OMRF Fleming Scholar applications open to students

The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation is accepting applications for its 2023 Sir Alexander Fleming Scholar Program. The deadline is Feb. 1.

The paid, eight-week summer biomedical research internship is open to high school seniors, college freshmen, sophomores and juniors. To be eligible, students must be 16 or older and an Oklahoma resident at the time of high school graduation. Participants earn $5,000 and may also qualify for free housing.

Applicants must complete an online application and submit an essay, two letters of recommendation and academic transcripts.

“We’re looking for students who are excited to do real-life research and make lifelong connections,” said OMRF Vice President of Human Resources Courtney Stevens Greenwood. “A summer as a Fleming Scholar is a chance to work with leading scientists on projects that will have a lasting impact on medical knowledge.”

Caleb Lareau, Ph.D., called his 2011 experience as a Fleming Scholar “transformative.” Now a cancer researcher at Stanford University, the Enid native still collaborates with his OMRF mentors.

“This isn’t just a summer,” Lareau said. “It’s an invitation to the OMRF family to enable something incredible in your career.”

Founded in 1956 and named for Sir Alexander Fleming, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who discovered penicillin and in 1949 dedicated OMRF’s first building, the program offers students a summer packed with hands-on biomedical research.

Since its inception, more than 600 Oklahoma students have had the opportunity to work in state-of-the-art labs at OMRF. Two current OMRF vice presidents, Rodger McEver, M.D., and Judith James, M.D., Ph.D., started their research careers as Fleming Scholars.

For more information or to apply, visit www. omrf.org/fleming.