Are you a middle school student in California with a strong interest in science and technology? Middle school can be a good time for you to begin exploring your academic interests, and summer camps or extracurricular programs are a great way to start!  

While these programs won’t be as academically rigorous as high school programs, they will definitely help you enhance your critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

In this blog, we cover 8 STEM programs catered towards middle school students in California. 

1. Veritas AI

Veritas AI, founded and run by Harvard graduate students, offers programs tailored for high school students who are passionate about artificial intelligence. Students who are looking to get started with AI, ML, and data science would benefit from the AI Scholars program. Through this 10-session boot camp, students are introduced to the fundamentals of AI & data science and get a chance to work on real-world projects. 

Another option for more advanced students is the AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase. Through this program, students get a chance to work 1:1 with mentors from top universities on a unique, individual project. A bonus of this program is that students have access to the in-house publication team to help them secure publications in high school research journals. The fellowship encourages students to explore interdisciplinary approaches, enabling them to merge AI with various fields such as finance, medicine, sports, environmental science, and more! You can also check out some examples of past projects here. Veritas AI, founded and run by Harvard graduate students, offers programs tailored for high school students who are passionate about artificial intelligence. Students who are looking to get started with AI, ML, and data science would benefit from the AI Scholars program. Through this 10-session boot camp, students are introduced to the fundamentals of AI & data science and get a chance to work on real-world projects. 

Another option for more advanced students is the AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase. Through this program, students get a chance to work 1:1 with mentors from top universities on a unique, individual project. A bonus of this program is that students have access to the in-house publication team to help them secure publications in high school research journals. The fellowship encourages students to explore interdisciplinary approaches, enabling them to merge AI with various fields such as finance, medicine, sports, environmental science, and more! You can also check out some examples of past projects here. 

Location: Virtual

Cost: 

• $2,290 for the 10-week AI Scholars program

• $5,400 for the 15-week AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase

• $6,900 for both

• Need-based financial aid is available for AI Scholars. You can apply here. 

Application deadline: On a rolling basis. Winter cohort deadline - December 1, 2024

Program dates: Various according to the cohort

Eligibility: Ambitious high school students located anywhere in the world. AI Fellowship applicants should either have completed the AI Scholars program or exhibit experience with AI concepts or Python.

2. Northrop Grumman Summer Engineering Camp at USC

Northrop Grumman Summer Engineering Camp is part of the K-12 outreach programs at USC Viterbi School of Engineering. This free summer camp is offered exclusively to middle school students from California and has been organized annually for more than a decade. Participants are introduced to various concepts from aerospace, civil, electrical, environmental, and mechanical engineering through hands-on activities. 

Activities will include building functional model rockets, circuits, bridges, and robots. Students will also be given a basic introduction to computer science through coding lessons and app-building. Note that the batch size for every cohort is limited to 32 students; hence, this will be a slightly competitive program, and students from under-resourced schools/backgrounds will be given priority.

Location: The USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Los Angeles, CA

Cost: Free

Application Deadline (2025 Program): May 2025 (tentatively, based on previous year’s dates)

Program Dates: July 14-25, 2025 (tentatively, based on the previous year’s dates)

Eligibility: Open to all middle school students from Los Angeles who have at least a B average in math and science classes. A school transcript and a recommendation form from your school teacher are required.

3. Stanford Middle School Scholars Program

The Stanford Middle School Scholars Program is a free program designed for students in grades 6 and 7 as an immersive and enriching experience that prepares them for high school. The program is completely virtual. It initially takes place for three weeks in the summer and continues into the fall semester with weekly meetings. 

The program aims to help students from low-income families prepare for a rigorous high school education in general; hence, the focus is not on STEM areas. Although there were no courses related to science offered in 2024, one course on math was offered titled Real-Life Applications to Mathematics, which covered topics like cryptography and financial mathematics. 

Location: Virtual

Cost: Free

Application Deadline (2025 program): March 2025 (tentatively, based on the previous year’s dates)

Program Dates: July 7-25, 2025 (tentatively, based on the previous year’s dates) and weekly meetings in the fall semester after school

Eligibility: All 6-7 grade students from U.S. middle schools who have a B- average or above and whose gross household income is below $90,000 are eligible to apply. 

4. Lumiere Junior Explorer Program

The Lumiere Junior Explorer Program is a program for middle school students offered by Lumiere Education, a venture started by Oxford and Harvard PhDs who met as undergraduates at Harvard. In this program, you will be paired with a mentor from a top research university and work with them to pursue academic enrichment in a particular subject. After exploring four different topics in your selected subject area, you will work on an individual project. You can sum up your experience with a report, presentation, or any other way that showcases your research!

You will have the option to pursue research in subjects like physics, biology, medicine, mathematics, and AI & data science. While applying, you will need to provide one or two subject areas in which you are interested in pursuing research. You can view the full list of the subject areas here! You will have weekly 1-1 sessions with a mentor and work towards the final output, which will be a high school-level project. You can find the application form here. 

Location: Virtual 

Cost: $2,400. Need-based financial aid is available. 

Application Deadline: Winter cohort - November 24, 2024

Program Dates: Winter cohort - December 16, 2024

Eligibility: Open to students from grades 6-8.

5. UC Berkeley’s Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP)

UC Berkeley’s Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP) is designed for academically advanced 7th to 11th-grade students to pursue rigorous coursework over four or six weeks in the summer. The program has been running since 1982, so there is a certain prestige in taking one of the courses in this program. 

The participants attend classes twice or thrice a week, either online or in-person, depending on the course. 6th-grade students with a good academic standing who have attended the ATDP’s Elementary Division (K-6) can also apply. Most of the students apply for one of the available courses (roughly 40), and only a select few with impeccable academic records are allowed to apply for two courses. 

You should expect to spend anywhere between three and ten hours preparing for each session. Courses are offered across five areas - Mathematics, Natural sciences, Computer science, Writing and Literature, and Social sciences. You can check all the course options and other details here. 

Location: UC Berkeley campus however an online option is also available

Cost: Tuition varies for each course, but you can expect to pay anywhere between $710 and $1,190. Limited financial aid is available

Program Dates: June to July 2025 (tentatively, based on previous year’s dates)

Application Deadline: March 2025 (tentatively, based on the previous year’s dates)

Eligibility: Open to all middle school and high school students in the U.S. who can commit to attending almost all sessions. As per the program policy, missing too much class time will result in termination from the program. 

6. UCSD ForMIDABLE for Middle School Students

UCSD ForMIDDABLE is a six-week summer program for middle school students organized by the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego. This program has been inspired by UCSD’s ABLE Program, which is for 10-12 grade students. Participants are introduced to the basics of computer science, robotics, and engineering through hands-on workshops, guest lectures, and demonstrations. 

In the 2024 program, participants met thrice a week. They attended hour-long weekly lectures from guest speakers related to computer science and robotics. These speakers included professors from the computer science department at UCSD, former NASA and JPL members, climate scientists, and researchers. The other two sessions included an introduction to Python and coding for creating a 3-D model and an introduction to Java. 

Location: Virtual

Cost: No information is available at the moment

Application Deadline (2025 Program): TBA

Program Dates: June 21 - July 26, 2025

Eligibility: All middle school students are eligible to apply.

7. UCI Chemistry Academy: Summer STEM Summit

The Summer STEM Summit is an offering from the University of California Irivine’s Chemistry department. In 2024, the program offered three week-long sessions covering six broad areas related to chemistry. In this commuter program, participants will take part in interactive sessions at one of UCI’s chemistry labs to understand how chemistry is involved in our food and cosmetics, and its application in forensic science and climate change. 

The sessions are not divided as per grade level but based on age. Middle school students can participate in all six sessions as the two age groups for the program are 8-12 years and 12-17 years. The Chemistry of Food session is a good choice for you if you are looking for insight into food chemistry. This particular session will involve making ice cream using liquid nitrogen as a fun activity! You can check out the details of the other five sessions here. 

Location: UC Irvine campus

Cost: $967 per session. UCI staff and faculty children receive a 10% discount. Limited need-based scholarships are available. This was the scholarship form for the 2024 program. 

Program Dates: Three sessions between June and July 2025

Application Deadline (2025 Program): TBA

Eligibility: All students between the ages of 8-17 years are eligible to apply.

8. Girls in Engineering’s Summer Camp

Girls in Engineering is part of Berkeley Engineering’s K-12 outreach, and this program works towards closing the gender gap in (STEM) fields. There are two major events hosted by the organization for local middle school girls. One is the introductory-level summer STEM camp, and the other is the one-day Expanding Your Horizons event, which covers multiple workshops. 

GiE’s week-long camp in the summer is for middle school girls from the Bay Area and is hosted at the UC Berkeley campus. Participants learn about science and engineering through hands-on activities. If selected, you will interact with and learn from Berkeley faculty, industry experts, student counselors, and current Berkeley students to explore more about engineering programs. 

You will participate in various group activities, such as group projects and problem-solving, which will help you work on your soft skills and help you become an effective communicator. The program is a bit selective, and roughly, one in every two applicants is selected. 

Location: UC Berkeley campus

Cost: The tuition was $600 for the 2024 program. Need-based scholarships are available.

Program Dates: Two sessions in June and July 2025

Application Deadline (2025 Program): March 2025

Eligibility: Only middle school students from the San Francisco Bay Area are eligible to apply. Students from underrepresented communities are encouraged to apply.

If you’re looking for a competitive mentored research program in subjects like data science, machine learning, political theory, biology, and chemistry, consider applying to Horizon’s Research Seminars and Labs! This is a selective virtual research program that lets you engage in advanced research and develop a research paper on a subject of your choosing. Horizon has worked with 1000+ high school students so far and offers 600+ research specializations for you to choose from. 

You can find the application link here.

If you’re looking to build a project/research paper in the field of AI & ML, consider applying to Veritas AI! 

Veritas AI is founded by Harvard graduate students. Through the programs, you get a chance to work 1:1 with mentors from universities like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and more to create unique, personalized projects. In the past year, we had over 1000 students learn AI & ML with us. You can apply here!

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