The Harvard Laboratory for Developmental Studies has TWO distinct research opportunities for Summer 2025: one held by the Spelke lab and one held by the Thomas, Snedeker, and Bergelson labs together.

Read more about each internship below.

Spelke Lab Summer Internship 2025

Note: The information below is outdated and will be updated soon!

The Spelke Lab is seeking motivated students to assist with research in a developmental psychology laboratory for the summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts! Learn state of the art research methods that provide a window into the minds of infants, toddlers, and children. This is an excellent opportunity for someone interested specifically in an intensive, immersive experience in the field of developmental psychology, but also in psychological research more generally.

Intern duties center around working on a project with a primary researcher, and include:

• recruiting and scheduling child participants and their families
• testing children in the lab or on Zoom
• data coding and analysis
• aiding in the design of new studies

In addition, interns will be invited to professional development workshops, lab meetings, and socials throughout the summer. Interns will present a scholarly poster to the Harvard community at the end of the summer showcasing the project they worked on.

Qualifications

An interest in and ability to work with young children is essential, and previous experience is a plus. Students must have a minimum of 20 hours a week to commit to the lab with a maximum of 35 hours a week for at least 10 weeks.

Funding Resources

• For Harvard students: Undergraduate Research and Fellowship (URAF), Build Learning through Inquiry in the Social Sciences (BLISS)
• For non-Harvard students: Be sure to check with your home institution for funding opportunities

Interested?

To apply for a position in our summer internship, please fill out the application form above. The application deadline is Friday March 1st, 2024 at noon ET. Questions? Please explore our FAQ section at the bottom of this page. If your question is more specific, feel free to reach out to Georgios Dougalis(Spelke Lab Manager) at [email protected].

Bergelson/Snedeker/Thomas Labs Summer Internship 2025

The Harvard Lab for Developmental Studies invites undergraduate students and graduating seniors to apply for our 2025 paid summer internship program. The internship will run for 9 or 10 weeks (Dates TBD, but will align with Harvard’s BLISS program; last year’s internship ran from Monday June 10th to Thursday August 8th). This full-time paid internship position is an opportunity to gain hands-on experience as a research assistant in a child development psychology lab. The application deadline is Saturday March 1st, 2025 at noon Eastern Time. Have Questions? Please explore our Frequently Asked Questions section. If your inquiry is more specific, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

Please scroll down to see more information about our labs’ research, intern role description, and our application link. There is also an Application Resources section with tips for how to make a successful application! Additionally, we will be holding an Application Info Session sometime in January (date TBD, but will be posted soon), where we can answer any questions you may have about the summer internship.

A stipend will be awarded for the position, but applicants are strongly encouraged to apply for funding from external sources (i.e., their home institutions) as well. We will support all accepted applicants in securing funding from their home institutions or other external sources. Please note that the Bergelson, Thomas, and Snedeker labs guarantee a minimum stipend of $5,000 via a) funding from the applicants’ home institution, b) funding provided by the Harvard lab hosting the intern (directly or through funding partnerships), or c) a combination of the two.

The Harvard Laboratory for Developmental Studies strives to create a welcoming and empowering environment for all trainees, including people who identify with groups that have and continue to face injustices in academia. We believe that the best science happens when people who have a diversity of lived experiences contribute. Please feel free to note any aspects of your identity that you would like to share with us in your application.

About Our Research:

Current research projects at Harvard LDS focus broadly on child development. More information about projects at the Thomas, Bergelson, and Snedeker Labs can be found below. For more information about individual labs, please explore other pages of this website.

Qualifications

• Must be an undergraduate student, graduating senior, or recent graduate
• Must either have U.S. citizenship or a sponsored visa (please check out the FAQ section first and then email us if you have any outstanding questions!)
• Reliable, motivated, organized, independent, and detail-oriented, enthusiastic and ready to learn
• Experience working with children and families preferred
• Particular interest in social, emotional, and cognitive development and/or language acquisition/psycholinguistics

Intern Role Description

Student interns will work closely with a mentor on a specific research project. Intern duties will include (please note that some of these items may differ depending on project):

• Recruiting and scheduling participant families from the greater Boston community and for in-person and online studies
• Conducting literature reviews and familiarizing yourself with background literature
• Collecting data using a variety of methods (e.g., EEG, eye tracking, behavioral studies, habituation, violation of expectation, corpus analysis)
• Creating experimental stimuli and assisting with experimental design
• Coding and analyzing data (e.g., using R Studio, SPSS, PyHab, ELAN, Matlab)
• Assisting with write-ups
• Attending a variety of meetings, seminars, and professional development events that will contribute to their learning of the literature and the psychology research process
• Biweekly “intern-tainment” events (e.g., BBQs/picnics, movie nights, escape rooms, beach days, etc.)

All interns will also create a culminating poster presentation about the research projects they have been working on throughout the internship.

How To Apply

Please fill out our Google Form application here, which contains some short answer questions and will prompt you to upload a CV/resume. Please note that you will be asked to rate your preferences for individual lab placements (Thomas, Bergelson, Snedeker).

Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

Application Resources

• We have compiled answers to the application questions from previous summer interns (with their consent). This resource is intended to demonstrate the wide variety of experiences that successful applicants have had prior to joining the lab. We also provide this to help clarify what we are asking and to give you some idea of what types of information can be helpful during the selection process. These are NOT intended to be “perfect” examples, set a bar for competitive applicants, or exhaust the full range of candidates we will consider! We encourage you to be truthful and detailed when describing yourself and your experience. 🙂
• We have also compiled a mini slide deck with tips for applying and writing the application here.

We will also be holding an Application Info Session sometime in January (date TBD, but will be posted soon), where we can answer any questions you may have about the summer internship.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is housing provided for this summer internship?

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide housing for our summer internship. We are happy to provide recommendations (i.e., what neighborhoods are the most convenient, Facebook groups that have housing advertisements, etc.) and connect accepted applicants with each other if they wish to look for housing together. Additionally, the stipend can be used at the discretion of the accepted applicant, so it can be put towards housing costs!

Will I be expected to live in Boston for the internship time frame or is remote work possible? 

The program is intended to be fully in-person in Boston. Feel free to apply and make note of any portions of the summer months (June, July, and August) that you wouldn’t be able to attend in-person, and we will take this into consideration while reviewing your application.

What types of sponsored visas are acceptable for this summer internship program?

Unfortunately, deciding what types of sponsored visas are acceptable is not up to us. Additionally, we are unable to support visa applications associated with our summer internship. We strongly recommend that you contact your university’s visa office or international office to determine what type of visa would be right for you as well as your specific status and restrictions—you may need to complete additional paperwork to become eligible for our summer internship and other paid summer internship programs.

When will I hear back about the status of my application?

We do not have firm dates that we can share with you regarding when you may hear back from us, but here are some tentative dates that may be helpful. The last day to submit the application is Saturday, March 1st, 2025 at 12:00 pm (Noon) Eastern Time. We will begin the review and interview process afterwards and we anticipate that interviews will run from March 14th to March 21st. We plan on sending acceptance letters out on or before Tuesday, April 1st, 2025.

I graduated in 2023 or 2024, am I still eligible for this summer internship program?

Yes, you are still eligible for our summer internship. We do have a preference for current undergraduates and recent graduates but we would be happy to review your application and determine if you would be a good fit for this program!

I am currently a high school student, am I eligible for the internship program?

Unfortunately, we are unable to take on current high school students for this program due to complications with labor authorization and liability in ethics training for minors. Please consider applying in the future!

Please contact [email protected] with any additional questions.