Learning from community.
Promoting health in underserved communities.
Training effective and inspired health and social service professionals.
2026 program dates: June 8 - July 31
For Students
This summer you could...
- Collaborate across disciplines
- Impact local underserved communities
- Explore and challenge structural determinants of health
- Be supported by interdisciplinary faculty and community mentors
- Build skills, experience and contacts to further your professional prospects
- Earn up to $4,000 for an intensive, eight-week experience
Applicants must complete the Pittsburgh application and submit via email. Pittsburgh medical student applications are eligible for early acceptance.
For Community Organizations
This summer you could...
- Benefit from the combined skills of a team of health professional students - from nursing, public health, medicine, pharmacy, health and rehabilitation sciences, and other partnering schools - to develop resources, workshops, health education materials, etc. that your host organization needs to better serve our communities.
- Mentor, guide and impact the education and awareness of future health professionals, exposing them to the realities of the populations you serve every day, so that they will be better able to serve those populations in the future.
- Participate in our community mentor workshop to build mentoring skills and network.
- Program Details
Bridging the Gaps gives students the opportunity to work directly with and learn from underserved populations of all kinds to better understand their health needs. The internship also provides invaluable community outreach to organizations that are on the front lines of health care. Interns are paired with other health and social science graduate students to provide the maximum benefits of interdisciplinary learning.
Community-Based Organization Placement
Through placement at a community-based organization, intern pairs have the opportunity to work with any of a range of different underserved populations in Pittsburgh. Populations served by these organizations include people in recovery, low income families, people experiencing homelessness, immigrants, returning citizens, among others.
Projects and Products
Interns spend the majority of their time working directly with, and learning from, participants of their host organization. These interactions inform development of a project that marries interns' talents and interests with community needs, and that leave the host organization with a tangible product for use long after the internship summer. Past projects have included:
- Developing and delivering health education curricula
- Developing resource guides and informational brochures
- Films, PSAs
- Gardens, murals, playgrounds!
Symposium
All intern pairs create posters describing their work, and select pairs of interns give oral presentations at the annual symposium, with community and faculty mentors, school and health leaders, funders, and guests in attendance.
Weekly Reflection
Once a week, interns attend a variety of reflective sessions here on campus instead of visiting their sites. These sessions include several trainings and community speakers on topics impacting populations in our region. We also use this time to discuss weekly readings, ongoing student projects, and issues that come up in community placements, reinforcing cross-disciplinary learning. Interns maintain a journal to reflect on the internship experience.
Interns must complete a project that they chose in coordination with their community mentor that leaves the host organization with a tangible product. Interns' faculty mentors are available to provide feedback on project design and resources. The project may tie into work already going on in a program or be entirely different in focus. Three pairs of interns are peer-jury selected to present posters at a formal symposium in August, with community and faculty mentors and health professionals in attendance.
Once a week, interns attend a variety of reflective sessions here on campus instead of visiting their sites. These include speakers from community-based organizations and discussions about issues that come up throughout the internship, lending an additional multidisciplinary approach. Interns also discuss weekly required readings during reflexive sessions, or may be assigned to respond to them in a journal.
Interns are required to maintain a journal to record their activities and reflections and responses to discussion and required readings. Students receive weekly feedback on their journals. We also use this time to assist interns with their projects as needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is there an application fee to apply?
No, for summer 2026 we are waiving our application fee for all students (as a pilot)!
- Can international students participate in BTG-Pittsburgh?
Yes, students with F1 visas are eligible to apply to BTG-Pittsburgh. International students who are accepted as interns must also obtain a U.S. social security number and may need to apply for CPT. We recommend international students consult with their OIS immigration specialist to review considerations for their individual situation.
- Are there information sessions held to learn more about the program?
Yes. After applying to the program, all applicants will be contacted to sign up for one of several mandatory information sessions held early in the spring semester. Applicants will learn in detail about the interview and placement processes, site selection, intern requirements, specific program components, and what to expect over the summer if you are an intern with the program. Before applying to the program, students are welcome to (after reviewing the FAQs) contact us with any questions.
- How are applicants selected?
BTG-Pittsburgh looks for applicants from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences - there is no one right profile of a qualified candidate. Enthusiasm, experience or need for experience, flexibility, and expectations of applicants are all considered. How competitive the application process is for any one applicant depends in part on the number of applicants from each school, as we try to maintain a balance of the different health and social science programs. Due to the volume of applications, we regret that not all applicants can be interviewed.
- How are community sites selected?
BTG-Pittsburgh has many long-time community partners and every year welcomes new ones! Organizations that are interested in being considered to host BTG interns should complete the Community Site Application, in which details and expectations are outlined. We will arrange a phone interview and site visit for all appropriate applicants.
- What is the timing of the interview process?
Applicants are interviewed throughout the second half of February and first half of March. The initial round of offers is usually made by mid-March. Because we are lucky to have such an outstanding pool of applicants each year, and because we sometimes identify additional funds, at times we are able to make a second round of offers before the end of March. Accepted applicants are required to sign a placement agreement within a week of the offer (although many students return it the same day!) to secure their spot.
- Will I be notified if I am not chosen to be a BTG-Pittsburgh intern?
Yes, we will e-mail all applicants with their status by the end of March.
- How will I be matched with a community site?
Student have multiple opportunities to express their preferences of populations. Accepted applicants provide a ranking of potential host community organizations, which is used to determine placements. We typically can match students with their first or second choice.
- What kinds of skills will BTG-Pittsburgh help me develop?
Over two thirds of interns last year indicated they built their skills in identifying community resources, building community responsive products, doing professional presentations and advocacy. Interns benefit from trainings on harm reduction, health literacy, trauma-informed self-care, academic humility and poverty.
- What kind of projects and products are we required to develop?
There are a broad variety of projects and products that students may develop in response to community organizational needs and priorities. The primary criteria are that projects be developed for the organization within the organization, not for research purposes. This is a collaborative process with site mentors and is an organic process that evolves over the first couple of weeks at a site. Examples and further details will be shared during the interview process.
- Is there support for our project development?
Yes! Each student pair has a community mentor at their site with who they will meet weekly, and each pair chooses a faculty mentor from a BTG-Pittsburgh list in order to gain additional insight and expertise as their project develops. The specific roles of mentors will be fully explained during interviews.
- Are reflective sessions mandatory?
Yes! No exceptions!
- May I take summer classes?
The BTG-Pittsburgh summer is an intense one, and we have found it does not work well for students to take more than one class. Classes that end before BTG begins, or that only overlap by one week, and that are scheduled in the evening usually work fine.
- May I work in addition to BTG-Pittsburgh? May I work at the University in addition to BTG-Pittsburgh?
Due to the rigors of BTG-Pittsburgh, we recommend against trying to work during the eight-week program. A few students in the past, with flexible evening or weekend jobs, were able to maintain a part-time position, but it can be a significant challenge.
Students being paid by the University in any other capacity during the eight weeks cannot do BTG-Pittsburgh as a paid intern.
- May I use this as a launching point for my Scholarly Project (School of Medicine) or for the Schweitzer Fellowship, or for my thesis/essay?
Absolutely. Talk with the program coordinator about your specifics and guidance as schools and departments may differ.
Medical students will need to identify an advisor for the scholarly project, and we have several faculty at the SOM who are well-acquainted with BTG and community based project opportunities.
- Do I need clearances to do BTG-Pittsburgh?
Yes. As with many internships, students will be required to obtain four clearances: Act 33 and 34 Clearances (Pennsylvania criminal background and and child abuse history), FBI fingerprint (through DHS Act 73), and National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) before the internship begins. BTG-Pittsburgh staff will provide clearance guidance in early spring to any students in need of clearances.