CAREER Pre-College 2024 Information and Application

Career Acceleration via Rigorous Educational Experiences in Research (CAREER)

The BioInspired Institute is excited to present a free, 1-week, virtual pre-college program for incoming underrepresented minority and military veteran first-year students expecting to major in STEM disciplines. The highly interactive program will bring together participants from several  institutions, giving students a supportive network at their university and those of the partnering institutions with whom they will start college together.

Running this year July 29-August 2, 2024.

Our partner institutions are North Carolina A&T and Hampton University, strengthened by a decade of collaborative educational programs among the leaders of CAREER. Instructors are research-active faculty at the BioInspired Institute, NCAT, and HU. Additional partners include the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) at Syracuse and Hampton and Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) at NCAT.

Program Highlights:

  • Two faculty members in a discussion with a student in front of a microscope.

    Building your STEM identity by finding community and a sense of belonging

  • Virtual activities, including: neuroscience, advanced manufacturing, and virtual reality data visualization
  • Professional development activities:  networking, writing a personal statement, managing the high school to college transition
  • Research lightning talks from faculty and student researchers
  • Research as an undergraduate: what’s it really like?
  • Resources and support offices at each institution
  • Opportunities for academic year research and mentor matchmaking
  • Career pathways for STEM graduates: pursuing advanced degrees or employment

Eligibility:

  • Be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident and African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; or a U.S. Military Veteran.
  • Have expressed interest in pursuing a baccalaureate degree in any science, technology, engineering, or mathematics field.
  • Agree to attend all CAREER workshops the week of July 29-August 2, 2024, from 10 am – 1 pm EST every day.

Application

Our application  is designed to be easy and fast, with just a few demographic questions and two short essay questions. Your application will be reviewed by our team on a rolling basis, so apply now! Any questions about the application or the program may be directed to bioinspired@syr.edu.

  • Please complete the application online.
  • The application includes two short personal statements – each 250 words or less – describing your career goals in STEM and what you hope to learn by participating in this program. You may find it easier to compose the statements using a word processor, and then copy/paste it into the form.
  • Make sure you check the box indicating that you understand the stated conditions, and submit the form.

Program Schedule

We know many of you are struggling with Zoom fatigue, so we will include frequent breaks. Also, the programming will be highly interactive to keep you engaged and learning! A rough schedule of the activities is shown here, but timing and content is subject to change.

The goals of the program are:

  1. To position students to compete for research experiences, internships, or major-related jobs after the first year of college
  2. To bring awareness of and motivation for pursuing research and graduate school pathways to students before the first year of college
  3. To contribute to study and research skills with which to start college