Program Timeline

• Tuesday, January 21, 2025 – Faculty apprenticeship submission form opens.
• Friday, February 21, 2025 – Deadline for faculty to submit an apprenticeship description. Faculty participation in the SHARE summer program will be confirmed the following week.
• Early March 2025 – Apprenticeship descriptions will be posted on the SHARE Summer Apprenticeship website and applications open to students.
• Friday, March 28, 2025 – Deadline for students to apply for apprenticeships.
• Tuesday, April 1, 2025 – Applications will be shared with faculty mentors. Faculty review applications and begin interviewing select candidates (interviews are optional).
• Friday, April 11, 2025 – Faculty are asked to provide the OUR with a ranking of top applicants no later than this date. OUR will extend offers to student apprentices, including faculty mentors on the notifications.

Apprentices can begin project work once the spring semester has ended (no earlier than May 12, 2025) and the apprentice has completed all required employment paperwork. All apprenticeship activities must be completed prior to the start of the fall semester.

Faculty mentors will be asked to complete an online monthly checklist indicating which tasks the student apprentice has worked on during the previous month, and a student apprentice assessment form at the conclusion of the apprenticeship. Apprentices will complete reflections at the start of their apprenticeship, at the apprenticeship mid-point, and at the conclusion of the apprenticeship.

Overview of SHARE faculty mentor eligibility and conditions of participation:

• Faculty mentors must be full-time faculty in social science, humanities, or arts fields at any UConn campus.
• This is a virtual apprenticeship program. SHARE apprentices are not expected to engage in any in-person work; all project activities must be conducted remotely. Faculty must be available to virtually mentor the student apprentice over the summer and provide a substantive learning experience that allows students to develop foundational research, creative, and/or technical skills and gain a greater understanding of the research or creative process.
• This program is intended to foster new student-faculty connections. Faculty mentors agree to select a student they are not currently working with and/or have not previously worked with in a research or creative capacity.
• Faculty mentors agree to provide sufficient substantive tasks and duties for the apprentice to earn their full award (approximately 90 hours of work) and to complete a monthly checklist indicating which tasks the student apprentice has worked on.
  • This program prioritizes early career students with little or no prior experience. We encourage faculty to keep this experience level in mind when considering the ways in which an apprentice can contribute to their research or creative endeavors, and to factor in time for training and mentorship to prepare the apprentice to successfully complete assigned activities.
• For their commitment to mentoring the student apprentice, faculty mentors will receive a $500 professional development award at the start of the summer.
  • Please note, the professional development funding will be transferred to the ledger 2 KFS account provided by the faculty mentor. Please consult with your fiscal officer about your school or college's fiscal close procedures; typically, these funds will need to be spent by June 2024, prior to the close of the current fiscal year.
• Faculty mentors agree to provide oversight and feedback to the student on their work throughout the project and to complete a student apprentice assessment form at the end of the semester to offer feedback on the student’s performance and contribution to the project.
• Faculty mentors will ensure the student apprentice is adequately trained and added to any pertinent research compliance protocols, if applicable.
• For projects involving human subjects, documentation of IRB approval or of a completed IRB protocol submission must be submitted to OUR prior to the start of the apprenticeship. Please plan your IRB timeline accordingly.

Student apprentice eligibility and award conditions:

• Students must be majoring or pre-majoring in social science, humanities, or arts fields at any UConn campus.
• This program prioritizes early career students with little to no prior experience.  Eligibility is limited to undergraduates in their first, second, and third year of study. Students from underrepresented backgrounds and 1^st generation students are encouraged to apply.
• Students must be in good academic standing at the time of application and must remain in good academic standing while participating in the program.
• Students must be eligible for on-campus employment.
• Students agree to complete a reflection at the start of the apprenticeship and at mid-point, and to submit an end-of-summer reflection to the Office of Undergraduate Research at the conclusion of the apprenticeship.
  
• Students agree to present at the Frontiers in Undergraduate Research Poster Exhibition the in the fall or spring semester following their apprenticeship.

Additional program details are provided on the SHARE apprenticeship description form.

Program modality:

The Office of Undergraduate Research is committed to offering students pathways to research and creative involvement and addressing barriers to participation. Virtual summer apprenticeships benefit students in several ways by:

• Increasing access to opportunities for all students, regardless of their proximity to a UConn campus or access to transportation in the summer months.
• Fostering cross-campus collaborations, allowing students and faculty from all UConn campuses the opportunity to collaborate on research and creative projects, and build mentoring relationships with faculty.
• Providing a flexible schedule that recognizes and respects the academic, personal, and financial commitments that students balance during the summer months – allowing them to participate and gain experience and exposure to research and creative projects within their discipline while also meeting other obligations and commitments.

Virtual apprenticeships remove barriers to participation, allowing students to be active participants in the diverse and vibrant research landscape that UConn offers, and to gain valuable insight into research and creative endeavors within their field of study and a foundation of skills that they can utilize throughout their academic journey.

Submit an Apprenticeship

UConn faculty in social science, humanities, or arts disciplines who are interested in mentoring early career undergraduate students this summer are invited to submit an opportunity to be included in this program.

To participate in this program, please complete the Summer 2025 SHARE Virtual Apprenticeship Description Form (coming soon!).

This form will open on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. The submission form will close on Friday, February 21, 2025.

Please Note: Depending on faculty interest, we may not be able to support all submitted apprenticeships. Should we receive more faculty requests than we can accommodate, the decision not to include the opportunity in this program will be communicated to faculty by OUR staff.

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) will use the information you provide to develop an opportunity description and the application for your apprenticeship. View the summer 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 apprenticeships in the opportunity archive to see what information is included in the descriptions.

Students can begin applying in early March 2025. Student applications will close on Friday, March 28, 2025.

Submitted applications will be sent to faculty mentors for review. You have the option of interviewing select candidates. We ask that you provide OUR with a prioritized ranking of your preferred candidates no later than Friday, April 11, 2025.

OUR will extend the offers to students and oversee the acceptance and hiring process.

Working with a Virtual Apprentice

A SHARE summer apprentice can support your work in a variety of ways while also deepening their understanding of the research or creative process. The research skills apprentices develop, the exposure to an area or topic of interest, and the valuable mentorship they receive can serve as a foundation for sustained participation in research or creative endeavors.

The list below highlights some activities and tasks that an apprentice can assist with.

Meetings, Observation, and Training:

• Attend lab/research team/research group meetings
• Observe and/or assist a faculty mentor conducting a project-related task
• Receive instruction on how to execute a task (such as training on software, creative content development, equipment, or other tools) and practice executing this task
• Provide project-related training to others

Design and Administration:

• Help design a study or experiment (including materials, stimuli, protocol, or instrument development)
• Complete administrative tasks related to the project (e.g., schedule participant appointments, prepare assessment materials for use with participants). Please note that the opportunity should not be exclusively administrative in nature.

Literature Search and Review:

• Search for or locate relevant sources
• Review and summarize literature/sources
• Synthesize literature/sources in a literature review or other format

Data Collection and Analysis:

• Collect, record, and/or process data or information
• Engage in qualitative data analysis (e.g., code interview transcripts)
• Engage in quantitative data analysis (e.g., run correlational analysis on a data set)

Academic Communication and Engagement:

• Prepare figures, graphs, tables, or other visual communication elements
• Provide feedback/comments on a piece of academic writing/output (e.g., article, book chapter, policy memo, grant proposal, poster)
• Write some of all of a piece of academic writing/output (e.g., article, book chapter, policy memo, grant proposal, poster)
• Participate in a talk, presentation, conference, or other academic event
• Make a project-related presentation to an audience
• Develop and share creative content

Creative Contributions:

• Develop concept art
• Design user interface
• Assist with background research and interactive media design
• Participate in content design and strategy