Reflections on the TCI Summer Internship Program and the TCI-ICRISAT Partnership

The Tata-Cornell Institute funds and operates a summer internship program that places Cornell University masters and professional degree candidates as well as undergraduate students with research internship opportunities with partner institutions (such as ICRISAT, PRADAN, DigitalGreen). This is a competitive, merit-based internship that requires interns to engage full-time over the course of 6-7 weeks in an applied, development-related research project in India. TCI Interns are exposed to the full research process from defining the research question, to developing tools and methodologies, to collecting and analyzing the data, and presenting the results. Beyond the research skills, the students develop their cross-cultural understanding and "knowledge with a public purpose" vital to an Engaged Cornell education.

At the annual year-end event 2015, TCI Interns Michaela Brown (Sophomore, B.S. Food Science) and John Lowry (Senior, B.S. Biology, B.A.Government), Dr. Padmaja Ravula (Senior Research Scientist at ICRISAT), and TCI Program Manager Jessica Ames discuss the learning outcomes and overall experience of the TCI Internship Program. In their internship hosted by ICRISAT, Michaela and John were part of team of TCI interns that researched market-level and household dietary diversity and eating-out behavior in the villages of the semi-arid tropics.

The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) is a long-term research initiative focused on solving problems of poverty, malnutrition, and rural development in India.