LHSI Intern: Student intern: Underlying brain mechanisms of risky decision making in children with ADHD

Program Summary:  

This internship is offered as a part of the Life-Health Sciences Internship Program (LHSI). This program connects 125 IUI undergraduates per year with internships on campus with faculty and staff in a variety of health and science related campus areas/programs. All LHSI internships start in August 2025 and end in May 2026 and are paid $13/hour for up to 10 hours per week. Work-study is accepted but not required. 

Supervisor: Dr Leslie Hulvershorn

Department/Office: Medicine, IU Health Methodist Hospital, IU Health University Hospital, Riley Hospital for Children, Nursing, and Public Health; Psychiatry

Overview of the internship site: Underlying brain mechanisms of risky decision making in children with ADHD Help researchers find out more about brain mechanisms that underlie risky decision making before a child ever uses a drug of abuse. Children ages 11 to 12 are invited to participate as part of the study, which is funded by the National Institutes of Drug Abuse. A noninvasive brain scan (MRI) is performed while the child completes decision-making tasks. Once the MRI portion of the study is complete, brief follow-up appointments are conducted every six months to assess the child's decision-making process through a series of simple questions.

Website for more information: http://psychiatry.medicine.iu.edu/faculty-listing/leslie-hulvershorn/

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: Student will collect and log qualitative and quantitative as well as observational data following each subject's research experience. Student will prepare enrollment statistics reports and help with preparing visit documents and materials.

Work Environment and Dress Code: The work is performed primarily in a lab setting with a casual dress code

Project-specific qualifications: Attention to detail, able to work in a team, good communication skills, willingness to learn and ask questions.

Hours: 10 hours per week. Hours are flexible within regular work hours. 

By the end of the LHSI program, you will:

·        Carefully consider, explore, and articulate your career goals, including an analysis of how you arrived at that path and what steps you need to take next. (Community Contributor, Communicator)

·        Understand your role and strengths on a professional team and analyze who you would like to become as a professional. (Communicator)

·        Gain and strengthen skills relevant to next steps after graduation, such as communication, collaboration, teamwork, analysis/synthesis/evaluation, independence, confronting/challenging failure, problem-solving and perseverance, and constructive criticism. (Problem Solver, Communicator)

·        Convey ideas and knowledge effectively through an ePortfolio and presentation of your internship work. (Problem Solver, Communicator)

·        Set and meet your own additional learning goals identified with your supervisor.

LHSI Qualifications  

·        must be graduating May 2027 or after (usually a current freshman or sophomore in Spring 2025) 

·        Current full-time IUI undergraduate

·        minimum overall GPA of 2.0 

·        All majors welcome

To apply:

LHSI accepts at least 125 interns per year. Complete the application for LHSI at lhsi.indianapolis.iu.edu and select 3-4 internship sites on that application. All available sites are listed in Handshake and will start with the position title “LHSI Intern.” You will meet with at least 2 of these if selected for interviews.