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The High School Catalyst Program (previously The Weill Cornell Medicine High School Immersion Program) is a partnership between the Weill Cornell Graduate School and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Postdoctoral Association. The High School Catalyst Program is designed to offer hands-on biomedical research experience to New York high school students.

The Catalyst Program also runs in collaboration with the non-profit HYPOTHEkids organization which runs the New York Bioforce program. Students interested in participating in the Catalyst program are encouraged to apply directly to NY Bioforce.

The Catalyst Program is running fully in-person. The goals and overarching expectations for the Catalyst Program are to provide high school students with a rigorous 6-week biomedical research experience. High school students will work closely with a graduate student or postdoctoral mentor to advance a scientific project in a WCM or MSK laboratory as well as attend a selection of journal clubs, panels, and workshops designed to introduce high school students to medical research and life as a scientist. Once students are accepted into and complete the NYbioforce training, they will be matched with mentors in our program or other research institutions based on their scientific interests, and the specifics of the project will be designed by the mentor and shaped by their expertise. At the conclusion of the program, students will present their research in the form of a poster at a Catalyst closing ceremony as well as to the public at a Student Research Symposium. The Catalyst Program requirements can be found below: 

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2026 Catalyst Program Requirements:

  • Start date: July 6, 2026
  • End date: August 14, 2026 (6 weeks)
  • FULLY IN-PERSON PROGRAM
  • High school student mentees will be paired with a graduate student, staff scientist, or postdoctoral associate mentor to be guided through developing a research project and conducting in-person research.
  • High school student mentees are expected to be in the laboratory for approximately 25 hours a week with their mentor to advance their research skills and obtain hands-on experience planning and performing experiments.
  • High School student mentees are expected to attend their mentor's lab meetings as well as program journal clubs, panels, and workshops throughout the program.
  • High school student mentees will present their research to their peers at the conclusion of the program in the form of a poster.

In general, high school students are expected to learn about their mentor’s research area (typically will also include attending their mentor’s lab meetings), assist with experiments at the bench, and present their findings and summer research topic at the conclusion of the program. Accordingly, mentors are expected to provide mentees with the necessary reading materials for introducing them to the research topic, design a scientific project for mentees at the appropriate level, and guide mentees through both the hands-on portion as well as the intellectual journey of the summer research experience. Importantly, mentors are expected to dedicate a significant portion of their time and effort to supporting their Catalyst mentees during the 6-week program. Mentor/mentee pairs should follow the basic program requirements below, but have the flexibility to exceed them.

High School Student Application Links:

If you have any questions about the program, please email hscatalystprogram@gmail.com and one of our program leadership will get back to you.
 

For graduate students, staff scientists, or postdocs interested in serving as Catalyst mentors:

Please email program Co-President, Noah Yardeny (noy4002@med.cornell.edu) directly with your name, position, laboratory, and broad research topic. Graduate students who are interested in serving as mentors must be post-ACE. First-year graduate students may be eligible to serve as a co-mentor with a post-ACE student or postdoc.

Application Information

Applications for the 2024 Catalyst Program are now closed. Please check back later for information on the upcoming application for 2025. 

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