Metcalf Sprints
Gain experience and grow your network with Metcalf Sprints!
Metcalf Sprints are co-op, project-based experiences for UChicago students. During the sprint, teams of undergraduates work together on a deliverable for an employer partner. A sprint is a wonderful way to build your research, analysis, and strategic thinking skills.
Apply on Handshake by May 3!
The Metcalf Sprint Matching Program provides opportunities to work with leading Business and STEM employers in a 2-week sprint. Students will be able to rank their interest in specific projects within the application. Once admitted to the program, students will be matched to a project.
Employers include organizations such as Cornerstone Research, IBM, echoSURE, and Box4Ventures.
Information about Fall Quarter Sprints will available during Summer 2026
Students receive a Metcalf stipend for participating. Funding amount is determined by the duration of the specific Sprint.
Alpha Sophia
Project Description: The Metcalf Sprints team built an algorithm that would match LinkedIn profiles of physicians with leads in Alpha Sophia’s proprietary database.
Ashford Media Group: Music and Media Projects
Project Description: Ashford Media Group is a global music marketing agency based in Chicago, providing a full range of services including, Public Relations, Digital Marketing, Product Management, Social Media Strategy, and more. Students completed music and media projects focused on PR, Digital Marketing, and Social Strategy.
BallotReady
Project Description: The group developed multiple high-impact content pieces to boost the BallotReady brand and drive traffic to their website.
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 conducted targeted research and process archival documents. Students were 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 were also asked to recommend interview subjects and conduct preliminary interviews. Students had access to the author and an opportunity to learn more about research, writing, and publishing.
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.
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 project included creating bibliographies, summarizing books, and offering reporter memos on research questions
Book Project with Author Noah Shannon
Project Description: Author and New York Times Magazine writer Noah Gallagher Shannon offered a Metcalf Sprint focused on research, transcribing, editing, and assorted administrative tasks for an upcoming book project. The book, which is forthcoming from Random House, revolves around three young men on the great University of Texas, El Paso track and field team of 1973-1981, a cohort of incredible athletes from recently de-colonized nations across East Africa who won 17 national titles before being driven out of the US by a racist/nationalist campaign by the established powers in the sport.
Broadcast Media Project with Chicago Public Media and WBEZ
Talk Show Project: With mentoring from the show’s senior producer, the intern supported daily production duties including booking guests, prepping interviews, writing scripts, crafting web stories and engaging audiences on social media.
Membership and Fundraising Project: The Membership team (currently ranked #1 in the county) sought support to advance member engagement and foster Chicago Public Media’s community of supporters.
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 highlighted and built 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.
Cook County Treasurer
Project Description: Interns supported 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.
Cornerstone Research
Project Description: In this Metcalf Sprints project, students leveraged industry research and conducted data analysis to assess the impact of a corporate merger.
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.
Florence Illuminated: Geographic Data Management Project
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 is focused specifically on implementing a schema to federate independently-born digital projects and resolve the myriad redundancies inherent in building separate digital infrastructures. With a two-year federal grant (NEH), our teams are working to construct a demographic map pf Florence in 1427 to create an online, searchable geographic database.
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 supported finalizing the project’s website and prepared it for launch. Responsibilities included proofreading, transcribing audio to text, loading data on the website, PR (creating written and designed content), and SEO optimization. Interns worked with UChicago Lecturer, Nazafarin Lotfi , Department of Visual Arts.
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.
Illinois Environmental Council
Project Description: Interns focused on conducting state-level environmental policy research on key issues that impact the state of Illinois. Students worked closely on this project with the IEC's policy team and presented a final report and deck that highlighted their findings and impact.
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.
National Immigrant Justice Center
Project Description: Interns had 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 also worked 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.
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.
For questions about the Metcalf Sprint program, please reach out to Tara Ford at taraford@uchicago.edu.
