Pauley Undergraduate Fellowship

The 2026 summer fellowship will be held in person at VCU's medical campus in Richmond, VA from Monday, May 18-Friday, July 24, 2026. For some of our programs, a preparatory course prior to the summer in the spring 2025 is required. For more information on each program, please see here.

Yes! The Pauley Heart Center has multiple fellowships. All the fellowships meet concurrently for 10 weeks during the summer, but some have different application requirements and deadlines as well as a spring preparatory course requirement. You can read more about the different fellowships here.

Our fellowships are best suited for students who are sophomores, juniors, or seniors at the time of application. In rare cases, exceptional freshmen have been admitted into our program. If you are a freshman and are interested in preparing for future participation in our program, we recommend you take some pre-medical science courses to familiarize yourself with cardiovascular concepts. We also recommend you seek out basic information on research fundamentals and build a relationship with a faculty member (or two!) who would be willing to write you a recommendation should you wish to apply in the future.

Out National Institutes of Health (NIH) R25 fellowship is open only to US citizens and permanent residents, per NIH requirements. Our American Heart Association (AHA) fellowship has broader eligibility requirements with regards to citizenship/visa status. Please be sure to check our program requirements before applying to determine your eligibility! 

The application requirements and deadlines for each fellowship are slightly different. Please see here for more information.

Generally, each applicant is expected to do the following:

• complete an online application form which requests some basic biographical information and includes questions about their research experience, why they are interested in this program, etc.
• provide all undergraduate transcripts
• provide the names and contact information of two individuals who will submit strong recommendations on their behalf
• review the available faculty mentors and research projects and rank their top three choices

If a student is considered a strong contender for our fellowship, they may be asked to interview with their prospective faculty mentor before a final decision is made.

Students who have been selected for this fellowship in the past have often been those who:

• display a clear interest in cardiovascular research and have taken undergraduate coursework which helps prepares them with an understanding of basic or pre-clinical, clinical, social, computer, engineering science concepts 
• select strong recommenders who can speak to their academic/research experience
• show an enthusiastic, growth-oriented mindset and display academic improvement over time
• are proven self-starters who seek out and take advantage of opportunities for personal, academic, and professional development

The number of applicants we receive for our fellowships varies but has grown each year since our program launched in 2020. We typically receive 100-125 applications and ultimately accept between 25-30 students.

Below is the number of available spots for each fellowship:

• NIH R25 Fellowship - 15 spots
• AHA Fellowship - 5 spots
• REACH Fellowship - varies, but typically 6-7 spots annually
• CNU Fellowship - varies, but typically 2 spots

Each summer is slightly different, but generally, the program runs for 10 weeks from late May-late July in person at VCU's medical campus in downtown Richmond. Each fellow will work closely with a faculty mentor at VCU to develop a research project which they will present on in the form of a research poster at the end of the summer. Each fellow will determine with their mentor their schedule and how many hours they will need to work each week to accomplish their research project goals, but in general, fellows are expected to be available and willing to be onsite during the workweek. Depending on their research project and their faculty mentor's specialty, a fellow may work in a lab, in a clinical setting, or an office setting. 

In addition to their mentored research, each fellow will be required to participate in weekly group activities with our faculty which will include:

• Journal Club (workshop to review and discuss scientific articles)
• Skills & Foundations (seminar to gain understanding of the processes contributing to cardiovascular disease)
• Professional Network (presentations from VCU faculty and administrators about their career and research paths)
• Clinical Rotations (onsite rotations through clinical areas across the VCU medical campus)

In addition, there will have opportunities for optional social activities around Richmond so you can explore the city and get to know your cohort in an informal setting.

For a sample weekly schedule, please see here.

The fellowship is a intensive paid internship in which you are expected to embark on a significant research project with your mentor and work towards a final presentation at the end of the summer. Most faculty mentors expect their fellows to treat their fellowship like a full-time job and work during regular daytime business hours. In addition, all fellows are required to attend weekly group workshops and clinical rotations during the workweek. For these reasons, it is not advisable for you to participate in this fellowship if you need to take summer courses or hold a full- or part-time job during daytime hours.

In rare cases, a student might be able to make an arrangement with their mentor (for example, in the event that they have a course they must take during the summer to graduate) but this must be discussed with and approved by your mentor prior to the summer.

Through funding from institutional grants from the AHA and NIH, as well as the generosity of donors, we are able to provide fellows the opportunity to stay in on-campus housing (at no cost to students) during the 10 weeks of the summer fellowship. Since 2022, our program participants have stayed in suite-style rooms (single occupant rooms with a shared bathroom) at VCU's Gladding Residence Center. Our housing contract is renewed on a yearly basis and we expect fellows will be housed in Gladding again in summer 2026, but will know more closer to the start of the summer.

A few things to note:

• Students are not required to stay in the dorms if they have other preferred options. However, housing is not covered if students opt not to stay in the dorms.
• Gym membership at VCU's Cary Street Gym is included.
• Meals/meal plans are not included and must be purchased at the students' own expense. 
• Parking is not included and must be purchased at  the students' own expense. More information can be found here.
• The move-in/move-out dates for summer 2026 will be confirmed closer to the time, but typically students are allowed to move in the Sunday prior to the start of the program and move out the Saturday following the end of the program.

Additional helpful links:

Life around VCU's campus

VCU Campus Maps

First of all, congratulations! We are excited to have you!

If you are part of our CNU, NIH, or REACH programs, please work with the faculty coordinator at your respective institution to get signed up for your spring preparatory course.

As the summer approaches, you will be hearing from our program staff at VCU with a wealth of information about getting onboarded for the 10-week summer experience on campus. Keep an eye out for important details about:

• getting signed up for dormitory housing
• important payment paperwork for your summer stipend
• necessary vaccination requirements to enter clinical environments on our medical campus (required in order to participate in clinical observations)
• setting up a VCU/VCU Health email
• required trainings for research and clinical activities
• the schedule for the summer

Please note: some of your onboarding paperwork (especially payment and clinical clearance) involves multiple departments and must go through several channels to be approved, so we ask that you read all instructions carefully and complete any necessary paperwork in a timely manner so you don't encounter any delays. It's no fun for anyone if you don't get paid on time or can't do a clinical rotation because your paperwork hasn't been approved!