Pre-College Summer Enrichment Program

Jump into the world of innovation and entrepreneurship by building your own startup from the ground up.

• Develop a business model.
• Conduct product market research.
• Design a product prototype and pitch presentation.

Build your own startup from the ground up. Startup Entrepreneurship empowers high school students to transform bold ideas into real-world solutions. This collaborative course introduces students to the Lean Startup methodology, design thinking, and customer discovery as they explore the fundamentals of launching a venture. 
Through hands-on project work and mentorship, students will develop business models, conduct market research, and deliver final pitch presentations—while building leadership skills that enhance college readiness and future career success.

• Dates: June 14–25, 2027
• Modality: Commuter (Silicon Valley campus)
• Cost: $2,650
• Instructor: Yuliya Monastyrska

Dive into the world of ‘phage hunting’, a hands-on experience where you’ll discover, analyze, and decode the DNA of real viruses that infect bacteria.

• Gain hands-on experience in microbiology and genomics.
• Develop essential lab and data skills.
• Explore your own unique phage.

Dive into the world of ‘phage hunting’, a hands-on experience where you’ll discover, analyze, and decode the DNA of real viruses that infect bacteria.

Introduction to hypothesis-driven laboratory research. Students isolate a unique bacteriophage and characterize its structure and genome.

• Dates: June 14–25, 2027
• Modality: Commuter (Silicon Valley campus) with several days of lab work on the UC Santa Cruz main campus (transportation provided)
• Cost: $3,250
  • Prerequisite: Biology, Chemistry preferred
• Instructor: Michael Doody, Ph.D.

Explore how AI models are made; experiment with creating functional AI tools and build a simple language model.

• Explore the foundations of artificial intelligence.
• Practice coding on real research applications.
• Gain technical skills for college success.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the design, development, and responsible use of modern artificial intelligence models, with a particular focus on large language models (LLMs). Students will learn the core concepts and technologies underlying these systems, including their layered architectures, in-context learning, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and fine-tuning. Through hands-on activities, students will build a simple language model, experiment with creating functional AI tools, and critically analyze them for ethical, alignment, and explainability challenges.

• Dates: June 28 – July 16, 2027
• Modality: Commuter (Silicon Valley campus)
• Cost: $3,950
• Instructor: Reza Habibi

Through hands-on projects and collaboration, you’ll design games that engage players and inspire change.

• Learn the fundamentals of game design.
• Use collaborative development tools.
• Create small games that address real-world problems.

Through hands-on projects, and collaboration, you’ll design games that engage players and inspire change.

Video Game Design will focus on the art of game design, including critical elements such as storytelling, character development, plot construction, and the creation of engaging gameplay.

• Dates: June 28 - July 9, 2027
• Modality: Commuter (Silicon Valley campus)
• Cost: $2,650
• Instructor: Reza Habibi

Deploy real-time computer vision and audio AI onto wearable hardware to make the invisible visible

• Explore the foundations of multi-modal AI.
• Build and program a custom embedded system combining micro-cameras, microphone arrays, and edge-computing chips.
• Learn about wearable devices for augmented reality.

Working with small embedded computers, cameras, and microphone arrays mounted on wearable gear (like caps or glasses frames), students will learn core algorithms—such as beamforming, neural network sound classification, and object detection—and deploy them directly to hardware every single day. By the end of the course, students will have engineered a fully functioning wearable device that pinpoints where sounds originate and identifies what is making them in real time, mirroring cutting-edge research in smart glasses and augmented reality (AR).

• Dates: June 14 - June 25, 2027
• Modality: Commuter (Silicon Valley campus)
• Cost: $2,650
• Instructor: Iran Roman, Ph.D.

Explore DNA sequences, model disease mechanisms, and draft an academic research paper this summer.

• Step into the world of biotechnology.
• Gain proficiency using genome browsers and related tools.
• Develop skills in research.

How do scientists locate mutated genes, track pathogens, and uncover the root causes of complex diseases? Guided by an active academic researcher, you will learn about the computational tools used in modern biological research labs. You will explore public genomic databases, analyze DNA and protein sequences, and utilize 3D molecular visualization to model disease mechanisms. Combining hands-on computational exercises with guided scientific writing, you will choose a specific genetic or infectious disease, analyze its underlying genomic data, and draft an academic research paper summarizing your findings.

• Dates: June 14 - June 25, 2027 
• Modality: Commuter (Silicon Valley campus)
• Cost: $2,650
• Instructor: Caison Warner

Hack the planet’s biggest challenges with science, data, and innovation.

• Explore the emerging field of environmental science.
• Gain hands-on experience in field studies.
• Learn about the latest climate solutions.

UC Santa Cruz holds a premier, nationally recognized reputation for environmental studies, famously ranked as a top green college (No. 6 by The Princeton Review).  In this course you will learn the fundamentals of physical Earth systems, data analytics, climate technology, and environmental policy. Designed for high school students interested in practical solutions, the program transitions from core laboratory and computational methods to emerging climate technologies with several field excursions. The course concludes with a capstone project where you will present the results of your research into climate technology or policy solutions.

• Dates: June 14–25, 2027
• Modality: Commuter (Silicon Valley campus)
• Cost: $2,650
• Instructor: Bryn Evans, Ph.D.

Discover how biotech leaders use computational tools, software engineering, and AI to design targeted drugs and personalized medicine.

• Gain hands-on experience with tools used in biotech R&D.
• Explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning are shifting the timeline of drug discovery and personalized diagnostics.
• Design and present an innovative solution to a disease target.

Step into the shoes of biotech product developers to analyze genomic data, model protein structures, and explore how machine learning accelerates drug discovery. Using accessible, web-based computational tools (without requiring prior coding experience), you will learn how raw biological data transforms into real-world medical products, diagnostics, and precision therapies. Working with your team, you will choose a disease target, evaluate computational data, and "pitch" a software-backed diagnostic or therapeutic concept—mimicking a real biotech product strategy meeting.

• Dates: June 28–July 9, 2027
• Modality: Commuter (Silicon Valley campus)
• Cost: $2,650
• Instructor: TBD