The UC San Diego Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology and Shiley Eye Institute offers a wide range of training opportunities to help undergraduates, postbaccalaureate students, medical students, residents, and fellows in achieving their career goals as well as provide a more in depth understanding of vision science and clinical ophthalmology.
These internship programs provide faculty mentorship, career development, hands-on research experience, networking opportunities, and a wide range of instructional courses.
We also value diversity and inclusion, and these internship programs aim to recruit trainees from diverse backgrounds.
This program is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the Bridges to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI) program, a large trans-NIH initiative to generate new datasets for advancing artificial intelligence (AI).
This yearlong internship program aims at diversifying the future workforce in ophthalmology and vision science, and it will be centered on developing skills and providing early exposure to AI, data science, and research, as well as the opportunity to gain exposure to faculty with expertise in biomedical, clinical, and behavioral research. This program is open to interns from a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels.
The objective of this summer internship program funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) is to train qualified medical students who have an interest in ophthalmology and vision research. The program will include hands-on research experience, career development, and direct mentorship, as well as instruction in areas such as biostatistics, research ethics, and leadership skills.
There are also close collaborations with the UCSD Medical Student in Aging Research (MSTAR) Program as well as the UCSD Summer Internship Program in Biomedical Informatics. This program is open to those who have successfully completed one year of medical school at a US institution before starting the program.
The objective of this program funded by the National Eye Institute is to provide postdoctoral fellows with training and instruction by mentors in ophthalmology and vision research who direct NIH-funded laboratories. The program includes instruction in the area being studied, research experience with a lead mentor as well as professional development seminars, lectures and journal clubs in various disciplines. This program is open to those who have already completed an MD or a PhD.
The objective of the National Eye Institute Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Program Award is to develop outstanding clinician scientists to successfully compete at the national level for NIH grants and help guide new clinician scientists to careers in ophthalmology and vision research. This program offers mentoring, research and education, as well as career development and clinically relevant instructional courses. This program is open to early career faculty.
Learn more about K12 Award ProgramInformation about diversity and inclusion is available through multiple venues. First, there are several websites available that provide information about diversity initiatives across the entire campus (diversity.ucsd.edu) and the (School of Medicine). Many departments have their own websites as well. Virtually all departments at UCSD have identified an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) ambassador, typically a faculty member who spearheads diversity-related initiatives in their areas/specialties and also collaborates with various entities across the medical school.
There are several active affinity organizations for UCSD medical students. These include:
The Association of Native American Medical Students (ANAMS)
The Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association (APAMSA)LGBTQ
Pharmacy and Medical Students (LGBTQ-PhaM)
The Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA)
Medical Students for Justice (MS4J)
The Student National Medical Association (SNMA)
UCSD also offers a curricular pathway called Program in Medical Education – Health Equity (PRIME - HEq), which part of a system-wide effort at the University of California to train physicians better able to meet the needs of the diverse Californian population who are traditionally underserved by the medical system. PRIME-HEq faculty work with students to identify populations or communities at risk for health disparities. Students will then receive exposure, training, and the opportunity to work with the identified group to further their passion in the area and provide knowledge and skills to better equip the students to improve health equity for the group.