Connecting high school students with scientists for intensive summer lab internships

Applying to BRAINYAC

Thank you for your interest in our program. Applications for BRAINYAC 2025 have closed and we cannot consider any new applications. We anticipate applications for the 2026 program will open in October, 2025. To be eligible to apply to BRAINYAC, you must live in New York City and be enrolled in one of our New York City-based partner programs (S-PREP, BioBus, Lang Youth Medical, Columbia Secondary School, or Double Discovery Center). If you live outside of New York City and are not enrolled in one of these partner programs, you are not eligible to apply to BRAINYAC. 

The Zuckerman Institute’s Brain Research Apprenticeships in New York at Columbia (BRAINYAC) program prepares today’s youth to become tomorrow’s scientists. BRAINYAC provides high-schoolers with an immersive, hands-on summer research experience in a Columbia laboratory.  We emphasize opportunities to connect with real scientists, learn key skills required to work in a research environment, and become part of the Columbia University community.

Above: 2022 BRAINYAC students and their mentors in the lab (Credit: Bruce Gilbert/Columbia University).

 

Program Eligibility

The BRAINYAC program is open to students from select partner programs and schools that serve students in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. Each student is matched with a Columbia neuroscientist, a mentor who guides the student through a research project. Interns come away from the experience with an enhanced understanding of how laboratory research leads to transformative discovery, exposure to a professional academic environment and a stronger connection to science as a career.

The BRAINYAC program accepts applications from 10th and 11th grade students currently enrolled in one of our partner programs: S-PREP, Lang Youth Medical, Double Discovery Center, Columbia Secondary School and BioBus. Applicants must reside in New York City, and preference is given to students in upper Manhattan and the South Bronx. If you live outside of New York City and are not enrolled in one of these programs, you are not eligible to apply to BRAINYAC. BRAINYAC. Program applications are distributed to our partner programs each fall.

Here are resources for other high school research programs in the New York City area: 

• NYC Science Research and Mentoring Consortium
• Columbia University BrainSTORM Program
• BioBus Junior Scientist Internships
• The Rockefeller University: Science Enrichment Opportunities
• NYC Science Research and Mentoring Consortium
• CUNY STEM Research Academy
• The New York Academy of Sciences: The Junior Academy
• Pathways to Science: Program Directory

Becoming a BRAINYAC Mentor

To be a BRAINYAC mentor, you must be a PhD student, postdoctoral researcher, Principal Investigator, or other full-time researcher doing neuroscience-focused research in a Columbia University lab. If you are interested in becoming a BRAINYAC mentor for summer 2025, please contact Maia Gumnit: [email protected].

BRAINYAC receives generous support from the Pinkerton Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Award 1R25NS115551-01.