Cultivating Health & Aging Researchers by Integrating Science, Medicine, & Aging (CHARISMA)

CHARISMA is a program that prepares undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds to become clinical research leaders to address the health needs of an aging America. A diverse medical and scientific workforce is critical to ensuring that the knowledge available to future health care providers, researchers, and policymakers is informed by diverse individuals who are most familiar with the needs of an equally diverse older population.

CHARISMA offers undergraduate students a variety of research training and clinical shadowing opportunities, including:

• A didactic curriculum focused on aging-related conditions and diseases across the lifespan, and the methodological approaches to studying these conditions and diseases,
• A clinical research experience where students learn to recruit, consent, and interview patients to collect data as a part of a team studying issues relevant to hospitalized older adults,
• A faculty mentored, aging-related research project, and
• A clinical mentorship and shadowing program.

While training activities take place at the University of Chicago, undergraduates from all Chicago area colleges and universities who are in their first 3 years of undergraduate training are welcome to apply.

Applications for the 2025-26 CHARISMA program are currently open, and prospective fellows can apply through our online portal found here. Applications are due by January 24, 2025, and programming will begin June 9, 2025.

Prospective applicants are also encouraged to learn more about other undergraduate training opportunities with the Hospitalist Project. If you have any questions or would like to know more please email us at hospitalistresearch@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu.

Researchers interested in learning more about the instruments used to evaluate the CHARISMA program and/or in accessing data once it becomes available should review the CHARISMA Research and Evaluation Page.

 

Program Timeline & Funding

CHARISMA fellows participate in the program for at least 1 year but are highly encouraged to complete the total 3 year program. Designed as a multi-year program, CHARISMA offers progressive research, clinical, and didactic experiences that build on one another as fellows advance through their undergraduate careers and culminate in an independent research project.

The CHARISMA program begins in the summer and continues throughout the academic year:

• Summer 2025: CHARISMA program begins. Fellows complete a research assistantship with UChicago Hospitalist Project while working full time (37.5 hours per week) for 10 weeks beginning June 10. Fellows receive a $5,500 stipend.
• Academic Year (Fall 2025, Winter 2026, and Spring 2026): CHARISMA fellows participate in the program approximately 10 hours per week. Fellows receive hourly pay for a research assistantship with the Hospitalist Project during the academic year.

We will work with each accepted fellow to design a schedule that meets the needs of their school’s academic calendar and coursework.

 

Program Activities

The below information highlights CHARISMA program activities across each year in the program with descriptions of each component below. Across all components, fellows receive mentorship from clinical and research faculty at the University of Chicago.

First Year Fellows Summer

• Didactic Curriculum
  • START Course; Intro to Clinical Research Seminar; MSTEM & Aging Journal Club.
• Research Mentorship
  • Faculty mentored, team-based research project pairings and initial meetings; research team learning agreements signed.
• Clinical Mentorship
  • Experience interviewing patients on UCHP; clinical skills training with Dr. Wiilliams; Interviews with residents at Montgomery Place and tour.
• Clinical Research Experience
  • UCHP Onboarding; UCHP RA pathway (RA1, RA2, CRA)
• Meetings with CHARISMA Leadership
  • Check ins with Staff and Faculty Directors; mid-summer check in survey

First Year Fellows Academic Year

• Didactic Curriculum
  • MSTEM & Aging Journal Club
• Research Mentorship
  • Faculty mentored team based projects; CHARISMA Poster Session
• Clinical Mentorship
  • Delirium Rounds
• Clinical Research Experience
  • UCHP RA pathway (RA1, RA2, CRA)
• Meetings with CHARISMA Leadership
  • Journal Club check ins; one-on-one meetings with Directors; mid-year check in form

Second & Third Year Fellows/Affiliates Summer & Academic Year

• Didactic Curriculum
  • Outcomes Research Workshop (ORW); Lead article discussions for Journal Club
• Research Mentorship
  • Faculty mentored independent project or thesis; mentorship of 1st yr fellows; submission of abstracts and peer reviewed publications, ADAR summit; CHARISMA Poster Session
• Clinical Mentorship
  • One-on-one shadowing; participate and attend SHARE events
• Clinical Research Experience
  • Senior Clinical Research Assistant (certified trainer)
• Meetings with CHARISMA Leadership
  • Serve on Student Advisory Committee; Check-ins during Journal Club; one-on-one meetings with Directors; mid-year check in form

Didactic Curriculum

CHARISMA Seminar Series
Fellows participate in a seminar series that will occur weekly over the course of the year during University of Chicago summer quarter. The seminar series will feature faculty presentations and will include topics in:

• MSTEM aging-related research
• Career development
• Clinical research

The seminar series typically takes place on Wednesdays from 3:45-5:00 pm; changes to the schedule will be announced in advance.

Journal Club
Fellows participate in a journal club that will occur monthly over the course of the year during University of Chicago academic quarters (Autumn, Winter, and Spring). The journal club will feature panel discussions, faculty presentations and will include topics in:

• Career development
• Clinical research
• Training in research poster presentation

The journal club typically takes place on the first Monday of each month from 4:30-6:00 pm; changes to the schedule will be announced in advance.

Undergraduate Scholars in Translational Aging Research Training (U-START) Course
This mini course features faculty members at the University of Chicago presenting on aging-related research topics in the basic, clinical, translational, and social sciences. This course is offered during the summer quarter when CHARISMA fellows are engaged in program activities full-time.

Clinical Research Experience

The University of Chicago Hospitalist Project (UCHP) is a large clinical research infrastructure program that collects longitudinal data on all patients hospitalized on the general medicine services at UChicago, many of whom are older adults.

As research assistants (RAs) for UCHP, CHARISMA fellows learn to recruit, consent, and collect patient-reported data through an in-person interview during hospitalization for all patients admitted to the UChicago general medicine services and collect patient-reported data from these patients by phone one month after hospital discharge. The data collected is relevant to aging-related clinical and translational research and includes information on health and functional status, activities of daily living, social support, health literacy, frailty, and fatigability.

CHARISMA Fellows will progress in responsibility and involvement in UCHP over time, so that as they learn and master certain skills, they are challenged with new responsibilities that expose them to the entire process of an active aging-related clinical research project.

During the summer, fellows will participate in the program full time and will work on the UCHP around 35 hours per week with an additional 2.5 hours per week in professional development and mentorship.

Mentored Research Project

Under the mentorship of a faculty mentor in aging-related research, Year 1 CHARISMA fellows will work together in small groups on a research project. It is expected that groups will meet on average twice per month with their mentor and will gain exposure to designing a research study, collecting data, and analyzing the data. Fellows will present their projects at an end-of-year presentation session in May.

Mentors may include faculty from clinical units such as general internal medicine, hospital medicine, geriatrics and palliative care, hematology/oncology, and others. Examples of past research topics include anemia, transfusion, and fatigability; activity patterns and frailty; clinical implementation of pharmacogenomics; impact of dental care on systemic health; and diet and kidney stones.

Fellows who continue in the program in Year 2 will have the opportunity to continue working with their research mentors. In Year 3, the fellow will work on an individual project that may lead to the development of a senior thesis, submission of an abstract to a professional conference, or a submission of a peer-reviewed journal article.

Delirium Rounds

Fellows will have the opportunity to shadow physicians both in the hospital and in outpatient settings to gain exposure to clinical care for older adult populations.

Eligibility

• Candidates must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate degree program at a Chicagoland college or university.
• Candidates who are not based at the University of Chicago must be able to travel to the University of Chicago for training activities. Funds to help offset travel costs for students from outside the University of Chicago may be available.
• Candidates should be in their first year, second year, or third year of undergraduate training when they apply to the program. First- and second-year students are strongly encouraged to apply.
  
• Candidates do not need prior experience in the aging field or in clinical research nor do they need to have committed to a career in MSTEM. Candidates who are interested in learning more about these fields and/or exploring career options are encouraged to apply.
• Candidates must be able to commit 12 calendar months to the program, including 37.5 hours per week during the Summer Quarter and approximately 10 hours per week during the school year.
• Because a focus of this program is to train a diverse future research workforce in aging, we encourage individuals from groups identified by NIH as nationally underrepresented in MSTEM research to apply for this opportunity. These groups include:
  • Individuals from racial and ethnic groups that have been shown by the National Science Foundation to be underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis, including Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, American Indians or Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. For more information on racial and ethnic categories and definitions, see NOT-OD-15-089.
  • Individuals with disabilities, who are defined as those with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, as described in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended.
  • Individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, defined as those who meet two or more of the following criteria:
    • Were or currently are homeless, as defined by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (Definition: https://nche.ed.gov/mckinney-vento/);
    • Were or currently are in the foster care system, as defined by the Administration for Children and Families (Definition: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/focus-areas/foster-care);
    • Were eligible for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program for two or more years (Definition: https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/income-eligibility-guidelines);
    • Have/had no parents or legal guardians who completed a bachelor’s degree (see https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018009.pdf);
    • Were or currently are eligible for Federal Pell grants (Definition: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/fpg/eligibility.html);
    • Received support from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) as a parent or child (Definition: https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-eligibility-requirements).
    • Grew up in one of the following areas: a) a U.S. rural area, as designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer (https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/rural-health), or b) a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services-designated Low-Income and Health Professional Shortage Areas  (qualifying zip codes are included in the file). Only one of the two possibilities in #7 can be used as a criterion for the disadvantaged background definition.

How to Apply

Candidates should complete the online application form found here by January 24, 2025. Candidates may be invited for an interview by Zoom or over the phone.

Candidates will be asked to submit the following information: 

• Statement of interest that includes why you are interested in the program, why you are interested in field of aging, and what you hope to gain from participating
  • We recommend including details on your career aspirations and barriers to a career in medicine/research
  • 300-500 words recommended
  • You will be asked to copy and paste your statement into a text box in the application form
• Resume
• Unofficial undergraduate transcript

Candidates who would like to begin working on the Hospitalist Project as a research assistant prior to the start of CHARISMA should contact hospitalistresearch@bsd.uchicago.edu.

 

Contact Information

Please contact Lisa Dubin, Assistant Director of Training Programs and Communications at ldubin@bsd.uchicago.edu with any questions.

Core program faculty include:

David Meltzer, MD, PhD
Program Director
Fanny L. Pritzker Professor of Medicine
Chief, Section of Hospital Medicine
dmeltzer@uchicagomedicine.org

Micah Prochaska, MD, MS
Program Co-Director
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Section of Hospital Medicine
mprochas@uchicagomedicine.org

Shellie Williams, MD
Program Co-Director
Associate Professor of Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Care
swillia2@uchicagomedicine.org

Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP
Program Assistant Director
Professor of Medicine, General Internal Medicine
varora@uchicagomedicine.org

Stacie Levine, MD
Program Assistant Director
Professor of Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Care
Chief, Section of Geriatrics and Palliative Care
slevine@uchicagomedicine.org

Kate Thompson, MD
Program Advisor and Mentor
Associate Professor of Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Care
Katherine.Thompson@uchicagomedicine.org