{"id":690682,"date":"2026-01-05T13:28:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=690682"},"modified":"2026-08-14T10:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:06:47","slug":"pre-college-summer-courses-sneak-peek-campus-life-690682","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/pre-college-summer-courses-sneak-peek-campus-life-690682\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-college summer courses give sneak peek at campus life"},"content":{"rendered":"

High school students take a variety of classes while living, dining, and learning at URochester.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For three weeks during the summer of 2023, Norah DeMayo \u201928 stayed in Gilbert Hall on the University of Rochester<\/a>\u2019s River Campus. She ate her meals at Douglass Dining Center and attended classes at the Medical Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like a real college student,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

DeMayo had completed her junior year at Irondequoit High School in Rochester, New York, and was eager to experience \u201ccollege life.\u201d She enrolled in URochester\u2019s Pre-College Summer Programs<\/a>, where high school students from around the world take courses ranging from data science, aerospace engineering, and journalism to business, nursing, and ethics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s literally something for everyone,\u201d says program manager Tom Paradise.<\/p>\n

Since the summer courses began in 1990, URochester has welcomed thousands of high school students to campus\u2014from Los Angeles to New York, but also Bangladesh to Brazil, Morocco to South Korea, and Venezuela to Vietnam.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a chance to preview their future\u2014and discover their path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each summer, high school students take a variety of classes while living, dining, and learning at URochester.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":690882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[18632,42492,16072,10406],"class_list":["post-690682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences","tag-medical-center","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-simon-business-school"],"acf":{"external":"","hide_featured_image":false,"related":"show_related","style":[295912,493692,551432],"content_modules":[{"acf_fc_layout":"media_text_new","anchor":"","class":"","overline":"","title":"

Summer, done better<\/h3>","content":"Get a head start on college by diving into engaging classes, research opportunities, and real campus experiences at URochester\u2019s Pre-College Summer Program\u2014where curiosity meets community.\r\n\r\nLearn more.<\/a>","cta":"","bg":"#ffc70a","type":"embed","image":"","embed":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OsqYKQJAXsY","video":"","layout":"left","animation":"animation-false"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"","title":"","content":"

Learn from URochester faculty and doctoral students.<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_690802\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"486\"]\"Norah (Photo courtesy of Norah DeMayo)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe courses begin in July and are open to high school students in grades 9 to 12. They run from one to three weeks and are taught by URochester faculty and doctoral students from the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences<\/a>, the School of Arts & Sciences<\/a>, Simon Business School<\/a>, and the Medical Center<\/a>.\r\n\r\nMost are half-day courses, but Explorations in Pathology and Mini Medical School are full-day commitments taught at the Medical Center.\r\n\r\n\u201cThese courses give high school students a taste of college,\u201d says Lauren Ward, URochester\u2019s associate director for programming and development. \u201cAnd they\u2019re short enough that they don\u2019t take up too much of their summer.\u201d\r\n\r\nCurrent URochester undergraduates serve as resident advisors, allowing high schoolers the chance to ask questions about the University itself or college life in general. The RAs plan community-building social events in the evening, while pre-college staff organize weekend trips to popular destination spots such as Six Flags Darien Lake amusement park, Niagara Falls, and local festivals.\r\n\r\nStudents enrolled in the pre-college program can also take 45-minute college prep workshops each day after classes. They\u2019re run by admissions or financial aid counselors and focus on subjects including writing college admissions essays, \u201ccrushing\u201d your admissions interview, and understanding financial aid and scholarships.\r\n\r\nFor those who live in residence halls, Paradise strategically pairs students from diverse areas and cultures with one goal in mind. \u201cWe want them to meet someone different from them,\u201d he says.\r\n

The pathology course offers a full-body experience.<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_690812\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1000\"]\"A \u201cThese courses give high school students a taste of college,\u201d says Lauren Ward, URochester\u2019s associate director for programming and development. (Photo courtesy of Pre-College Summer Programs)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nDeMayo enrolled in Explorations in Pathology, where students learn how to perform autopsies, diagnose cancer, and run lab tests while working alongside residents and physicians from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.<\/a>\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was an amazing experience and a huge reason why I eventually chose to enroll here,\u201d says DeMayo, a biochemistry major in the Rochester Early Medical Scholars<\/a> (REMS) program. \u201cThe course was a combination of hands-on experience, going into the pathology labs to see how they ran, and listening to different experts who would come in and talk to us.\u201d\r\n\r\nOne time, students were asked to bring in an object to have it stained. The process involves applying chemical dyes or stains to tissue or cell samples to help identify cellular and tissue features or abnormalities. \u201cI took a petal off a flower outside of Douglass Commons,\u201d DeMayo says. \u201cI stained it and made a slide of it, just like a real pathologist would do.\u201d\r\n

Students learn the ropes at Mini Medical School.<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_690772\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"417\"]\"A Practicing suturing. (Photo courtesy of Pre-College Summer Programs)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nHannah Brooker \u201929 also spent most of her time at the Medical Center after being accepted into the rigorous Mini Medical School program.\r\n\r\n\u201cI was trying to figure out what to do in college,\u201d says the neuroscience major from Phoenix, a village near Syracuse, New York. \u201cI found my passion that summer.\u201d\r\n\r\nA typical day started with breakfast in the dining hall, classes from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., lunch until 1 p.m., then more classes and labs in the afternoon.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was an amazing experience,\u201d Brooker says. \u201cWe learned how to suture, conduct patient interviews with standardized patients, and take vitals (such as blood pressure, pulse rate, and body temperature).\u201d\r\n\r\nThe experience offered a great sample of what college life would be like and convinced Brooker that URochester was the school for her.\r\n\r\n\u201cI loved the feeling of community and the diversity,\u201d she says. \u201cMy roommate was from Greece, and there were people on campus from literally all over the world. It was great.\u201d\r\n\r\n
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