Purpose Research Internship 100% Remote

RESEARCH-AS-PRACTICE INTERNSHIP / CONNECT TO PURPOSE

Academic Credit Eligible

VOICE UP PURPOSE RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS INTERNSHIP

Make the Difference

Exploring Purpose Through Thinking, Revision, and Practice

The Voice Up Research-as-Practice Internship offers undergraduate and graduate students a unique opportunity to explore research through the lens of purpose, identity, and real-world contribution—with a special focus on how thinking becomes visible through revision, reflection, and sustained practice. Like all Voice Up pathway internships, this experience is grounded in The Fuller Method of reflective mentoring and narrative identity development, The B Curriculum (Be Curious, Be Honest, Be Courageous…), and Voice Up’s Five Core Principles.

Research is often misunderstood as something reserved for experts or something that begins only after certainty. This internship invites students to explore a foundational question that sits at the heart of the Voice Up research culture: What becomes possible when people are given safe space to begin before they are asked to perform? The internship treats drafts, reflections, revision trails, and learning artifacts as legitimate sources of developmental evidence—capturing how clarity, agency, and purpose can strengthen over time through practice rather than pressure.

Rather than focusing only on “final outputs,” students connect their lived experience, cultural background, community context, and academic interests to the deeper systems question of how learning and contribution emerge. Participants leave not only with applied research experience, but also with greater clarity of purpose, stronger confidence, and a personal blueprint for ethical contribution in research and real-world settings.

Learning Goals

By the end of the internship, students will understand research as a purpose-oriented discipline shaped by humility, care, ethical responsibility, and the disciplined practice of observation. Participants will learn how reflective writing, revision, feedback, and persistence can be studied as developmental signals—especially within longitudinal contexts.

Students will develop core skills including:

qualitative research thinking (meaning-making, narrative signals, process observation)

documentation and audit-trail practices appropriate to research settings

mixed-methods awareness (how qualitative traces can be paired with descriptive indicators)

cultural humility and ethical handling of identity-relevant reflections

systems-level thinking about how environments shape participation and learning

Each participant will design a Research Practice Blueprint—a structured capstone artifact that documents an area of inquiry (e.g., revision, learning persistence, purpose language, feedback uptake), proposes an ethically defensible approach to studying it, and articulates the student’s emerging identity as a research contributor.

Internship Structure (8–12 Weeks)

Phase 1: Foundation + Personal Research Narrative

Students explore their own learning story, what brought them to research, and how purpose shows up in their curiosity. They also review examples of research artifacts (drafts, reflections, revision histories) to understand research as practice.

Phase 2: Community Understanding + Systems Scanning

Students examine how environments support or block learning and contribution, using structured observation, light literature review, and a “needs scanning” approach for what makes practice spaces safe and sustainable.

Phase 3: Design + Documentation Practice

Students apply documentation protocols to real research artifacts (under supervision), learning to track continuity and change ethically without ranking people, diagnosing, or making outcome claims.

Phase 4: Capstone Blueprint + Contribution

The final phase culminates in a Research Practice Blueprint, including: a structured capstone artifact, documentation samples, reflective writing, and a contribution to the Voice Up Purpose Library (where appropriate). An optional advanced track may include exposure to research support functions such as methods documentation, transparency artifacts, and longitudinal wave preparation.

Participation & Alignment

Students may participate for academic credit, volunteer service, or through Voice Up learning pathways, with all pathways receiving the same level of mentorship and access.

This internship is especially aligned for students in psychology, education, sociology, public health, learning sciences, human development, and research methods training. It supports early pipeline development for future researchers, analysts, educators, and ethically grounded practitioners.

Boundary Statement (Applied to All Voice Up Pathway Internships)

This internship is non-clinical and non-diagnostic. It does not provide therapy, does not replace existing supports, and does not make causal or outcome claims. Intern activities are supervised and limited to ethical observation, documentation, and structured learning consistent with Voice Up’s research governance standards.

Unlike competitive programs that reward confidence, speed, or visibility, The Purpose Games are intramural by design. This means participation is open, voluntary, and inclusive. People can speak or remain quiet. Lead or observe. Try, pause, return, and try again. The goal is not to win—it is to practice being human with intention.

The Purpose Games are grounded in three core ideas:

Purpose is a practice, not a personality trait.

People do not “find” purpose once and keep it forever. Purpose evolves as people reflect, relate, and contribute.

Belonging precedes contribution.

People are far more likely to engage meaningfully when they feel safe, respected, and included.