Rice Research Experience for High School Teachers
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Rice Summer Academy for High School Students
The Hamill Foundation and  HHMI-funded Rice Summer Academy for High School Students currently consists of two well-established summer internship programs - The Science Academy of South Texas Summer Intern Program and The Milby Science Institute/YES College Preparatory School Summer Intern Programs.  Both of these summer programs for high school seniors have been ongoing for over 10 years and are currently sponsored and administered by the Rice Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering.  Click here to view the Summer Academy for High School Students brochures.

The Science Academy of South Texas Summer Intern Program is a joint effort between Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine and South Texas Independent School District to provide enhancement opportunities for the South Texas Academy, a magnet science and technology school in Mercedes, Texas serving Grades 9-12.  This school district covers the three counties of the Rio Grande Valley and provides exceptional programs for their students.  The purpose of the program is to expose the participating students to the college experience and to give them an idea of what the various science and engineering fields encompass.

The Milby Science Institute/YES College Preparatory School Summer Intern Programs is a joint effort between Rice and the Houston Independent School District to aid Milby, an inner city school, in its magnet science program.  This high school enrolls over 3,300 students, 94% from underrepresented minority groups.  In 2002, ten students from the YES (Youth Engaged in Service) College Preparatory School joined eleven students from Milby.  The 2003 program included ten students from Milby and thirteen from YES.

YES serves Grades 6-12.  The school, which graduated its first class in June 2001, consists of predominately Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students and offers a rigorous college preparatory curriculum.  Parents and students all sign a Contract of Commitment to do "Whatever It Takes" to successfully matriculate to and graduate from a four-year college or university.  Every student is required to gain admittance to a college or university in order to receive a high school diploma. 

During their stay at Rice, the Milby/YES interns live in one of the residential colleges (dorms) during their stay here so they are immersed in the culture of "college life."

IBB-Harmony Science Academy Collaboration
IBB is formalizing a collaboration with the Harmony Science Academy so that we can strengthen the connections to the community.  This is a new collaboration that is separate from IBB’s current IBB Summer Academy.  IBB Faculty mentors will mentor Harmony Science Academy students over the year. In addition to working with highly motivated students with an interest in science and engineering, IBB faculty can use this opportunity as an outreach component to ongoing grants from agencies like the NSF.  It is also an opportunity for interested graduate students and postdocs to reach out into the community and foster science education.

The expectations of the Harmony Science Academy are the following:

• Mentorship on a research project that our students can be involved in to gain experience in scientific research. This can be an ongoing project or a brand new project that can start with involvement of our students.

• To enable our students to apply the scientific method, which they have learned at the school, to solve real life problems.

• To expose our students to college and research environment.

The students plan to use this experience to participate in school wide science fairs and prestigious competitions like, the International Sustainable World – Energy, Engineering, & Environment -- Project Olympiad called “I-SWEEEP.”

For more information, click on the following two links:  The Harmony Science Academy &  I-SWEEEP.

Currently, the following Rice faculty are/or will be mentoring Harmony Science Academy students in their labs:  Drs.  George Bennett, Lin Zhong, Sibani Biswal, Ramon Gonzalez, Pulickel Ajayan, Emilia Morosan, Junichiro Kono, Jennifer West, and Anatoly Kolomeisky.