New Haven Promise
New Haven is a city full of young scholars with boundless potential. Yale helps these students follow their academic dreams through initiatives like New Haven Promise (NHP), a college scholarship and career development program that encourages students to return to New Haven after graduation. As NHP’s founding and primary sponsor, Yale provides up to $5 million per year in direct tuition funds for city residents who graduate from a New Haven public school and attend college in Connecticut
Since NHP’s inception, over 2,800 New Haven youth have received scholarship funds. Additionally, Yale provides paid internship opportunities for New Haven Promise Scholars who return to or remain in New Haven during their university summers.
90 percent of Promise scholars are students of color and 70 percent are the first in their families to go to college. And by 2030, NHP expects more than 2,000 Promise Scholar Alumni will return to New Haven.
NHP is revitalizing the city by promoting community engagement and creating a culture of college-readiness.
I never thought college in America could be a reality. New Haven Promise gave me hope again. Now, I’m ready to make an impact on the city that helped raise me.
—Jordy, a member of the first class of New Haven Promise Scholars
More recently, the university announced the new James W.C. Pennington Fellowship, a scholarship program to support New Haven public school students who choose to attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The fellowship is funded by Yale and administered through New Haven Promise.
Pathways to Science
As a preeminent research university, Yale is in a unique position to offer meaningful science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programming to pre-college students in our community. Yale’s Pathways to Science opens the door for middle and high school students to explore STEM subjects on campus and meet some of the world’s leading experts in their fields.
Through free programs, demonstrations, lectures, and laboratory visits, Pathways to Science scholars are exposed to the latest advances in STEM, helping them deepen their academic passions and explore new ones. Whether they’re learning to code, dissecting specimens, or exploring the wonders of botany, Pathways scholars have the scientific and technological world at their fingertips. More than 1,900 students currently participate in the program and more than 1,000 program alumni are enrolled in college. Learn more about Pathways to Science.
Yale let me conduct my own research and get hands-on experience in a real lab. It really sparked my interest in medicine, and now I’m in nursing school.
—Zahra, former Yale Pathways student
Pathways to Arts and Humanities
Arts and humanities are a fundamental part of a holistic education. Yale’s Pathways to Arts & Humanities welcomes local public high school students to campus for a wide array of performances, talks, tours, and seminars. Pathways programs and events include the MOSAIC lecture and workshop series, featuring graduate students and professors in history, philosophy, and public humanities. Other activities include museum exhibitions, library tours, playwriting programs, and the Yale School of Music’s All City Choir.
Yale develops new events and programs each year in collaboration with local museums and libraries, such as the Yale Center for British Art and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, offering students hands-on demonstrations by curators, conservators, and archivists. Students can also participate in the Yale Pathways to Arts & Humanities Summer Scholars Program, a free two-week program for New Haven high school students. Learn more about Pathways to Arts & Humanities .
Yale’s programs showed me what my future could hold. Through Pathways, I was able to meet people who looked like me who are working and succeeding in the fields I’m passionate about.
—Ayana, Yale Pathways student
Ulysses S. Grant Program
The Ulysses S. Grant Program is a six-week, on-campus academic summer program for motivated middle school students from New Haven Public Schools. Each summer, a team of Yale undergraduates teaches a variety of interdisciplinary courses to help students develop critical thinking skills, explore new interests, and build a community of learning. Since its inception in 1953, the U.S. Grant program has fostered a shared love of learning and forged an even deeper bond between Yale students and the New Haven community. Visit the Ulysses S. Grant Program’s website for more details.
Shafer Family Summer School Scholarships
Shafer Scholars are New Haven high school juniors nominated by their high school guidance counselors to enroll in a five-week Yale Summer Session program in the summer between their junior and senior years. A scholarship from the Shafer family of New Haven provides full tuition for two courses, room and board, a book allowance, and a stipend for each student.
Yale’s programs showed my daughters they could be part of higher learning.
—Brandon, mother of three Yale summer program students
Students take Yale College courses alongside university students and can earn college credits. Shafer Scholars live on campus in one of Yale’s residential colleges for the duration of their program and have the opportunity to participate in co-curricular, recreational, and social programs with students from other high schools and colleges from across the country.
DeVane Lectures
How did we go from euphoria after the fall of communism to today’s politics of fear and resentment? What are the deepest moral questions of everyday life? Why is there increasing friction between China and the United States? These are just some of the issues discussed in Yale’s DeVane Lecture series, a free program that invites members of the public to attend a semester-long class alongside Yale students. The DeVane Lectures are available on YouTube.
Additional Programming
Yale sponsors nearly 200 programs for New Haven youth each year, from film festivals and journalism projects to coding lessons and chemistry magic shows. View a comprehensive list of our programming.
Professional Development
Yale offers a wide range of professional development opportunities to New Haven school teachers. These programs allow teachers to engage with other educators in the area, conduct research in Yale laboratories alongside Yale faculty and graduate students, and enroll in seminars led by eminent Yale professors.
Teachers may leave sessions like the Teacher Leadership Program at the Yale University Art Gallery with strategies for encouraging critical thinking, or complete summer-research fellowships with innovative ways for engaging students through project-based learning. Learn more about professional development.
