilli is an incoming sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison working towards a B.S. in both Neurobiology and Economics with a sub-concentration in Mathematics. He joined the Glukhov Lab as an undergraduate researcher in January of 2024. Pavan is interested in exploring the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for stress-induced cardiac remodeling and arrhythmogenesis.
Daniel Zhu
Daniel is a junior at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. He is interested primarily in imaging techniques used in electrophysiology research. Most of his past research has focused on data processing and correction, and he intends to keep working in this direction. One technique he was exposed in Dr. Hector Valdivia’s lab was single channel recordings. He worked last summer with Lily Xiao on a program that could correct for noise present in these recordings. He plans to continue his work on this program and make improvements.