Student Intern- Yap

WHY UT SOUTHWESTERN? With over 75 years of excellence in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, UT Southwestern is committed to excellence, innovation, teamwork, and compassion. As a world-renowned medical and research center, we strive to provide the best possible care, resources, and benefits for our valued employees. Ranked as the No. 1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth according to U.S. News & World Report, we invest in you with opportunities for career growth and development to align with your future goals. Our highly competitive benefits package offers healthcare, PTO and paid holidays, on-site childcare, wage, merit increases and so much more. We invite you to be a part of the UT Southwestern team where you‿ll discover a culture of teamwork, professionalism, and a rewarding career!

JOB SUMMARY

The student research intern supports the Jha Lab’s clinical, translational, behavioral-health, and/or biomedical research activities under the supervision of the Principal Investigator and designated research staff. The internship is designed to provide structured, hands-on exposure to the research process, including literature review, study development, participant-facing activities where permitted, data organization, regulatory support, scientific communication, and research dissemination. Interns will contribute to active laboratory projects while developing foundational skills in research ethics, protocol implementation, data management, academic writing, and team-based scientific collaboration. Responsibilities will be matched to the intern’s training level, institutional requirements, project needs and applicable human-subjects protections.

BENEFITS

UT Southwestern is proud to offer a competitive and comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees. Our benefits are designed to support your overall wellbeing, and include: PPO medical plan, available day one at no cost for full-time employee-only coverage 100%25 coverage for preventive healthcare-no copay Paid Time Off, available day one Retirement Programs through the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) Paid Parental Leave Benefit Wellness programs Tuition Reimbursement Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Qualified Employer Learn more about these and other UTSW employee benefits!

EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

Required Education High School Diploma Must be enrolled full-time in college or university with a GPA of 3.0 or better, graduate status Demonstrated interest in clinical research, biomedical research, behavioral-health research, neuroscience, psychiatry, public health, or related scientific fields. Strong written and verbal communication skills. Ability to read, summarize, and discuss scientific or technical material. Strong organizational skills and attention to detail. Ability to manage assigned tasks, meet deadlines, and maintain accurate documentation. Professionalism, reliability, initiative, and willingness to learn. Ability to work independently on assigned tasks while collaborating effectively with an interdisciplinary research team. Commitment to research integrity, ethical conduct, privacy, confidentiality, and respectful treatment of research participants. Ability to receive feedback constructively and revise work based on supervisory guidance. Basic proficiency with common productivity software, including word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, email, and online collaboration platforms.

JOB DUTIES

Research support and project participation

• Assist with ongoing Jha Lab research projects in areas such as clinical research, behavioral health, neuroscience, psychiatry, biomedical science, health services research, or related fields.
• Participate in project meetings, journal clubs, research discussions and training sessions.
• Review study aims, protocols, timelines, standard operating procedures and project-specific workflows.
• Help maintain task trackers, study calendars, meeting notes, recruitment logs, and project documentation.
• Support preparation of study materials, including screening tools, questionnaires, participant handouts, recruitment materials, study binders, and educational resources.
• Assist with development of research presentations, posters, abstracts, manuscripts, reports, and other dissemination products.

Literature review and academic writing

• Conduct structured literature searches using databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, PsycINFO, or other institutionally available resources.
• Screen and organize relevant articles, guidelines, and research materials under supervision.
• Prepare literature summaries, evidence tables, annotated bibliographies, and background sections for protocols, manuscripts, grant applications, or presentations.
• Assist with reference management, citation formatting, and bibliography development using approved citation-management software.
• Draft or revise non-final research documents under supervision, including research summaries, abstracts, slide content, plain-language materials, and educational documents.
• Support translation of complex scientific information into clear, accurate, audience-appropriate language.

Data and research operations

• Assist with data entry, data cleaning, quality checks, and maintenance of research datasets, as authorized by the supervising team.
• Help organize de-identified study data, codebooks, source documentation, case-report forms, and data dictionaries.
• Conduct basic descriptive analyses, tabulations, chart preparation, and data visualization under supervision and within the intern’s training level.
• Assist with tracking recruitment, enrollment, retention, study visits, survey completion, and project milestones when applicable.
• Support preparation and organization of documents for monitoring, audits, internal quality review, or regulatory submissions.
• Follow established procedures for data security, confidentiality, file naming, version control, and protected-health-information handling.

Clinical research and participant-facing activities Participant-facing responsibilities will be assigned only when permitted by institutional policy, protocol requirements, training status, and supervision.

• Observe clinical-research workflows, participant interactions, informed-consent discussions, study visits, and team coordination activities.
• Assist with participant outreach, scheduling, reminders, screening logistics, and follow-up communications using approved scripts and systems.
• Support administration or scoring of surveys, questionnaires, or study measures when trained and delegated appropriately.
• Assist research staff with preparing visit materials, tracking completed measures, and maintaining organized study records.
• Provide respectful, professional, culturally responsive communication with participants, staff, students, and collaborators.
• Escalate questions, adverse events, protocol deviations, privacy concerns, or participant issues promptly to the appropriate supervisor.

Regulatory, ethics, and compliance support

• Complete required onboarding, research ethics, human-subjects protection, privacy, and laboratory-specific training before beginning applicable duties.
• Develop familiarity with Institutional Review Board requirements, informed-consent processes, Good Clinical Practice principles, and research documentation standards.
• Assist with organizing regulatory files, training logs, delegation logs, version-controlled study documents, and continuing-review materials as appropriate.
• Maintain confidentiality and comply with institutional, sponsor, laboratory, and legal requirements related to participant privacy and protected information.
• Perform assigned responsibilities only within the intern’s approved scope, level of training, and supervision.

Scientific communication and outreach

• Assist in preparing slides, figures, infographics or educational materials as appropriate.
• Support development of conference abstracts, posters, oral presentations, and research