Graduate School of Medical Sciences
A partnership with the Sloan Kettering Institute

Science Outreach

Science Outreach at Weill Cornell Graduate School 

The Weill Cornell Graduate School (WCGS) promotes public awareness and understanding of science through science outreach initiatives. By contributing to science education and mentorship in the broader community, the WCGS students, faculty and staff help to spread enthusiasm for the STEM fields among youth in the New York City area.

High School Catalyst Program

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. We encourage applications from individuals from groups traditionally underrepresented in research careers in science, individuals with disabilities defined by the NIH, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds who meet two or more of the criteria defined in NOT-OD-20-031, and/or first-generation immigrant backgrounds. PDF icon Learn more here

2024 Catalyst Program Requirements:
  • Tentative start date: July 8th, 2024
  • Tentative end date: August 16th, 2024 (6 weeks)
  • FULLY IN-PERSON PROGRAM
  • High school student mentees will be paired with a graduate student 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 seminars, workshops, journal clubs, and discussions 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.

For prospective students (not interested in or eligible for the Bioforce program): We are looking for highly motivated, enthusiastic, and committed high school students for the Catalyst Program! Students MUST BE 16 YEARS OF AGE by the start of the program (unfortunately we cannot make any exceptions). If you are interested in applying, our application can be found below. Applications for the 2024 Catalyst Program are due 11:59PM MARCH 22nd, 2024.

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

High School Student Application Links:

High School Catalyst Program
HYPOTHEkids Bioforce Program

More photos from the summer of 2018:

Photo credit: Timothy Lee Photographers

Big Red STEM Day

Held on the Weill Cornell Medicine campus, Big Red STEM Day is a collaborative effort run by students, faculty and staff across Cornell campuses and the New York City Department of Education. While Cornell Tech representatives taught student attendees to create their own Pokémon GO games and SnapChat filters, graduate and undergraduate students from the Ithaca campus showed teens how to use electroplating to make a silver penny and a copper nickel. Medical and biomedical doctoral students taught them how to use staining methods to differentiate bacteria from soil, yogurt and even their mouths, and a Cornell Cooperative Extension associate engaged them in cartography and mapping activities to create their own collaborative design for a neighborhood park.

Stem Day students in NYC

Big Red STEM Day with the Young Women’s Leadership Network

For the second Big Red STEM Day on Friday, July 14, 2017, Weill Cornell Medicine’s Division of Government & Community Affairs, the Cornell Center for Materials Research, Cornell Tech, the NYC Cornell Cooperative Extension, and the Weill Cornell Graduate School partnered with the Young Women’s Leadership Network (YWLN) to provide 80 girls from their summer Explorers Camp a full day of workshops to excite them about STEM related careers and education.

Hosted at 1300 York Avenue, participants were greeted by welcome address speaker, Dr. Nicola Dell of Cornell Tech.  They participated in STEM education workshops ranging from “Tell Alexa What to Do: Building Skills for the Amazon Voice-Activated Personal Assistant” to “If You Build It, They Will Come,” “Diabetes:  Exploring Advances in Long-Term Glycemic Control” and “Electroplating” according to personalized schedules built from their individual preferences.  Workshop facilitators and WCM graduate students facilitated meaningful conversation about STEM education and STEM careers and Dean Augustine M.K. Choi provided remarks at the commencement of the lunch hour.

Big Red STEM Day 2018 was held on February 27 with New York City high school students.

Children’s Health Council Family Science Day 

Tri-I Outreach Club (TOrC) assists the Weill Cornell Children’s Health Council in creating a morning of science events for elementary-school-aged children and their families. In February of 2015, TOrC members planned and implemented a rotation of four stations for older children and two stations for younger children. Activities for older children were: Microscope/Strawberry DNA activity (Molecular Biology), Molecular Modeling (Molecular Science), Brushbots (Physics), and Slime (Chemistry). Activities for younger children were Fossils (Earth Science) and Brain Hats (Neuroscience).

Brain Awareness Activities

Neuroscience-related activities are carried out in public schools throughout the boroughs of NYC (including Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan) by graduate students, post-docs, and faculty from the Tri-I volunteer network. These events are planned in collaboration with Rockefeller Outreach and involve meeting with three or four classes of students per visit. Activities include: the jelly bean taste test, touch receptor test, reaction time test, sensory perception test, memory tests, comparative neuroanatomy, and a neuron card game. Approximately 825 students in grades 3-5 participated in these activities over the seven visits in 2015, and we expect to reach 1,000 students across the NYC area in 2016.

Science Days 

In collaboration with Rockefeller outreach, TOrC volunteers plan and host full days of science for classes of high school students. Activities have included a STEM-themed day with different hands-on stations representing each field as well as students isolating and visualizing mitochondrial DNA. During the lunch hour, volunteers interact with students, sharing their “scientific journeys,” answering questions, and discussing various career options for students interested in science. Watch the video made by Cathedral High School students at the June 2014 event: http://animoto.com/play/S8qdy2MpmwroYJP2pioGsg

Students Modeling A Research Topic (SMART) Program & Symposium 

The SMART program is run globally through the Milwaukee School of Engineering and involves high school students working closely with a scientific mentor to complete a research project involving the study of a protein through its structure and function. TOrC matches volunteers to mentor teams of students throughout the winter and spring. This experience culminates in a symposium attended by the students, teachers, and family members of the NYC area high schools. Students give brief oral presentations on their research projects followed by a poster session.

Cornell Science Sampler Series 

The Cornell Science Sampler Series (CSSS) is a collaboration between several of the outreach offices of Cornell's research centers and departments to provide teacher professional development in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. For more information please visit: https://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/education/teacher-programs/cornell-stem-workshop/

Volunteer today!

Join the Tri-I Outreach Committee!

Weill Cornell Medicine Graduate School of Medical Sciences 1300 York Ave. Box 65 New York, NY 10065 Phone: (212) 746-6565 Fax: (212) 746-5981