Summer Program

The Cal-Bridge Summer program is designed to allow students from California State Universities and California community colleges to participate in undergraduate research projects for 8-10 weeks in the summer at one of our partner world-class research institutions. Students are paid a stipend; travel and housing expenses (and sometimes meals) are included. Cal-Bridge Summer scholars who are or become part of the Cal-Bridge undergraduate program participate in the annual Cal-Bridge Research Symposium held in the fall.

Cal-Bridge Scholar doing summer research

Who Should Apply & Why

Who should apply?

The Cal-Bridge Summer program is open to all STEM majors from any CSU or California Community College. There are two separate programs under the Cal-Bridge Summer program op:

Research at the UC sites is open only to scholars from the main Cal-Bridge academic year program. Research opportunities in all areas of physics and astronomy, computer science and engineering, and mathematics are available
Research at Caltech, Carnegie Observatories, Penn State University, SETI Institute, Stanford, UC Merced Physics REU, University of Wyoming is open to all CSU and CCC applicants. The research at those sites is in all areas of physics, astrophysics, planetary science, and astrobiology. For additional information about each research site, click on the names of the programs above

To learn more about these research opportunities, view our options, here with links to descriptions of each program.

How to apply?

Applications are due February 1 of each year for participation the following summer. Acceptance decisions are sent out on March 1. Details on how and when to apply can be found here:

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Why should you apply?

The Cal-Bridge Summer program is an excellent way to gain research experience. Emphasis is on providing experience necessary to assess interest in and successfully apply to PhD programs, but interest in pursuing a PhD is not a requirement of the program. In addition to gaining research experience, each site in the Cal-Bridge Summer program provides professional development and community building activities, and you will join a large and growing community of Cal-Bridge scholars across California and the nation. Many Cal-Bridge Summer scholars who are not already part of the main Cal-Bridge undergraduate program apply to that program to get support for applying for a PhD in a STEM discipline.

Expectations

Cal-Bridge Summer scholars are expected to fully commit to all elements of the program and to learn how to plan, design, and conduct high quality scientific programming research. They are expected to actively communicate with their mentors, engage in the projects, and report on their work. At the end of the program, Cal-Bridge Summer scholars are required to submit abstracts on their research and present their work at the Summer Research Symposium during Cal-Bridge’s annual Fall Conference.