For Students

Summer Focus

Apply Now! - Download the Summer Focus Application. Deadline: January 9, 2008

Summer Focus provides outstanding high school students with funded research internships at the Washington University Medical Center. Each student works directly with two graduate students, the mentor and the tutor. The mentor works one-on-one with the student in the lab on a specific project, while the tutor prepares the student for their research experience.

Students are selected by a competitive application and interview process which begins in the fall preceding the start of the program the following summer. Students accepted into the program are notified in February. In early spring students are given the opportunity to select a topic in which to do a project based on their own interests. Each student and his/her tutor then meet weekly throughout the spring and into the summer to review materials related to the project. Prior to a student's entry into a lab, he or she will also receive instruction in lab techniques and safety.

At the beginning of the summer, each student joins his/her mentor as a colleague in the lab. The program recruits labs that are interested in teaching young people and in welcoming them both intellectually and socially. Together, the mentor and student develop and carry out a research project that can be reasonably accomplished during the eight week summer program.

Over the summer, students also participate in faculty-led seminars that examine topics in biomedical science and public health. Other events include an open house, a journal club, a writing course, hospital tours, and a picnic. At the end of the summer, students present their research findings to an audience which includes their mentors, tutors, faculty sponsors, teachers, and parents. A closing dinner follows the presentations.

The success of Summer Focus is a result of its highly motivated students, intimate size, emphasis on one-on-one contacts, and individualized lab projects. Each year the program accepts 12 students - 8 from public schools within the City of Saint Louis and 4 from surrounding county schools. To be eligible to apply students must have successfully completed their junior year of high school prior to the commencement of the program. Students are awarded a stipend for the two-month internship.

Recent summer projects were conducted in:

  • Genetics
  • Physical Therapy
  • Developmental Biology
  • Neurosciences
  • Microbiology
  • Ecology
  • Biomedical Engineering

View pictures from the 2002 Summer Focus Program

View pictures from the 2006 Summer Focus Program

Download Summer Focus Student Tracking Form or fill out form on line.