Summer Internships

Learning and research opportunities for Maine-based medical students and undergraduates

2025 Application Window Now Open!

See below for detailed information about this exciting work opportunity for current or aspiring medical students in Maine. To apply, please complete the word document on this page and email it along with an up-to-date CV to david.mclellan@mainehealth.org. All applications must be submitted by February 14th at 5:00 PM for consideration.

2025 MERGE Internship Application

MERGE 2025 Internship Overview

Purpose:  

To provide the intern with an opportunity to engage in community-based learning about the unique public health needs in rural Maine, and to familiarize learners with foundational epidemiological concepts and analytical models.  

 

Eligibility:  

The internship opportunity is limited to students that meet one of the following criteria: 

  • Any medical student in Maine (UNE, TUSM Maine-track) who is able to commit to the time requirements and live in a rural community for 4 weeks  

  • Any medical student from a rural part of Maine (*link below for HRSA qualifying rural areas) who is attending medical school out of state 

  • Any senior college student from a rural part of Maine who has been accepted into medical school (regular or early assurance, medical school does not need to be in Maine) 

  • Any college student from a rural part of Maine who is planning to apply to medical school and has already taken or registered for the MCAT test 

 

*HRSA Grants Eligibility Analyzer: Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer (hrsa.gov) 

 

Application Timeline: 

  • December 13th, 2024: Online application made available on the MERGE Collaborative Website  

  • February 14th, 2025: Closing day for applications 

  • Early March: Scheduled interviews for selected candidates 

  • Mid-March: Research intern selection complete  

 

Time Commitment 

This internship opportunity has on-site and remote research/training components. All selected interns, with the support of a research mentor, will be expected to identify a rural community in the state of Maine and live within that community for at least four consecutive weeks between the months of May and August. During that time the intern will be expected to give full-time commitment (approximately 40 hours per week) to their research and engagement within the community. In addition to these on-site hours, the selected intern will be expected to do 80-120 hours of training, preparation, research, and paper/poster writing. All interns will be expected to submit a policy brief and research poster by August 31st, 2025. Summer interns will be invited to present their research project at the annual MERGE education conference in on November 14th, 2025, in Augusta, ME.   

 

Compensation and Employment Status 

Selected interns will be hired as independent research contractors. Interns will manage their own schedule and provide their own tools for research. The total compensation will be $6,000 per intern, divided over two payments. The first payment of $3,000 will be issued after the completion of the required MERGE research training in May 2025. The second payment of $3,000 will be issued upon the approved completion of both a policy brief and research poster.  

 

Housing 

Selected interns will be responsible for identifying and providing their own housing in their selected rural community. MERGE Collaborative leadership can provide some support in identifying available housing for healthcare professionals, but available housing is not guaranteed.  


Expectations:  

Interns will review the Shared Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) data for the community they will be working in during the internship and locate the local Community Health Improvement Plan for that region. Using the local community Health Improvement Plans, interns will select one of the top three health priorities of the region and do a “deep dive” into the data using the CHNA. The MERGE Collaborative leadership team must approve the topic and may request a different topic from what is proposed. The intern will work with their research mentor to develop a research question and complete a secondary analysis of the data, such as: Are youth who experience depression in Androscoggin County more likely than their peers across the state to also report substance use?  

 

Once in the community, the intern will explore how the health condition/disparity/issue they selected is experienced/addressed/treated in that community. To do this, the intern will identify nonprofit and healthcare resources and gaps, using the community health assessments and improvement plans for guidance. For example, if the community health improvement plan identifies connecting patients of health care systems with community resources, the intern should visit different community resources to learn what services they offer, how patients can access the services, and what existing partnerships look like with health care systems. The research mentor will work with the intern to outline a strategy, but some suggestions include:  

 

  • Volunteering at a community agency and describing how it functions to fill a need in the community  

  • Creating a visual map of the community and where resources are located in relation to one another and how patients may (or may not) be able to access the resources 

  • Describing, from your perspective, how you see the Community Health Improvement Plan being actualized within the community (or opportunities to do so)  

 

Summer interns will be assigned a research mentor who will coach them during this internship, with focus on career development, scholarly activity and rural healthcare education.   

 

The final product of this research will be two deliverables: a policy brief and research poster. Details of each project, including expectations and templates, will be provided as part of the MERGE research internship training. 

 

Examples from past years can be found at Newsletters and Publications – Merge Collaborative 

 

Additional Information:  

The research mentor will assist the intern in applying for IRB (exemption) for the purpose of supporting peer-review dissemination (national conference poster, publication) depending on the scope and nature of the project chosen.  

 

Anticipated Timeline: 

 

May 2025: 

  • Attend MERGE research internship training sessions (dates TBD, based on availability) 

  • Begin weekly meetings with MERGE research mentor 

  • Develop research question and begin literature review 

  • Reach out to community providers and begin to schedule in-person meetings within your selected rural community 

  • Arrange housing for at least four consecutive weeks in your selected rural community 

June/July 2025:  

  • Begin four consecutive weeks of on-site research within your selected rural community 

  • Continue weekly meetings with MERGE research mentor 

  • Meet with local providers and organizations as primary research 

  • Continue literature review 

  • Begin writing policy brief, based on research 

  • By late July, submit first draft of Policy Brief to research mentor 

August 2025: 

  • Complete second draft of the policy brief

  • Submit the final policy brief to your MERGE research mentor for approval 

  • Complete the MERGE research poster based on approved policy brief

 

Contact Information: 

All inquiries can be directed to David McLellan, MERGE Program Manager at david.mclellan@mainehealth.org. 

 

About the MERGE Collaborative: 

The State of Maine funded the four ACGME Sponsoring Institutions in Maine to create a first-of-its-kind collaboration in Maine to develop high–quality rural residency rotations at hospitals and community-based healthcare centers across the state with a focus on giving medical residents experience caring for Maine’s diverse socio-economic, racial and regional populations. The ME Rural GME Education (MERGE) Collaborative – a partnership with Northern Light Health, Central Maine Medical Center, Maine Medical Center and Maine-Dartmouth Family Residency Program at Maine General Hospital – will also develop faculty development for rural practitioners and a shared learning platform for inter-disciplinary and inter-professional rural healthcare providers. The vision of the MERGE Collaborative is that the State of Maine will be the premier provider of rural GME and produce highly skilled, diverse and talented providers who remain in the state after graduation because they are committed to, and prepared for, meeting the unique needs of the people and communities they serve.     

 

More information may be found at www.mergecollaborative.com