Deadline to Apply: March 10, 2025
While college education is an important stepping stone for financial and personal success, it has been widely documented that students from lower socioeconomic and underserved communities are not afforded the same opportunities as their peers. This extends to access to opportunities in neuroscience research.
Our mission is to work towards rectifying these inequalities, to improve neuroscience research and clinical care, and to improve inclusivity in academia and in health outcomes. One way we address this is through providing a week-long summer program for high school students to explore neuroscience career paths. We seek talented, motivated high school students who are curious and excited about learning.
We believe in the mantra ‘think globally and act locally’. Thus, our program focuses on providing access for high school students in the Twin Cities larger metropolitan region. We actively encourage engagement and feedback from the community to continuously improve our program. Future growth areas include expanding to other research areas and larger geographical areas.
DEADLINE TO APPLY IS MARCH 10, 2025
Learn more about our Go4Brains program by watching this short video.
Engage high school students (9-11th grade) that have faced barriers to access science and medicine related opportunities.
Educate them about neuroscience content in a way that excites and allows students to see themselves thriving in the field.
Foster curiosity and appreciation for scientific methods, including through demonstrations and direct experimentation.
Create community and provide students with a support network. This includes: Providing opportunities for team building during the program. Providing students with interactions with undergraduates pursuing careers in research. Providing an undergraduate mentor, a graduate student mentor, and a professor mentor.
Encourage ownership and continuity of education, including via student content creation, outreach and/or research participation during the school year, and welcoming students back for multiple years.
Ensure the program is accessible and demonstrate that the students and their contributions are valued, including via covering travel expenses and providing a stipend.
Go4Brains is a week-long program offered by the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota geared for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade high school students that have faced barriers to access science and medicine related opportunities. The program provides increased awareness of careers in neuroscience, provides students with engaging neuroscience learning activities, basic career and experimental skills, and establishes mentoring connections with faculty and students for long-term support. Throughout the week, students will attend short lectures, a poster session, and career skills workshops, learn about brain research, and make network connections. Students will learn useful and practical information for how to begin and succeed in a career within a Neuroscience field.
Twelve lucky students who enroll in the summer program will be selected from Twin Cities schools by letters of reference from either their science teachers, an organization leader, or a church pastor. We aim to increase the broadest possible participation in Neuroscience by strongly encouraging all students, especially those from groups that have been historically underrepresented in the US biomedical workforce, to apply on our website by taking an enrollment survey and returning the completed signed form back to us by Monday, March 10, 2025. Students will be notified in April 2025 of their acceptance into the program. The summer program is scheduled for July 21-25, 2025.
Sincerely,
Department of Neuroscience
University of Minnesota