COMMUNITY SERVICE
Provide access to scientific research and mentorship for high school students underrepresented in STEM or students with socioeconomic difficulty.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Give students an opportunity for original research in an environment that provides them with the mentorship and resources to explore research in a variety of STEM and interdisciplinary fields.
EDUCATION
Give students familiarity with the current scientific literature & the frontiers of modern research in their field of interest.
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Build skills in public speaking, technical writing, analytical thinking, and experimental design.
Mission & Vision
The Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program (ASDRP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research & development (R&D) institution that provides opportunities for high school students throughout the Bay Area, especially those who are underrepresented in STEM or who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, to conduct high-level novel scientific research. As the premier precollegiate research establishment in the Bay Area, ASDRP is committed to both producing state-of-the-art research year round, and serving the diverse community in which we are located.
Students participate in research projects across various subjects in STEM, including chemistry, biology, computational modeling, computer science, and much more. Students publish and present their work as well in venues within and outside of ASDRP. Research in ASDRP is supervised by highly skilled scientists and engineers on the research faculty, who are clustered under one of three departments - Biological/Human/Life Sciences, Chemistry/Biochemistry/Physics, or Computer Science & Engineering. Click on the Research tab above to learn more about each department. We function much like any other research establishment in industry or in academia: we pursue challenging and novel research questions, we make discoveries, and we publish papers and present work at conferences. But there's one catch - the science is in the hands of high school students.
ASDRP provides students with research mentors and over $4M worth of research equipment in our research laboratory (for more information, please see our Facilities page). Students are matched with research mentors who have experience in academia or industry in their particular field; together, they design a research project. These projects are not science experiments in which the results are known a priori, but rather are original research projects that expand current scientific knowledge. Students execute research projects, learn scientific reading and writing skills, write research papers on their results, undergo mock peer-review, publish their research papers in the ASDRP Communications online journal, and give poster presentations at the end-of-summer expo. Students additionally publish and present their work in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. We follow up with students from ASDRP to help place them into university research laboratories and industry internships in subsequent summers. The inaugural cohort of ASDRP started in summer 2018.
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We invite you to read more about our facilities and program model throughout this website. You can access student research papers on the Journal page, peruse the various projects and disciplines in which students conduct research, learn more about our facilities, and more.
ASDRP is a translatable model for increasing interest in, and exposure to, novel scientific research among high school students, especially those who are underrepresented in STEM. ASDRP is a production of Olive Children Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Fremont, CA.
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Please email us at support@asdrp.org if you have any questions.
At a glance: ASDRP Summer 2024
Timeline
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Summer 2024: June 1 - August 24
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October 1, 2024: Online applications for the Summer 2024 cohort of ASDRP open.
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February 1, 2024: Early Applications Round 1 DUE at 11:59 PM PST. Rolling admissions: apply as soon as possible
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April 15, 2024: Final application deadline at 11:59 PM PST. No late applications will be reviewed.
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May 1, 2024: Commitment deadline: tuition due in full. Program pre-work begins online
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May 3 & 4, 2024: Orientation
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June 1, 2024: Program Officially Begins
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September 7, 2024: ASDRP Expo & Research Symposium
Logistics & Details
General Questions:
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Admissions & Applications:
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Facilities & Stockroom:
Program Cost
$0 - $1070
ASDRP dues cover about 25% of the cost of supporting a research student, and reflect the minimum operational costs of the organization's infrastructure.
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For students who meet financial need eligibility criteria, there is no cost to attending ASDRP. Please email admissions@asdrp.org for questions related to financial aid.
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Each year, ASDRP awards several partial and full scholarships for students from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue STEM research. We firmly believe that finances should never be a barrier in STEM opportunities, so all applicants are encouraged to apply, and to apply specifically for financial aid where there is need. We believe keeping a minimal operational cost is consistent with the spirit and vision of ASDRP.
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Additionally, students accepted in ASDRP are given the option to select specialty courses such as Machine Learning, Organic Chemistry, MatLab, etc. at no additional cost.
At a glance: Academic Year 2024-2025
Timeline
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Fall Term: September 1 - January 15
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Spring Term: January 16 - May 30
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July 1, 2024: Applications for Fall 2024 ASDRP open.
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July 24, 2024: Priority review deadline for Fall 2024 applicants.
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August 15, 2024: Applications due for Fall 2024 research positions.
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Research is typically conducted in the evenings and weekends.
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Program Cost
$1070
Logistics & Details
General Questions:
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Admissions & Applications:
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Facilities & Stockroom:
Each year, ASDRP awards several partial and full scholarships for students from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue STEM research. We firmly believe that finances should never be a barrier in STEM opportunities, so all applicants are encouraged to apply, and to apply specifically for financial aid where there is need.
We believe keeping a minimal operational cost is consistent with the spirit and vision of ASDRP. The above cost does not reflect the actual cost of taking on a student researcher. In fact, program costs account for less than half of the resources and funding required to take on a research student. This would not be made possible without the generous support of our corporate and community sponsors, research grants, and other sources of funding.
Sponsors & Community Supporters
We thank our sponsors for support to make ASDRP possible and
accessible to students of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
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