Additional offerings to high school students and undergrads

The programs listed below are not sponsored by the CTSI. They are listed here for informational purposes.

NIH STEP-UP Program at UCLA
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health is the sponsor for the STEP-UP Program. The program provides an in-depth, mentored health sciences immersion experience each summer to 25 promising underrepresented high school students who are committed to a career in NIDDK mission areas, including diabetes, endocrinology, metabolism, nutrition, obesity, and digestive, urologic, kidney, and hematologic diseases. The biomedical science research experience is reinforced by an ongoing year round mentoring program to the students from around the nation who otherwise would likely not have access to a promising career path in the sciences.   

CDU Project STRIDE
Project STRIDE will provide an in-depth health science immersion experience to underrepresented high school students. The ten-week clinical research program requires students to work full-time with an assigned mentor on a research project of their interest. Each student writes an abstract on their project, creates a poster and gives a presentation at a Research Day. Participants receive a stipend for their involvement.
All CDU pipeline programs can viewed here.   

Lundquist/Harbor-UCLA Summer Fellowship Program
The Summer Fellowship Program is for outstanding high school seniors to work in a scientific and medical research environment so they can gain firsthand experience in biomedical research. As part of Lundquist/Harbor-UCLA’s Summer Fellowship Program, just a handful of students are chosen each year by a committee consisting of Lundquist/Harbor-UCLA Medical Center faculty members for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Cedars-Sinai High School Outreach Program
This motivational program is open to all Los Angeles-area high school students and is designed to offer a basic understanding of stem cell research. The program is composed of a research week, research lectures and a California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)-funded summer research internship called the Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge (SPARK) Program.

CityLab at UCLA
CityLab at UCLA is a science educational program run by UCLA undergraduate and graduate students to introduce high school students in the Los Angeles area to the rapidly developing world of biotechnology though “hands on” laboratory experience.

UCLA Brain Research Institute (BRI)
The BRI offers a number of programs for K-12 students to learn about neuroscience.

Lundquist/Harbor-UCLA U*Star & RISE Programs
The Minority Access to Research Centers (MARC) Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (U*STAR) Program was created by the National Institutes of Health-National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to increase the number of biomedical and behavioral scientists particularly from underrepresented groups. The MARC program is designed to successfully prepare students for Ph.D. programs in biomedical sciences, which include biology, chemistry, psychology, mathematics, and computer science.

The Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) program – a Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) program – was designed to enhance the research environment at minority-serving institutions, with an overall goal to increase the interest, skills, and competitiveness of students and faculty in pursuit of careers in biomedical research. RISE participants include faculty and students who have the opportunity to conduct research at various institutions, one of which is Lundquist/Harbor-UCLA.

UCLA PREP
UCLA PREP is a seven-week program designed to provide premedical and predental students from disadvantaged backgrounds with a means of strengthening their ability and readiness to study medicine or dentistry.

UCLA BRI SURE
BRI-SURE Pathway is an 8-week, intensive summer research- training program for exceptional undergraduate students interested in pursuing research careers in Neuroscience or Physiology.