2019 EXPLORE SITES
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)
Program Dates: Saturday, July 20, 2019 – Friday, August 2, 2019 (Session III, 2 weeks)
Career Field(s): Arts, Media, Technology, Engineering
Program Fees: $850.00
Students will have the opportunity to work with Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) faculty and graduate students in a two week immersive program which introduces design thinking and fabrication techniques. The workshops are coordinated by design faculty and Co-Principal of I/O, Betty Kassis and facilitated by two graduate-level architect students. Located at SCI-Arc, students will take advantage of some of the most advanced resources in the country, and experience the energy of this vital and creative institution. Through a unique series of innovative exercises, students will learn basic 3D modeling skills using Rhino and an introduction to graphical literacy using Photoshop and Illustrator. Emphasis is placed on the production of physical models constructed through a digital workflow, and the representation of these models for the students evolving portfolios. Students will also learn key design concepts, related vocabulary and communication skills through desk critiques, pinups and reviews.
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA)
Career Field(s): Science, Technology
Program Dates: Saturday, June 15 – Friday, July 5, 2019 (Session I, 3 weeks)
Program Fees: $975.00
A student will have the opportunity to work with Assistant Professor, Dr. Alexandra (Sasha) Wright, and her team of graduate level student researchers at CSULA’s Department of Biological Sciences. Dr. Wright is a Plant Biologist and Theoretical Ecologist who is committed to addressing ecological problems through research and education and is currently working on several projects involving how plants interact in extreme environments. She has published more than a dozen research papers on plant biodiversity and ecological responses to climate change. As part of her research team, the student will help conduct fieldwork at CSULA’s campus greenhouse and at grassland sites around Los Angeles. By the end of the session, the student will be able to identify at least three grassland species in the field, explain how humidity affects plant performance, and operate basic plant physiology equipment.
Prerequisites: Experience and interest working outdoors in hot weather, doing sometimes strenuous fieldwork. Enjoy hiking and being outside. Applicants must be 17 years of age (or turning 17) at the start of the program to be placed at this site.
BIOLOGY & BIOENGINEERING
California Institute of Technology (CalTech)
Program Dates: Saturday, June 15, 2019 – Friday, July 26, 2019 (Session I + II, 6 weeks)
Career Field(s): Science, Technology, Engineering
Program Fees: $1,950.00
A student will have the opportunity to work with Dr. David Van Valen and his research team in the Department of Biology and Bioengineering at California Institute of Technology. Dr. Van Valen Dr. Van Valen’s Lab studies how living systems and their respective viruses encode and decode information about their internal state and their environment. To do so, they combine ideas from cell biology and physics with recent advances in imaging, machine learning, and genomics to make novel measurements. By the end of the session, the student will understand the need for training data to empower supervised machine learning methods and become familiar with cloud computing and deep learning-based computer vision methods.
Prerequisites: A strong background in biology and physics. Programming experience, preferably Python and Javascript. Applicants must be 15 years of age or older at the start of the program to be placed at this site.
BIOMATHEMATICS
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Program Dates: Saturday, June 15, 2019 – Friday, July 5, 2019 (Sessions I, 3 weeks) *Note: Session duration has recently changed due to the mentors’ schedules.
Career Field(s): Science, Technology, Health
Program Fees: $975.00
Students will have the opportunity to work with UCLA Professor, Dr. Van Savage, and Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr. Alex Brummer, in the Department of Biomathematics, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biology. The students will use mathematical and computational approaches to understand the causes and consequences of the extraordinary diversity in form and function that exist in biological systems. A key area of study has been on vascular systems that deliver vital materials and how their structure dynamics differ in plants versus animals, across tissue, and between healthy and diseased states such as tumor growth or stroke recovery. Understanding these differences involves intuiting and testing the fundamental biological, chemical, and physical constraints that guide the development of these vascular networks. This project involves independent research as well as data analysis to discover how organismal physiology influences biological structure and dynamics. By the end of the session, students will learn to use Angicart software to extract data from medical images, write code in R to analyze data, and learn to translate key concepts into mathematical equations.
Prerequisites: Strong written and oral communication skills, experience in Microsoft Office, strong biology and physics skills, and interest in web design and database language. Applicants must be 15 years of age or older at the start of the program to be placed at this site.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
TreePeople
Program Dates: Saturday, June 15, 2019 – Friday, July 26, 2019 (Sessions I + II, 6 weeks)
Career Field(s): Science, Education
Program Fees: $1,950.00
Students will have an opportunity to work with Enjoli Ferrari, Youth Leadership Manager, and her team at TreePeople. Born from the efforts of a teenager over 40 years ago, TreePeople is an environmental nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire, engage and support people to take personal responsibility for the urban environment, making it safe, healthy, fun and sustainable and to share our process as a model for the world. They have involved more than 3 million people in planting and caring for more than 3 million trees in the Greater Los Angeles area. Students will be immersed in various outdoor projects including (a) learning and understanding the functionality and structure (biology, morphology, and anatomy) of the tree and California native plants, (b) working in the field to collect data and provide detailed documentation on the health of trees species in Cold Water Canyon, detailing tree deaths, canopy die back, pest infestations, wilting, and growth pattern differences (c)participating in hands-on tree and plant care to ensure the park thrives and (d) investigating how the soil moisture in non-irrigated and irrigated areas effect gophers and other wildlife.
Prerequisites: Enjoys the great outdoors; open to learning. Applicants must be 16 years of age or older at the start of the program to be placed at this site.
EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Program Dates: Saturday, June 15, 2019 – Friday, July 26, 2019 (Sessions I + II, 6 weeks)
Career Field(s): Science, Health, Medicine
Program Fees: $1,950.00
Students will have an opportunity to delve into the innovative research being conducted by Dr. Pamela Yeh and her research team at UCLA’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Dr. Yeh is an evolutionary biologist who focuses on the evolution of drug resistance in bacteria. She is specifically interested in understanding how we can use drug combinations to slow down the evolution of increased antibiotic resistance and to decrease the likelihood of future evolution of resistance. Students will be supervised and work collaboratively with Dr. Yeh’s postdoctoral and graduate researchers and participate in weekly Skype meetings with Dr. Yeh. The first two weeks will be primarily spent researching and reading papers, gathering data from literature, and dissecting papers to gain a deeper understanding of Dr. Yeh’s research and work. The final four weeks will be spent mostly in the lab. By the end of the session, students will gain hands-on experience working in a wet-lab, gathering and synthesizing data from published works, and experience collaboration with a research team to examine questions focused on evolutionary medicine topics.
Prerequisites: Applicants must be 15 years of age or older at the start of the program to be placed at this site.
FILM & MEDIA
Apsara Media for Intercultural Education
Program Dates: Monday, July 8, 2019 – Friday, July 26, 2019 (Sessions II, 3 weeks) *Note: Mandatory program orientation on June 15th
Career Field(s): Media/Entertainment, Arts, Education
Program Fees: $975.00
A student will have an opportunity to work directly with UCLA Adjunct Professor, Dr. Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy, at Apsara Media for Intercultural Education which contains field documentation materials created by her and Professor N.A. Jairazbhoy. Dr. Catlin-Jairazbhoy has a background in classical and non-classical music of South and Southeast Asians and Asian-Americans, field methodology, Ethnographic Film in Ethnomusicology, music and the sacred, and applied and public sector Ethnomusicology. Currently, she conducts a Literacy Program for Sidi African-Indians in Gujarat, India. She maintains Apsara Media for Intercultural Education, her small publication and research company and studio in Valley Glen, California, where she works with her audio-visual and research archives.
The student will delve into several projects including learning methods of metadata production concerning field recordings and information to prepare for archiving at UCLA and editing original audiovisual fieldwork materials shot in India for online access to trailers and full videos. The student will also participate in a field-trip to UCLA’s newly renovated Ethnomusicology Archive.
Prerequisites: Interest in film and music. Possess skills and familiarity with video editing programs. Organized, independent, and a self-starter. Possess a laptop.
LITERATURE & MEDIA
Red Hen Press
Program Dates: Saturday, June 15, 2019 – Friday, July 26, 2019 (Sessions I + II, 6 weeks)
Career Field(s): Arts, Media/Entertainment, Human Services
Program Fees: $1,950.00
Students will have the opportunity to work with Media Manager, Monica Fernandez, and Deputy Director, Tobi Harper, at Red Hen Press. Red Hen Press, one of the few literary presses in the Los Angeles area, was founded in 1994 by Kate Gale and Mark E. Cull with the intention of keeping creative literature alive. They are committed to publishing works of literary excellence, supporting diversity, and promoting literacy in our local schools.
In collaboration with the Media & Marketing team, students will create, update, and manage documents, help identify best social media practices for marketing and publicity, and gain knowledge of book marketing and production. By the end of the externship, the students will produce and oversee the marketing and media campaign for a literary work.
Prerequisites: Students must be a rising junior or senior, possess proficiency in writing, and have an interest in literature.
MEDIA & EDUCATION
Organization: SIMA Studios
Program Dates: Saturday, June 15, 2019 – Friday, July 26, 2019 (Sessions I + II, 6 weeks)
Career Field(s): Media/Entertainment, Education, Global Development
Program Fees: $1,950.00
Students will have an opportunity to collaborate with Virginia Pittaro, Director of Global Partnerships, and her team at SIMA Studios. SIMA is a non-profit impact media agency that seeks to advance global awareness, social justice, human rights and education by supporting content creators, activists, educators and change makers on the front-lines of social change, and amplifying the impact of their works to inspire activism, compassion and social transformation. SIMA started as the first and only international media competition honoring achievements in the creative, human rights and humanitarian fields. Today, SIMA is the most renowned global curator in the social impact space, serving independent film, academic and global social justice industries around the world. The students will assist the team with their educational film program, SIMA classroom, and delve into research projects to help increase SIMA’s social impact efforts and expand their resources and lesson plans. The students will also gain experience with outreach, networking, copy-writing and editing.
Prerequisites: Strong interest in global social justice, documentaries, advocacy, and education. Excellent research, writing, and communication skills. Tech savvy, with familiarity with Google Docs, web editing platforms, and Microsoft Office Suite.
PRODUCT DESIGN
ArtCenter College of Design
Program dates: Saturday, June 15 – Friday, July 5, 2019 (Session I, 3 weeks)
Career Field(s): Arts
Program Fees: $975.00
Product designers imagine and create everyday products including sporting goods, shoes, toys, daypacks, housewares, electronics, tools, furniture/lighting and other lifestyle products. Students will have an opportunity to work with Design Consultant and Professor, Kema Subsomboon, and ArtCenter Faculty to explore exciting educational and career opportunities related to the product design profession.
During the interactive 3-week workshop, students will be introduced to the industrial design fields which include: product, transportation, environmental, entertainment, and interactive design. Beginning students will learn fundamental design processes and techniques through hands-on projects. By the end of the session, students will undertake design problems resulting in projects suitable for a beginning portfolio while gaining exposure to ArtCenter and college life.
Prerequisites: Basic skills in sketching or alternative art form, an interest in pursuing art and design, experience or knowledge of Keynote or PowerPoint, and a laptop computer for research and project presentations.
PSYCHOLOGY
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Program Dates: Saturday, June 15, 2019 – Friday, July 26, 2019 (Sessions I + II, 6 weeks)
Career Field(s): Science, Health
Program Fees: $1,950.00
Students will have the opportunity to work with UCLA Professor, Dr. Aaron Blaisdell, and his team of graduate student researchers at the Blaisdell Lab in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Blaisdell’s laboratory investigates the behavioral processes of animal learning and cognition, namely describing how animals build and use representations of their world. The state of the art research facilities include a rat lab for studying associative and cognitive processes, a pigeon lab with touchscreen-equipped operant chambers and an open-field spatial search apparatus for the study of learning and cognition, and a hermit crab lab for studying learning and cognition in crustaceans. The student will acquire hands-on, direct experience of behavioral research with animals in a team setting, learn how to apply the scientific method, and review primary scientific literature related to his research.
Prerequisites: No allergies to rats or pigeons and a willingness to work with rats, pigeons, and hermit crabs.