The Step-Up Program provides hands-on summer research experience for high school and undergraduate students interested in exploring research careers.  This is a 8 to 12 week research experience and students receive a summer research stipend.  You will be paired with experienced research mentors at institutions throughout the nation and work on a research project.

Where:  Research Institute (local) TBD for 8 week internship and National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD
When: Summer 2016 for 8 weeks (based on site) August 7th - 11th for Annual Step-Up High School Research Symposium held in Maryland.
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 11        GPA: 3.0 or top 20%

Our flagship program introduces 50 high school girls to the power of political leadership.  This six-day retreat includes workshops led by experts in the field on public speaking, networking, fundraising, on-camera media training, and advocacy.  Young women candidates and elected officials speak to the girls about what it is like to run as a young woman, how to get involved on a local level, and why they feel it is important to get more women elected.  The goal of the program is to encourage the girls to channel their leadership into politics.  

Where:  Washington, DC
When: June 19th - June 25th 
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11        

The Bezos Scholars Program invites 12 of the country's top juniors to the Aspen Institute's Annual Ideas Festival. Here, Bezos Scholars meet visionaries from around the globe - international leaders, acclaimed thinkers, creative artists, bold entrepreneurs - and engage in seminars, tutorials, informal meetings, and debates.  It's a time of great discovery and intellectual stimulation that leads to the second phase of the program which begins when Scholars return to their campus and are provided with the opportunity to apply for financial support to execute a local Ideas Festival at their school campus.  Students involved develop the highest level of civic duty, leadership awareness, and more.

Where:  The Aspen Institute, Aspen, Colorado
When: June 25th - July 1st
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 11

Selected students participate in a five-week summer residency program engaging in one-on-one mentoring and first-hand research training with professors and graduate students at one of five Texas universities. The primary goal of WSSP is to expose talented and inquisitive students to professional researchers in professional laboratories giving them a glimpse into research and life on a college campus. Through assignments, authentic research projects, guest speaker series, tours of chemistry-based research facilities and presentations of personal research findings, students leave the program with a better understanding of basic chemistry and many with a desire to pursue science and engineering degrees in college.

Where:  Texas Tech University, The University of Texas-Arlington, The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of Houston, The University of Texas at Austin
When: June 5th - July 8th
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 10, 11   GPA: 3.5 or top 10%

Interested in exploring mathematics?  Interested in going to college and would like to learn more about applying to college and financial aid opportunities?  Interested in a career in science or math and would like to meet young professionals in the STEM fields?  Interested in interacting with Rice faculty and graduate students and meeting other students who like math?  Then apply for RPiM!

Where:  Rice University
When: June 13th - June 24th
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 9,10,  GPA: 3.5 or top 10%

Blue Stamp Engineering is an intensive 6 week program that teaches motivated high school students to perform hands on engineering.  Blue Stamp Engineering students build projects they are passionate about - from concept to prototype.  Similar to a real world technology setting, students' products are built stepwise with achievable milestones.  BSA sessions include short discussions based on where the students are in their build process. Students are given ample time to work on their projects, supported by hands on instruction from the lead instructor and teaching assistants.  Finally, students are pushed to think about how their products could thrive in the real-world market and how, as engineers, they can influence important developments in our society.

Where:  Houston, TX
When: June 13th - July 22nd
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 9,10,11

SLOT is a three-day leadership development conference for high school juniors and seniors which takes place annually at Texas A&M.  Delegates are students who participate in the conference, and who will be grouped into "roundtables" led by facilitators (current Texas A&M students), as they move through the SLOT leadership curriculum.  Delegates will have the opportunity to learn from Keynote and Breakout speakers who will share their ideas of leadership and how the delegates can further develop their leadership skills.  Delegates will acquire the fundamental skills needed to become effective leaders, and will be provided the necessary tools to make an impact in their community and continue their leadership development journey.

Where:  Texas A&M, College Station
When: April 1 - April 3
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 11

At Concordia Language Villages, our approach to language teaching puts villagers into a grad simulation of a trip abroad and into a culturally authentic setting - similiar to what you might find in that foreign country - but filled with carefully designed learning opportunities and well-trained language teachers who help villagers understand what they hear, learn how to respond and converse, and practice new skills all day, every day.

Where:  Bermidji, Minnesota
When: multiple dates in July and August
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 9,10,11

Princeton welcomes about 20 high school students from across the country for an intensive, 10-day seminar in journalism.  Princeton wants students like you to become part of college and professional newsrooms because of the unique perspective you bring.  Classes are taught by reporters and editors from leading publications, such as but not limited to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The New Yorker, CNN, and ABC News.  You will tour the Times and CNN, cover a professional sports event, cover news events in the Princeton area, film and produce a TV segment, and report, write, edit, and design their own newspaper: The Princeton Summer Journal, which is published on the programs last day.

Where:  Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
When: August 5 - August 15
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 11              GPA: 3.5 or top 10%

Since 1997, the Coca-Cola Pre-College Leadership Program at the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership (formally known as the Leadership Center) at Morehouse College, the first of its kind at a historically black college and university (HCBU), has been a beacon in providing leadership training to high school students and college pre-freshmen. For seven days each summer, students from high schools across the United States are introduced to the traits, skills and behaviors necessary for effective 21st century leadership.. Training sessions are highly interactive and diverse, including lectures, workshops, rituals, journaling and outdoor leadership focused activities. During the week long experience, each day accentuates a leadership principle (love, integrity, courage, wisdom, and hope), and the curriculum builds personal and interpersonal leadership skills using indoor and outdoor group activities. The activities emphasize self-awareness as a basis for better understanding of ethical leadership practices in the 21st century. For many, the experience is life altering.

Where:  Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia
When: June 11 - June 17
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 10,11              GPA: 3.0 or top 20%

The 2016 Procter & Gamble Leadership Academy focuses on the development of leadership using the 4Cs Socio-Ethical Leadership model; Character, Calling, Connection and Contribution. The overarching goal is developing students with disciplined minds to lead and serve in a technology-based global society. The highly interactive curriculum focuses on the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills and the dimension of 21st century leadership domains of sustainability and technology advances in a global society.

Where:  Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia
When: June 18 - June 24
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 10,11              GPA: 3.0 or top 20%

Are you curious about how weather predictions are made? Come to Penn State Weather Camp and find out!  During this week of camp, you will receive hands-on experience in many aspects of weather, including the actual process of making a forecast.  This camp will be held at the premier location for studying weather, Penn State's Department of Meteorology at the University Park campus.

Where:  State College, Pennsylvania
When: June 19 - June 24
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11             

The Curtis W. Clerkley, Jr. Architecture Academy? An introduction and exposure to Architecture in the built, academic and professional realms. The Texas Tech College of Architecture will host it's eighth annual summer program for students that are currently high school juniors to study architecture or someday become part of a community of design professionals. The two-week summer academy is open to Houston-area students interested in architecture, interior design and landscape architecture. The first week will be spent locally at the Clerkley Watkins Group office in Houston, and the second week will be at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX.

Where:  Lubbock, TX
When: June 5 - June 19
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 11             

This intensive two-week workshop is for intellectually curious, motivated high school students who value writing. Develop your creative and critical abilities with language - to become a better, more productive writer and more insightful thinker and leader. Aside from exposure to new and creative ways of writing in a community of peers, the Young Writers program also takes place at a leading liberal-arts college renowned for its tradition of literary study. Here you will meet other talented writers, make new friends from all over the country, and attend a series of public readings by visiting poets, fiction writers, and essayists. This is an amazing experience for an aspiring writer.

Where:  Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio
When: June 26 - July 9
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 10, 11             

Discover engineering through hands-on projects and interactions with engineering students, faculty, and staff at the University of Texas at Austin. You will stay in on-campus dorms, tour research facilities in the department of engineering, attend interactive workshops that highlight each discipline of engineering, and more. Information regarding UT-admissions, financial aid, on-campus housing, and scholarships will also be provided.

Where:  University of Texas at Austin - Cockrell School of Engineering
When: June 5 - June 10
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels:  11             

From Kenai Fjords National Park to the Blue Ridge Parkway, from Rocky Mountain National Park to the Cumberland Island National Seashore, public lands across the United States are in need of a little TLC. SCA?s National Crews offer you a chance to visit places you?ve never seen before, camping with your crew members in the ?eld to enjoy nature at its best. You?ll be building trails, conserving vital habitats, and protecting natural resources for future generations. National Crews will also set you on the path to other SCA opportunities, like Trail Corps and Conservation Internships.

Where:  various location in the U.S.
When: June 6 - August 28
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11        GPA: at least a 2.5     

The future of Healthcare is here, and this course shows just how fascinating it is. Better yet, you?re getting in on the ground floor. The art and science of clinical genetic and radiologic technology is demonstrated with equipment and expertise not available anywhere else in the nation!. Your laboratory experiences provide the basis for their treatment choices and for your discussion of scientific advancements in targeted intensity modulated cancer treatment. Finally you will make a field trip the Proton Therapy treatment facility. Hang on to your hats, because this is not your run-of-the-mill discussion course; it is a hands-on exploration with expert faculty and staff focused on what the serious scientist needs to know for science and technology careers in medicine. It will open your eyes!

Where:  M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital
When: July 5 - July 15
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 9, 10        

This is your chance to solve real business issues with leaders at real Fortune 500 companies. At Basic Camp you will build leadership skills and critical thinking as you tackle these problems at the boardroom table with your business team of students from across the country. Explore the merger & acquisition process through the mentorship of accountants, lawyers, business leaders and more. You will live on a university campus. Successful teams will be invited to the Wall Street Conference where you will visit premier business and financial institutions and leaders in Manhattan, New York.

Where:  Columbia University, New York, New York
When: July 11 - July 22
Who:  Eligible Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11          GPA: 2.5 or top 50%