UC Santa Barbara (UCSB): Research Mentorship

The Research Mentorship Program is a competitive, six-week summer program that engages qualified, high-achieving high school students from all over the world in interdisciplinary, hands-on, university-level research. Students will be paired up with a mentor (graduate student, postdoc, or faculty) and choose a research project from a large list of disciplines offered by the program each year.

Over six intensive weeks, students participating in the Research Mentorship Program are actively engaged in the pursuit of new knowledge alongside UC Santa Barbara researchers. Depending on the nature of their project, students will dedicate 30 to 40 hours a week to research. They are expected to utilize the library, participate in fieldwork, and may occasionally find themselves working into the night. Over the course of the program, students will learn to describe their research findings in professional style technical papers, present at a formal university symposium, and earn university credits which will become part of their permanent record at UC Santa Barbara.  

In addition to gaining a deep relationship with their mentor, they will learn about research techniques, gain insight into professional research-based opportunities, and mature their academic goals. The lecture series - GRIT talks - will connect students to some of the best minds among the UCSB research community who present on their ground-breaking research and innovative technology. Along with these academic benefits, the students will be immersed in university life and networked with equally ambitious and curious peers.