Undergraduate scholarships and summer programs, general tips
Other resources
University of Chicago Summer Programs:
Northwestern Resources:
Science games, gifts, and more:
Resources for teachers:
Resources for graduate students and beyond:
Northwestern and CPS partnerships
Northwestern’s Good Neighbor, Great University provides scholarships for CPS students that has led to 156 new CPS enrollees for the 2018 academic year.
STAR Scholarships partners Northwestern with City Colleges of Chicago to offer a Northwestern STAR Scholarship Award to CPS students who complete an associate’s degree at a City College and then come to Northwestern to complete their bachelor’s degrees. In 2017, Northwestern admitted four STAR scholars from City Colleges of Chicago. In 2018, five STAR scholars will be enrolled.
Northwestern Academy is a multi-year college preparation and enrichment program for diverse, academically motivated students from CPS, which has provided hundreds of low-income, academically talented CPS students with no-cost access to classes, academic tutoring, college counseling, test preparation and family workshops to help prepare them for top-tier universities. Northwestern Academy currently serves 270 students from 40 CPS high schools.
Chicago City of Learning, founded with the Chicago Mayor’s office, helps students connect and document both in-school and out-of-school learning opportunities across the city.
The Baxter Center for Science Education is a partnership between CPS’s Lindblom Math & Science Academy and the CPS Department of STEM, SESP and Baxter International Inc. This program is a hub for high school and middle school science curricula, teacher professional development and resources to support authentic and innovative science programs in their schools. To date, the Center has trained 1,200 teachers from 300 schools in CPS.
Lake View High School: Northwestern announced in 2017 an exciting new partnership with Lake View High School. Science in Society is working on a strategic plan to support Lake View’s educational needs. Short-term, this includes providing afterschool academic support for 9th-grade students and opportunities for teacher professional development. More recently, Northwestern hired a coordinator to work directly in Lake View High School to help implement programming.
Science Club Summer Camp (SC2) was developed in partnership with the Department of Science at CPS and represents a novel, best-practices approach to training and supporting CPS teachers. The program includes more than 50 hours of curriculum-based theory and pedagogical training, followed by a two-week practicum teaching experience leading summer science camp at a local Boys & Girls Clubs site. This dual theory-and-practice model better equips teachers for success in the classroom. Now in its development phase, SC2 will train more than 60 teachers and support high-quality summer learning experiences for 400 youth. A $1.2 million federal Science Education Partnership Award from the National Institutes of Health funds the program.
The Women’s Health Science Program offers no-cost science education opportunities to CPS high school female students from underserved communities who are considering careers in science and medicine. One hundred percent of WHSP alumnae go to college, and 82.5 percent are pursuing majors in the fields of science and medicine. In 2010, the program was recognized with The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.
Medill Media Teens: Teens from the Gary Comer Youth Center on the South Side of Chicago participate in a two-year journalism and multimedia program working with Medill students who serve as mentors and teachers. The teens meet with their mentors each week in downtown Chicago to find stories and learn relevant skills that will make them competitive as they progress in school and their careers.
- Most application deadlines are between December and February 1st
- Ask for letters of recommendation early
- Apply to as many as possible, this way you have choices of where you want to live and work for a summer
- There are many resources online for scholarships, so search there first.
- However, we highly suggest that you apply to small, local scholarships. Very very few students apply to these because they think their efforts are better spent on larger scholarships, but the smaller ones have a better acceptance rate. Often time individual high schools, or local organizations that partner with the schools, give away scholarships.
- Summer programs - http://pathwaystoscience.org/ is a good resource for a bunch of summer programs for all levels (high school students, teachers, undergraduates, etc.).
- Check for start dates and end dates and match them up with your spring quarter end dates (this is important for semester vs quarter systems) – Some programs are flexible, so don’t let dates deter you completely. You can always call them if you’re accepted and see if they can accommodate your timeline.
- Science Ambassadors Scholarship: http://www.scienceambassadorscholarship.org/
- College Scholarships for STEM degrees: https://www.scholarshippoints.com/scholartips/scholarships-for-stem-students/
- Gates Millennium Scholarship (http://www.gmsp.org/)
- NSF REU Programs - Research Experience for Undergraduates (https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp)
- SMDEP - Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (http://www.shpep.org/)
- Harvard school of public Health Summer Epidemiology program (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/epidemiology/diversity/summer-program-in-epidemiology/)
- Des Moines University Health PASS Program (https://www.dmu.edu/healthpass/)
- STARS I Summer Research Program (http://science.yalecollege.yale.edu/stars/stars-i-summer-research-program)
- SROP Northwestern Program (http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/diversity/undergraduate-summer-research/)
- Amgen Scholars Program (http://www.amgenscholars.com/)
- A fairly comprehensive list of summer research programs can be found here: https://www.aamc.org/members/great/61052/great_summerlinks.html
- ACS SCI Scholars Internship program for Sophomores and Juniors (https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/students/college/experienceopp/scischolars.html?sc=181106_mem_news_acsmters_scischol)
- ACS Scholars Program (https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/funding-and-awards/scholarships/acsscholars.html?sc=181009_mem_news_acsmters_acsschol)
- Cool competition - Genes in Space
- HHMI EXROP program
Other resources
- Women’s Health Sciences Program
- MORE https://more.northwestern.edu/
- Mentor matching engine: https://app.mentormatchingengine.org/users/sign_in
- FabFems https://www.fabfems.org/
- SciGirls
- Brave Initiatives: https://www.braveinitiatives.com/
- Learning science can be even more fun with science games! Visit: https://www.dorbitalgames.org/
- Other STEM activities occurring in Chicago that students can get involved with during the school year. Here is a good resource: https://www.stemkidschicago.com/
- Chicago MSI Science Minors Program: https://www.msichicago.org/education/out-of-school-time/science-minors/
University of Chicago Summer Programs:
- Chicago EYES: https://cancer.uchicago.edu/education/pipeline-programs/eyes/
- researcHStart: https://cancer.uchicago.edu/education/pipeline-programs/researchstart/
Northwestern Resources:
- Jugando con la ciencia: https://jugandoconlaciencia.weebly.com/
- Northwestern Center for Talent Development
- NU / The Baxter Center: https://bcse.northwestern.edu/
- Northwestern CIERA resources: http://ciera.northwestern.edu/forthepublic.php
- MORE Northwestern: https://more.northwestern.edu/
- OSEP Northwestern: https://ocep.northwestern.edu/
- Science in Society Northwestern: http://scienceinsociety.northwestern.edu
Science games, gifts, and more:
- Chemistry themed board games: https://www.dorbitalgames.org/
Resources for teachers:
- Letters to a Pre-scientist program: http://www.prescientist.org/
- BioBuilder: https://biobuilder.org/
- The Baxter Center for Science Education: https://bcse.northwestern.edu/topics/synthetic-biology
- The Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Program: https://bcse.northwestern.edu/ret/current; https://mrsec.northwestern.edu/k-12-informal-science-programs/
- BioBits: https://www.mybiobits.org/
Resources for graduate students and beyond:
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (Graduate students)
- NDSEG Fellowship (graduate students)
- HHMI Gilliam Fellowship for advanced study
- Marie Curie individual fellowship (for post-doctoral candidates)
- Ford Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship for minorities (graduate level)
- American Heart Association pre-doctoral fellowship (graduate level)
- AAAS Fellowships (usually post-graduate level)
- DOE Computational Science Fellowship (graduate students)
- Josephine de Karman Fellowship Trust (senior undergrads and graduate students)
- Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program (post-doctoral level)
- Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Biomedical Research Fellowships (post-doctoral level)
- L'Oreal USA Women For Women In Science (post-doctoral Level)
- American Association for University Women awards (for women at various stages in their education)
- Graduate Women in Science National Fellowship Program (for women at various stages in their education/career)
- Amelia Earthart Fellowship (for women pursuing a PhD in the field of aerospace-related sciences or engineering)
- Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research (post-doctoral level)
- Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry (The graduate student nominee must have completed a Ph.D. dissertation in chemistry within the 12-month period before the deadline for receipt of nominations.)
- Miller Fellowship at UC Berkeley (post-doctoral level)
- Stanford Postdoctoral Recruitment Initiative in Sciences and Medicine (PRISM) (post-doctoral level)
- Schmidt Science Fellows (post-doctoral level)
- Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans (graduate level; not to exceed their 3rd year in graduate school)
- The National Physical Science Consortium Fellowship (NPSC Fellowship) (undergrads in their final year, early grad students)
Northwestern and CPS partnerships
Northwestern’s Good Neighbor, Great University provides scholarships for CPS students that has led to 156 new CPS enrollees for the 2018 academic year.
STAR Scholarships partners Northwestern with City Colleges of Chicago to offer a Northwestern STAR Scholarship Award to CPS students who complete an associate’s degree at a City College and then come to Northwestern to complete their bachelor’s degrees. In 2017, Northwestern admitted four STAR scholars from City Colleges of Chicago. In 2018, five STAR scholars will be enrolled.
Northwestern Academy is a multi-year college preparation and enrichment program for diverse, academically motivated students from CPS, which has provided hundreds of low-income, academically talented CPS students with no-cost access to classes, academic tutoring, college counseling, test preparation and family workshops to help prepare them for top-tier universities. Northwestern Academy currently serves 270 students from 40 CPS high schools.
Chicago City of Learning, founded with the Chicago Mayor’s office, helps students connect and document both in-school and out-of-school learning opportunities across the city.
The Baxter Center for Science Education is a partnership between CPS’s Lindblom Math & Science Academy and the CPS Department of STEM, SESP and Baxter International Inc. This program is a hub for high school and middle school science curricula, teacher professional development and resources to support authentic and innovative science programs in their schools. To date, the Center has trained 1,200 teachers from 300 schools in CPS.
Lake View High School: Northwestern announced in 2017 an exciting new partnership with Lake View High School. Science in Society is working on a strategic plan to support Lake View’s educational needs. Short-term, this includes providing afterschool academic support for 9th-grade students and opportunities for teacher professional development. More recently, Northwestern hired a coordinator to work directly in Lake View High School to help implement programming.
Science Club Summer Camp (SC2) was developed in partnership with the Department of Science at CPS and represents a novel, best-practices approach to training and supporting CPS teachers. The program includes more than 50 hours of curriculum-based theory and pedagogical training, followed by a two-week practicum teaching experience leading summer science camp at a local Boys & Girls Clubs site. This dual theory-and-practice model better equips teachers for success in the classroom. Now in its development phase, SC2 will train more than 60 teachers and support high-quality summer learning experiences for 400 youth. A $1.2 million federal Science Education Partnership Award from the National Institutes of Health funds the program.
The Women’s Health Science Program offers no-cost science education opportunities to CPS high school female students from underserved communities who are considering careers in science and medicine. One hundred percent of WHSP alumnae go to college, and 82.5 percent are pursuing majors in the fields of science and medicine. In 2010, the program was recognized with The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.
Medill Media Teens: Teens from the Gary Comer Youth Center on the South Side of Chicago participate in a two-year journalism and multimedia program working with Medill students who serve as mentors and teachers. The teens meet with their mentors each week in downtown Chicago to find stories and learn relevant skills that will make them competitive as they progress in school and their careers.