Metcalf Sprints

Book Project with Author, Essayist, and Journalist Heather Radke

• Project Description: Heather Radke is an essayist, journalist, and contributing editor and reporter at Radiolab, the Peabody Award–winning program from WNYC. She has written for publications including The Believer, Time, and The Paris Review, and has taught in Columbia University's creative writing MFA Program. Her first book, Butts: A Backstory, was published in 2022 and was named a best book of the year by many publications, including Time, Esquire, Publisher's Weekly, and Amazon. Heather is currently working on a book (under contract with Random House) about the wildness of preadolescent girlhood and how this early period of rebellion and unruliness has been expressed and constrained from antiquity to the present. The ideal candidate will be a nimble researcher who can think broadly across disciplines including history, folklore, archeology, cultural studies, and literature, and has familiarity with JStor and archival research. It would be helpful if the candidate has an interest in and familiarity with this type of work and the material they will be engaging with. The work itself will entail creating bibliographies, summarizing books, and offering reporter memos on research questions

Broadcast Media Project with Chicago Public Media and WBEZ

• Talk Show Project: WBEZ's daily talk show is seeking interns. With mentoring from the show’s senior producer, this intern will help with daily production duties including booking guests, prepping interviews, writing scripts, crafting web stories and engaging audiences on social media. The ideal candidate is curious and team-oriented, avidly consumes local and national news and wants to contribute to the public conversation around important issues of the day in the Chicago region.

• Membership and Fundraising Project: The Membership team (currently ranked #1 in the county) is seeking support to advance member engagement and foster Chicago Public Media’s community of supporters. As a University of Chicago student, you already understand the importance of copywriting to marketing and branding; this role will leverage your research, writing, and interviewing skills. Throughout the project, students will receive professional development and skills in marketing, donor engagement, and communications.

Biography Writing Project with Pulitzer-Winning Author Jonathan Eig

• Project Description: Jonathan Eig is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer at work on a new book about George Soros. During the paid micro-internship, undergraduates conduct targeted research and process archival documents. Students will be assigned to gather and analyze media, explore new collections of archival documents, and process those findings in ways that assist in the creation of a biography. Students might also be asked to recommend interview subjects and conduct preliminary interviews. Students will have access to the author and an opportunity to learn more about research, writing, and publishing.

Climate and Innovation Projects with Maroon Cay

• Project Description: Four distinct projects with Maroon Cay, a unique opportunity for research and development on a 200-acre private island in the Exumas, Bahamas. Each project will highlight and build different skills and deliverables.
  

  1. Off-Grid Sustainable Systems Optimization

  Propose and optimize integrated off-grid systems for energy, water, and resource management on Maroon Cay. Explore solar, wind, water harvesting, storage, and demand-side solutions in a remote, sustainable environment.
  

  2. Mangrove Ecosystem Research Proposal

  Identify research priorities and opportunities for developing the island as a flagship site for marine biology and sustainability study, making it attractive for research partnerships.
  

  3. Industry Partnership Pitch

  Create a strategic business pitch deck to attract industry partners for sustainability and research collaboration on Maroon Cays. Showcase the island’s unique ecosystem, innovation potential, and alignment with broader industry and environmental goals.
  

  4. Aerial Drone Survey & Topographic Mapping

  Propose a strategy to leverage drone technology to perform aerial mapping and topographic analysis of Maroon Cays. Mapping should provide actionable insights for planning, environmental protection, and future sustainable development while minimizing disturbance to sensitive coastal habitats.

Festival University Music Project

• Project Description: Develop fundraising and marketing plan for the establishment of Festival University, a music education initiative that takes students behind the scenes of major global music festivals to meet and learn from musicians, producers, record labels, and promoters.

Hamrah Arts Club Project

• Project Description: Launched in 2021, Hamrah Arts Club is an independent creative mentorship program for refugee-status youth, fostering solidarity between refugee, asylum-seeking, and immigrant communities and creating a network of support through creative expression. Interns may support finalizing the project’s website that is already designed and built, and prepare it for launch. Some responsibilities include proofreading, transcribing audio to text, loading data on the website, PR (creating written and designed content), and SEO optimization. Interns will be working with UChicago Lecturer, Nazafarin Lotfi , Department of Visual Arts

Illinois Environmental Council

• Project Description: Interns will focus conducting state-level environmental policy research on key issues that impact the state of Illinois. Students will work closely on this project with the IEC's policy team and present a final report and deck that highlights their findings and impact.

National Immigrant Justice Center

• Project Description: Interns will have the opportunity to work closely on a project with the Communication and Marketing team, such as engaging audiences through digital channels, developing online fundraising campaigns, and using data for impactful programs. Interns may also work on a project with the Development Team, such as helping secure and maintain funding through various fundraising strategies, with responsibilities including donor outreach, event coordination, and research. This is an ideal opportunity for students interested in nonprofit work, philanthropy, and social justice.

Cook County Treasurer

• Project Description: Interns may support with projects in communications and marketing, such as assisting with event planning, responding to incoming inquiries, and assisting in writing and proofreading marketing materials, social media posts, and emails. This is an ideal opportunity for students with outstanding written and personal communication skills, with great attention to detail and an interest in public policy, urban planning, communications, marketing, or similar fields.

Alpha Sophia

• Project Description: The Metcalf Clinics team built an algorithm that would match LinkedIn profiles of physicians with leads in Alpha Sophia’s proprietary database.

BallotReady

• Project Description: The group developed multiple high-impact content pieces to boost the BallotReady brand and drive traffic to their website.

Blackthorne Capital Management

• Project Description: Students worked as a team to analyze macroeconomic and financial data, develop quantitative models, and gain hands-on experience in financial modeling and consulting for global macro futures markets.

Cornerstone Research

• Project Description: In this Metcalf Clinics project, students leveraged industry research and conducted data analysis to assess the impact of a corporate merger.

Hollister Incorporated

• Project Description: The students conducted market research to explore adjacent uses and markets for hydrocolloid biomaterials.

IBM Quantum

• Project Description: The team created a guide to help K-12 students navigate an educational game on key concepts in quantum computing.

International Space Elevator Consortium

• Project Description: The project group produced a digital animation on a multi-modal interplanetary transport system, complete with a research-supported script.

JMA Music: Festival University

• Project Description: Students developed fundraising and marketing plans for the establishment of Festival University, a music education initiative that takes students behind the scenes of major global music festivals to meet and learn from musicians, producers, record labels, and promoters.

Mapping 15th Century Florence - Geographic Data Management

• Project Description: Florence Illuminated is an international consortium of independent digital projects and was created to develop ways to effectively share and aggregate historical demographic data on Florence, one of early modern Europe’s most dynamic urban phenomena. This collaboration was focused specifically on implementing a schema to federate independently-born digital projects and resolve the myriad redundancies inherent in building separate digital infrastructures. For this project, students worked in teams to construct a demographic map of Florence in 1427 and create an online, searchable geographic database.

Migrants of the Mediterranean

• Project Description: Metcalf Clinic Fellows support the organization’s social media and communications strategy in the project areas below:

  • Administration – scrape current social followers/following on active platforms (IG and FB) and set us up on new platform (likely Bluesky); as well as suggest other to follow or engage with

  • Analytics – provide feedback on best content to offer and how to engage

  • Content/design – create written messaging and designed layouts for social content; would speak to exit from current platforms, announce ourselves on the new ones; potentially other posts

National Space Society

• Project 1 Description: UChicago students created a strategic plan for boosting U.S. student participation in the organization's space policy debates program.

• Project 2 Description: The Metcalf team created a resource bibliography and literature review of lunar mapping and atlases.

North Star

• Project Description: The project focused on assessing the extent of AI adoption among companies in the Russell 2000 Index.

The Revival Theater & UChicago Chicago Studies: Laugh Tracks & Spotlight Stroll, A Chicago Performing Arts Walking Tour

• Project Description: Students researched and developed narratives around the history of the performing arts (inclusive of music, theatre/vaudeville, film production, burlesque, minstrelsy, and comedy) in the South Loop.

United African Organization

• Project Description: Students supported a dynamic coalition of community-based organizations that promotes social and economic justice, civic participation, and empowerment of immigrants and refugees in Illinois.