Speaker 1: One of the most common questions I get on this YouTube channel is Rishabh, how do I get a lab opportunity? How do I get a research internship? And I guarantee you, there's going to be some kid named Rithvik who's going to pop in the comment section of this video and say, Rishabh, I don't have any connections. I'm not going to get an internship, but let me tell you, I will show you the steps you need to get that research internship, to get that opportunity. I didn't have connections back in high school, but I still managed to work in these labs and publish papers and win science fair competitions with that research. Whatever it is you're looking to do, I got your back. So without further ado, let's get into the video. Now the first thing I want you to do before we break into anything else is scroll down to the comment section of this video and type in the following, my goals, colon, one dot, two dot, three dot. I want you to list out three actionable goals that you wish to accomplish in this research opportunity or internship. Now you may be thinking, okay, cool. I listened to him saying that, but I'm not actually going to type it out. But trust me guys, this is something I learned pretty recently. When you actually take this little bit of effort to go in the comment section, I know it seems kind of crazy. I guarantee you, you will actually end up following the steps in this video. All it takes is a little bit of a momentum for us to overcome that laziness, to actually go from just watching a YouTube video and actually executing upon it. There you go. That's your incentive. Now let's get into the actual methods for getting these research opportunities and internships. So option number one is contacting your school. And if I was a freshman in high school, I would be like, dude, my school is completely useless. I go to this public school and they don't have any resources for me. You know, the guidance counselors just say, oh, you're already doing a good job. You know, we don't need to help you. You're doing great. Science teachers will be like, yeah, I mean, just focus on the homework that we gave you. Whatever. We don't really care about the extracurriculars. Guys trust me, email your teachers and your guidance counselor right now. They have some crazy hidden opportunities that you never even knew about. They'll have these lists compiled that will be on some random QR code in the back of the guidance counseling office where the teacher will be making this spreadsheet over their 20 year career of all of these science programs that you never knew about. And it's crazy. So just go right now to your inbox and email your teachers and guidance counselor. It's literally the lowest effort thing that you can do. And it has a chance of being really high ROI where you get access to these amazing opportunities that you wouldn't have known otherwise. Option two is probably the most important thing you can do. And that's a cold email. I don't care what your preconceived notions about cold emailing are. I guarantee you it is the most effective way you can get these research opportunities and internships. But it's probably not working for you because you aren't doing it right. Don't trust me. Here's a cold email for a position that I got in a virology lab when I was 15. Here's one that got me a position in a radiation oncology lab when I was 14. And here's one that got me a position in a neurosurgery lab later when I was 17 or 18. I've made a cold email template for you guys for this video that I guarantee you will have a higher success rate. And I've linked it in the description down below at rishabhacademy.com slash research. It's completely free. And this cold email template will literally improve your success rates massively. But there are also several things to keep in mind. Things that I did that resulted in me actually getting a response from people so that you don't have to keep, you know, sending hundreds of these emails. The first thing that I did is actually read about the lab and read their papers before emailing. Number one, this allowed me to reduce the amount of emails I was sending drastically because if their papers didn't really seem interesting to me, they weren't matching up with my research interests, I would just discard the lab from my list. The second thing that I did is convey my passion. Mentors want to work with someone who's actually interested in the work, who has an innate curiosity for that scientific work. And so I want you to show your passion as well in your emails. And my cold email template will definitely help you guys with this. Number three is to send emails to your local labs. I see you guys all the time saying, hey, I'm contacting professors. And then I ask you, who are you contacting? And you'll list out labs at Harvard, Stanford and MIT. Guys, these are great labs, but unfortunately, they will want to employ undergrads, grad students who are at the university paying tuition and can probably get research fellowships and paid opportunities in that lab rather than high schoolers working remotely. So please go ahead and email the local labs. Not only will you have a way higher success rate, it's something that I did, but also you will get one-on-one experience with mentors, with colleagues in the lab, potentially in person, which are vastly superior to some online internship at Harvard. Option three is to apply to research programs. And don't worry, I'm going to make a full video on applying to research programs. I have a PDF document that I've manually curated with 50 plus research opportunities for you guys. It'll be linked in the description down below once again, and these are legitimate ones, right? You're not spending tens of thousands of dollars to get some fake opportunity where you're matched with a PhD student. You're doing legitimate research. That is one thing that you can trust about this YouTube channel and Rishabh Academy in general. I'm going to manually vet things and make sure that they're right for you rather than taking on sponsorships from these companies that are emailing me. Now, option four is kind of like the last resort. There are ultimately some students who are stuck in situations where let's say they don't have any local labs and then they try emailing other labs and they kind of say no, or they're really young, you know, and sometimes it just doesn't work out. Option one is a little bit desperate, but it's actually to reach out to people on networking sites like LinkedIn. I know it sounds crazy and honestly, it is much less effective than doing things like cold emailing. However, as a last resort, there are opportunities occasionally that are posted on LinkedIn. You can follow me. I occasionally post research opportunities as well. I'll leave it in the description below. But anyway, just create a LinkedIn account, fill in your information, and you can reach out to people and try to get opportunities like that. Option number two is to go to science fairs and conferences. At these sorts of events, you can network with other people, including scientists and teachers potentially, and make connections that you otherwise wouldn't have. Oftentimes these can lead to research opportunities and internships in the future, like next summer. And finally, don't be afraid to just continually ask around. Ask upperclassmen from your school, just message them on Instagram or, you know, continue asking those teachers. Email people from your local university and ask them if they know of any research opportunities for, you know, a middle schooler or a high schooler. But also, worst case, you can always do independent research where you learn tons of things as long as you have the right guide to teach you. And that's what this research playlist is about. So make sure you go watch videos one through three and the next videos, which will be on the screen right now. And finally, join our Discord server where we have tons of like-minded students helping each other out. That'll be linked in the description below. And with that, I'll see you guys next time.