We’re now halfway through our Young Scholars’ Program for 2026, as weeks 2 and 3 have concluded. Our 32 scholars are deep into their research this summer — check out their 2026 project lineup [https://stem.northeastern.edu/summer/ysp/ysp2026/].
Week 2 Highlights:
• 6/29: YSPs gave 1 minute TED talks on a variety of random topics to practice public speaking, such as bacon, asteroid defense program, tongue twisters, and quantum mechanics
• 6/30: Amesbury high school teacher Mark Casto led the students on an engineering design activity: designing egg drop devices, with the same constraints (very light weight and fit inside a box) plus an additional random constraint, such as carrying an extra egg, only using 4 material types, no duct tape, etc.
• 7/1: YSP coordinators walked students through resume building and linkedin profiles – YSPs set up their first (or improved) linkedin profiles
• 7/1: NEU BioE Professor Christa Haase gave a talk on using low-cost (foldscope) microscopes to analyze real-world images; students then hand a chance to take these home with them and closely analyze the world around them
• 7/2: YSPs started working on their college essays for college applications
• 7/2: YSPs designed, built, and tested paper rockets – with a twist: the number of fins their rocket was required to have was based on a roll of a six-sided design: students had to get creative when designing rockets using 1 fin, 3 fins, and 10 fins
Week 3 Highlights:
Beyond the lab, students got a front-row seat to real science this week, hearing from:
• 7/6: NEU Biology Professor Thiago Santos gave a talk on food science
• 7/8: NEU ChemE Professor Sara Hashmi gave a talk on Soft Materials
These sessions blended college-level chemistry and science with hands-on, interactive learning — giving our high schoolers a real taste of what research looks like at the next level.
• 7/8: Students spent time peer-reviewing college essays, getting a head start on a strong application season ahead.
• 7/9: The week wrapped up with a scholar favorite: a trip to Northeastern’s **Marine Science Center** in Nahant where students explored the center’s labs and got hands-on with coastal and tidal pool ecosystems. “It was really great to see all the marine animals and learn about our local ecosystems” — one scholar shared after the trip.
We’re officially halfway through the program — and the excitement is building as scholars gear up for their final presentations!
Alina and Jiko build their foldscope microscopes to look at samples of leaves
