The Young Scientist Program aims to attract students to scientific careers and increase the participation of historically-excluded groups in science by bringing resources and scientists directly to teachers and students in the St. Louis area.

YSP strives to achieve this mission through diversity-focused paid summer research internships, hands-on scientific demonstrations in local classrooms, field trips to the Washington University campuses, dissemination of teaching kits containing pre-planned lessons, individual and personalized mentoring, and loaning or donating laboratory equipment to classrooms in need.

The Student Experience

YSP students gain hands on experience from experts in their field and an appreciation for science.

The Teacher Experience

YSP provides teachers with necessary equipment and supplies to teach hands-on inquiry based science in their classrooms.

YSP Promotional Video

YSP put together a video highlighting what it means to be a YSP volunteer and how experiencing the scientific method first hand can inspire the next generation of young scientists. Check out the video here!

The Volunteer Experience

YSP Volunteers gain skills not formally taught during graduate training. Sign up for our volunteer newsletter!

What is YSP?

The Young Scientist Program is designed to attract students into scientific careers through activities emphasizing hands-on research and individualized contact between young people and active scientists.

Graduate Student and Post-Doc Volunteers are at the core of YSP

As students and scientists, it is our hope that sharing our enthusiasm for what we do will encourage younger individuals to also pursue careers in science.

The Young Scientist Program exists to promote science literacy among students in grades K-12, encourage the pursuit of careers in STEM by introducing participants to areas of scientific study, provide reliable personal and academic mentorship to students to help them in their pursuit of STEM careers, and develop participants’ laboratory and critical thinking skills necessary for research areas.