What to Expect

On May 31, you will receive an email notifying you of your application status. (Visit How to Apply and Dates and Deadlines for more information.) If you have been accepted, the email will also notify you of who your mentor is. Before the start of July, you are encouraged to exchange emails with your mentor to get to know them ahead of time.

In the first week of July, TSI will be holding a commencement ceremony. During this ceremony, you will get to know the TSI team as well as your fellow mentees. Your mentor should also reach out to you to establish the first meeting time. (Each of the six meetings will most likely be during a different week in July.) Additional meetings can be scheduled with your mentor as necessary. Though your mentor is not obligated to meet with you in person or bring you to their lab, if you are interested, you should politely express this interest.

You will receive instructions on how to prepare for your first meeting, such as learning about your mentor’s interests and brainstorming ideas. During the first meeting, you will become acquainted with your mentor and decide on a research topic. Sample research topics include:

• A literature review of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and depression correlation

• Assessing the difference in stress response of horticulture involving plants with and without flowers with 6 test subjects

• Analysis of different cases of telemedicine use to treat depression and creating evidence-based predicted models to establish known feasibility for this approach to be used during COVID-19 using 3 case studies

• Identification of house sparrow dietary preferences in an urban landscape using a cafeteria-style experiment

• Literature meta-analysis regarding cardiac scar formation due to Covid-19

• Testing the effectiveness in dye removal of a cost-effective, easy-to-build, home-made water filtration system using a combination of naturally occurring materials

• Algorithm to electronically diagnose leukemia based on symptoms 

More examples of research topics can be found on Talaria’s YouTube channel here. You may view the Talaria Conference Papers for more research ideas here.

Your mentor may have an ongoing project in their lab they would like you to take part in, or they may suggest a completely new project for you to work on. After the first meeting, you will develop a basic idea of how to conduct the project and come up with an outline of the procedure, which your mentor will review during the next meeting.

During the second meeting, you and your mentor should have established a clear procedure for the project. You will complete the research procedure following this meeting. This may look vastly different for various projects, from reviewing databases to growing plants. During the third meeting, you will present the data (or other results) from completing the procedure the previous week, and your mentor will help you analyze these results. Your mentor may suggest additional analyses for you to do and/or provide you with assistance in outlining the paper. By the end of the third meeting, you will know the main idea of what you want to convey in the paper. In the following two weeks, you will run additional analyses, draft the paper and send the paper via email to your mentor for editing. In the final sixth week, your mentor will give you final editing suggestions for the paper. Once you are satisfied with the paper, you will independently submit the paper using a link that will be provided via email.

TSI also greatly values networking and community. Every weekend, a different speaker or multiple speakers will be hosted; speakers may include university professors, activists, researchers, and college admissions experts. Regular social events will also be hosted throughout the weeks. All events will be held online and free of charge to participants. While attendance at all sessions is not mandatory, participants interested in receiving the Talaria Summer Institute Scholar certificate must attend at least 3 Talaria events. 

The Talaria Conference will take place in mid-August. It is not mandatory to attend all conference sessions, but everyone interested in receiving the Talaria Summer Institute Scholar certificate must present at the conference or submit a recorded presentation of their research. At the end of the program, Talaria Scholars have the opportunity to receive an official Talaria certificate to congratulate them on their graduation from the program.