A Summer of Inquiry and Interdisciplinary Professional Development

Last summer, the Dana Foundation supported an internship program at Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, offering a rare opportunity for emerging scholars to engage deeply with the ethical questions raised by advances in neuroscience, medicine, and technology. The program, funded through the Dana NextGen program, brought together eight interns from a wide range of academic backgrounds including neuroscience, psychology, business, bioethics, sociology, and medical humanities. Interns included undergraduate and graduate students from five different states united by a shared commitment to critical inquiry and socially responsible science.

Over the course of the summer, interns were immersed in an environment that emphasized rigorous scholarship, mentorship, and interdisciplinary dialogue. Rather than treating ethics as an abstract add-on to scientific work, the program positioned ethical reflection as a core component of research itself. Interns worked closely with faculty mentors on projects addressing cutting-edge topics such as digital phenotyping, artificial intelligence in mental health, neurotechnology, pediatric psychiatry, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and biomedical research models. These projects challenged participants to examine not only what science can do, but what it should do.

Mentorship and Professional Development

The program was guided by Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Cullen Professor of Medical Ethics and associate director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Meghan Hurley, research assistant at the Center. Their involvement ensured that interns received both structured academic guidance and individualized mentorship. Faculty mentors met regularly with interns, fostering close collaboration and sustained intellectual exchange. These small, focused research meetings were frequently cited by interns as among the most impactful elements of the experience.

Beyond individual projects, interns benefited from a broader ecosystem of support that emphasized professional development, ethical reasoning, and scholarly communication. This structure helped participants situate their own work within larger conversations about health policy, clinical practice, and public trust in science.

Learning from Leaders Across Disciplines

A defining feature of the program was its robust series of Lunch & Learn sessions, which exposed interns to perspectives from across Baylor College of Medicine. Throughout the summer, students heard from speakers from various university departments—psychiatry and behavioral sciences, neurosurgery, neuroscience—and the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy.

The sessions connected ethical theory to lived practice, demonstrating how values and judgment shape decision-making across fields and allowed interns to better understand what ethical engagement can look like in real-world settings. “Hearing experts from areas of research or medicine I didn’t know quite existed has also opened my eyes to the way ethics underlies all fields and decisions,” one student said at the conclusion of the program. “Overall, my perspective has grown more appreciative of interdisciplinary teams and has pushed me to reflect on my own assumptions when working alongside others.”

Journal Club: Ethics in Conversation

Weekly Journal Club sessions formed another cornerstone of the internship. These discussions invited interns to grapple collectively with emerging literature on topics such as consciousness in patients with brain injury, sentience in nonhuman animals, artificial intelligence, griefbots and digital avatars, brain-computer interfaces, neurolaw, and mental health chatbots. The format encouraged interns to articulate their own positions, challenge assumptions, and learn from peers with different disciplinary lenses. The Journal Club model underscored the program’s emphasis on dialogue as a tool for ethical reflexivity and epistemic humility, allowing students to recognize their own biases and acknowledge that they may not have all the answers.

Preparing for Broader Academic Engagement

The program also emphasized professional engagement beyond the Center. Interns prepared to present their work and participate in major national and international meetings, including the International Neuroethics Society annual meeting, the American Society for Bioethics and the Humanities annual meeting, and the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. This exposure helped interns envision themselves as contributors to ongoing scholarly and policy conversations, transforming classroom learning into experiential professional development.

Lasting Impact and Reflections

Perhaps the most powerful example of the program’s success comes from the interns’ own reflections. Participants consistently described the internship as distinctive in both scope and substance. One intern noted: “It’s an incredibly unique opportunity with amazing benefits…definitely a one-of-a-kind program.” Another emphasized the program’s intellectual integration: “It combined a lot of my academic interests in ways I didn’t know was possible.”

Several reflections highlighted the rarity of early exposure to research. One intern noted how unique the opportunity was for undergraduates: “I learned a lot and this is a unique opportunity to get involved in really cutting-edge science that isn’t very easily accessible, especially to undergrads.” Others pointed to how the work resonated with them personally, particularly for those interested in future clinical practice: “I’ve found this research to be a real source of inspiration, knowing that I can use my time and energy to contribute to a project that may shape the next generation of healthcare technology.”

Taken together, these reflections reveal a program that not only teaches trainees about ethics but helps them imagine future pathways by which they can integrate their learning to benefit society. Though combining mentorship, interdisciplinary scholarship, and reflective practice, the Dana Foundation Summer Internship Program equips participants with the tools to navigate the ethical complexities of modern medicine and neuroscience. More importantly, it fosters a generation of scholars and future professionals who recognize ethics as essential to innovation and clinical care.

The Baylor Center for Bioethics and Health Policy is currently soliciting applications for the 2026 Dana Foundation Summer Internship Program. You can find more information about the program here.