The internship program is an 8-week immersive learning experience with the goal of allowing students to tackle global health design challenges in a real-world setting. Through the internship, students improve their understandings of the constraints under which healthcare is provided in resource-constrained settings and design innovative solutions.

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Program Details

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Traditionally, the internships have been held in a number of national and international locations. In the past, our students have worked with exchange students from Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), Rice University from United States of America (USA) and Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) from Tanzania under the collaboration with Rice 360 Institute for Global Health with funding from the Lemelson Foundation. The program kicked off in the summer of 2015 with an inaugural cohort, and now runs every summer. A cohort of at least 8 students is selected each summer and work with exchange students for 8 weeks. In 2020, virtual collaboration of participants was adopted due to Covid-19 circumstances that limited travel of exchange students. Starting from 2020, Teaching Assistants and Mentors were introduced to support the students work.

 

The program helps students develop skills like:

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• Identifying the need for a new product or service

• Brainstorming a new idea for a product or service

• Designing a product or service that will satisfy user needs

• Communicating a plan and vision for a new product or service

• Networking

• Communicating impact of the new idea in everyday terms