Health and Wellness

Supporting students to make healthy choices goes hand in hand with helping them realize their fullest academic potential. Programs like Squash Haven encourage students to lead active and healthy lifestyles, while also working to keep students on track to achieve their fullest academic potential.

Integrated into the school day, undergraduate students in the Community Health Educators (CHE) program teach alongside classroom teachers in several New Haven public schools each academic year. CHE works with school administrators, teachers, and students to develop and teach discussion-based workshops on healthy relationships, nutrition, and mental health.

Health and Wellness Programs

A Window into Biology
Yale’s Colón-Ramos lab invites Yale Pathways high school students each year to tour their research laboratory and learn how C. elegans (worms!) help us study the brain. Students explore the genetic and microscopy techniques scientists use to understand how brains are built, maintained and control behaviors.

 

Academic Yale College Courses

Qualified New Haven public high school juniors and seniors, who have been selected by their schools, can enroll in Yale academic courses. Tuition is covered for participating students, who are responsible only for the cost of textbooks and other course materials. This program provides an opportunity for high school students to experience a collegiate academic setting and earn credits that may then be transferred to the college of their choice following high school graduation. 

Anatomy Teaching Program at Hill Regional Career High School

Students and faculty from the Yale School of Medicine help teach anatomy and physiology lessons to Hill Regional Career High School students in New Haven. Juniors enrolled in anatomy and physiology courses visit the Yale Medical School Anatomy Lab twice per month. Activities range from learning about anatomy from dissected cadavers, to practicing aspects of physical exams and ultrasounds.

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library inspires engagement with the past, in the present, for the future. One of the world’s largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts, it is Yale University’s principal repository of literary archives, early manuscripts, and rare books. The exhibition hall is free and open to the public daily, with the Gutenberg Bible and Audubon’s Birds of America on permanent view along with special exhibitions. The Beinecke Library’s collections are used to create new scholarship by researchers from around the world in a wide range of fields, from literary and cultural studies to the history of science, music, theater, and art; the history of the book, of photography, graphic design, and architecture; as well as social, intellectual, and political history. 

Brain Bee

For students in grades 8-12, Yale’s annual Brain Bee is a free neuroscience competition that tests students’ understanding how the brain functions. Competing students can flex their brain knowledge to win prizes as groups or as individuals. After the competition, students interact with Yale neuroscience majors and hear neuroscience talks from Yale faculty.

Camp Kesem At Yale

Camp Kesem at Yale was founded in 2013 to support children and youth in Connecticut whose families have been affected by a cancer diagnosis. Kesem’s mission is to support children through and beyond a parent’s cancer. Run by about 45 student volunteers, Camp Kesem works to provide year-round support and a week-long free summer camp to over 100 children ages 6-18. Camp Kesem at Yale also provides support throughout the year with constant communication, care packages, reunion days, and other support networks.

Celentano Biotech, Health, and Medical Magnet School & Bishop Woods Architecture and Design Magnet School Partnerships

Yale’s partnerships with Celentano School and Bishop Woods School are designed to supplement the schools’ efforts in implementing biotech, health, architecture, and design magnet themes.

Chemistry Magic Show

Advances in chemistry have been behind some of the most significant improvements in our quality of life over the last century. Whether it’s medicine, cosmetics, or movie effects, chemistry is everywhere. In this one-hour interactive show, students and their family members are introduced to basic concepts in chemistry through a series of magical demonstrations by experts from the Yale Department of Chemistry.

Citizens Thinkers Writers

Citizens Thinkers Writers (CTW) is a two-week summer residential program for students from New Haven public schools who are interested in exploring fundamental human questions in a college setting. In seminars led by Yale professors and lecturers, students gain experience in close reading, analytic writing, and college-level discussion. During the program, students participate in a philosophical conversation that dates back to ancient Greece and Rome and link this conversation to their own experiences. After completing the summer program, students become CTW Fellows and continue to meet with the faculty, undergraduate residential teaching assistants, and a graduate coordinator throughout the academic year.

Co-Op After School

Dwight Hall at Yale, in partnership with Cooperative Arts & Humanitites High School, provides a free, innovative after-school program for hundreds of high school students in a supportive, nurturing, and safe environment. Co-Op After School leaders work closely with administrators, counselors, and school-day instructors to provide a wide range of offerings that meet the needs of New Haven high school students.

Code Haven

Code Haven is an undergraduate student organization at Yale University dedicated to introducing students to computer science at a young age. Every week, Yale students teach computing lessons at middle schools in the New Haven district, engaging students with online lessons, group activities, and classroom-wide demonstrations.

Code Haven TEACHTECH

TeachTech is Code Haven’s one-day conference for middle and high school teachers interested in incorporating computer science into their classrooms. Teachers learn about computer science fundamentals, how to demonstrate these concepts to students in an engaging way, and basic software that they can implement in their classrooms to make computer science more appealing to students.

Collection of Musical Instruments

The Yale Collection of Musical Instruments acquires, preserves, and exhibits musical instruments from antiquity to the present, and showcases restored examples in demonstrations and live performances. It is a renowned research collection and a world-class museum that engages the public in the fascinating history of musical instruments through exhibits, publications, concerts, and outreach initiatives.

Community Health Educators

Community Health Educators (CHE) is an undergraduate health education organization whose goal is to empower New Haven public school students to make decisions about their bodies and their futures. CHE works with school administrators and teachers to develop and teach discussion-based workshops that span the topics of mental health,  sexuality, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, nutrition, substance use, relationships, and abuse. 

CT SEED

Hosted by Graduate Student Women Engineers, Connecticut Students Exploring Engineering Day (CT SEED) is an introduction to engineering for students from across Connecticut. Middle school students are invited to Yale’s campus for a day of engineering activities and panel discussions on what it’s like to be an engineer. Parents are also invited to join for an information session about supporting their children’s interest in potential STEM careers.

Cushing Center at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

Named in honor of the father of modern neurosurgery, Yale graduate Dr. Harvey Cushing, this exhibit includes more than 450 specimen jars of patients’ brains and tumors, surgical illustrations, personal diaries, photographs of patients & pathology slides, memorabilia and 22 discovery drawers to explore. The Cushing Center offers weekly tours of the collection and is open to the public.

David Geffen School of Drama Dwight/Edgewood Project

The Dwight/Edgewood Project (D/EP) is a community-engagement program out of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University (DGSD) and the Yale Repertory Theatre that serves middle school–aged students from Barnard Environmental Science & Technology School. Students in grades six and seven are paired with mentors (DGSD students from all disciplines) to write their own plays, culminating in fully produced plays performed by DGSD students and the New Haven community.

Demos

Yale undergraduate student volunteers teach weekly science classes at local New Haven elementary schools, using engaging demonstrations and hands-on activities. Through these lessons, Demos hopes to expose students to new STEM concepts and build excitement for science.

Demystifying the Middle East Workshop Series

In collaboration with the Council on Middle East Studies and Yale Pathways to Arts & Humanities, these interactive workshops occur twice each semester and are open to all students and families. Past workshops have explored youth movements in Iran through music, colonization in Algiers through film, and the politics of museum curation through the creation of hands-on museum “exhibits” using artifacts from the Louvre in Abu Dhabi. All workshops are free and open to the public, and pastries from Havenly, a non-profit organization that supports local refugees, are served.

Demystifying the Middle East: An Afternoon of Food and Culture for Educators

Each semester, educators from the New Haven area are invited to an afternoon of food and culture with a Yale professor who specializes in research on the Middle East. Past workshops have included photography and exploration of Kurdish culture, and “(Almost) Everything You Wanted to Know about Afghanistan but Were Afraid to Ask.” Food is provided by Sanctuary Kitchen, a catering outreach program that empowers local refugees to share their cooking talents with the New Haven community. The meal is followed by a Q&A with the chef and Sanctuary Kitchen director. These events are sponsored by the Yale Council on Middle East Studies and Yale Pathways to Arts & Humanities.

Design for America

Design for America (DFA) is a national organization with chapters in universities throughout the country. Made up of a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students, DFA teaches and practices design concepts through hands-on projects that aim to improve the New Haven community. DFA has had a longstanding partnership with Pathways, holding workshops to teach local students skills in human-centered design and engineering.

Design for America - Tinkercad Workshops

Design for America invites Pathways middle school students to learn 3D modeling using Tinkercad. Students participate in design challenges and 3D print their own models, which they can take home at the end of the program.

Design for America - Video Game Design Workshops

Design for America invites Pathways middle school students to discover how to create their own video games. They learn the basics of Flowlab game creator and design-thinking approaches to problem solving, in addition to turning ideas into a functional game that can be published on the Android, Apple, and Amazon app stores.

Design For American and the Latinx Affinity Group Design Thinking

The Yale Latino Networking Group hosts Pathways middle school students and allows them to try their hand at a design challenge with Yale Design for America. Students familiarize themselves with engineering processes focused on user needs to design spaces for superhero characters and build prototypes of these spaces from materials sent to their homes.

Dining with the Dramat

The Yale Dramatic Association, also known as the Yale Dramat, is the oldest continuously producing undergraduate college theater company in the country. At Dining with the Dramat, Yale Pathways to Arts & Humanities students join members of the Dramat for an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse into theater production. Students engage in conversations with actors, technicians, and directors as they discuss their current musical productions. Students receive free tickets to each performance and participate in a post-performance actor talk-back.

Discovery to Cure High School Internship Program

Discovery to Cure exposes students to laboratory research and promotes interest in science and medicine. Rising high school seniors spend six weeks working in a laboratory with a research scientist utilizing research techniques such as gel electrophoresis, RTPCR, and electron microscopy. Since its inception in 2003, more than 260 high school students, undergraduates, and high school teachers have successfully completed the program. Several interns have presented their research work at science fairs and approximately 20% of student interns have published their findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Dwight Hall at Yale, Center for Public Service and Social Justice

Dwight Hall at Yale, Center for Public Service and Social Justice, currently supports 85 student-led member groups, 29 programs and fellowships, and 4,100 volunteers who contribute 85,449 hours of service each year. Dwight Hall students have multiple opportunities to tutoring, mentoring, program coordination, leadership development, and advocacy.

Dwight Hall Public School Internship Program

Students in the Public School Internship Program serve in a critical role as liaisons between a New Haven public school and the Yale community by strengthening current volunteer efforts and finding new ways to match resources at Yale with the needs of each school. Interns provide resources such as tutoring, assisting teachers in classrooms, and special programming to enrich current classroom lessons. In this two-year role, interns are placed at New Haven K-8 and high schools and work closely with school leaders to determine how best to serve the needs of each particular school community. The program is sponsored by the Office of New Haven Affairs.

East Rock Record Journalism Program

The East Rock Record (ERR), based at the East Rock Community & Cultural Studies Magnet School since 2013, is driven by the belief that students are powerful observers and reporters of happenings in their own community. The newspaper is supported by Yale’s Office of New Haven Affairs. Student journalists in grades 3-8 work with Yale student mentors to plan, report and write each issue. ERR reporters cover the most pressing and interesting issues of the day, bringing curiosity and fresh questions to stories from elections to social media culture and school life. 

Engineering Explo

At Engineering Explo, GradSWE (Graduate Student Women Engineers) invites Pathways middle school students to discover the marvels of engineering. At this fair-like event, students and families grab a “passport” and explore mechanical, electrical, biomedical, chemical, and environmental engineering through hands-on activities and demonstrations.

Environmental Education Collaborative

Established in April 2019, Environmental Education Collaborative (EECO) is Yale’s first student organization dedicated solely to promoting environmental education in the wider New Haven community. To accomplish this, EECO develops and implements place-based environmental curricula in collaboration with New Haven schools. These typically involve a series of weekly lessons that focus on either a specific environmental issue or a set of topics. EECO is exploring new ways to expose students they work with to its environmental curriculum, such as conducting field trips and implementing nature-based projects in participating schools.

Environmental Film Festival at Yale

Sponsored by the Yale School of the Environment, the Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY) is one of America’s premier student-run environmental film festivals. In addition to highlighting the brightest environmental storytelling of the past year, the festival brings celebrated directors and creatives to campus for workshops and discussions of how we can move forward constructively as environmental storytellers.

EVOLUTIONS

The Yale Peabody EVOLUTIONS Program (EVOking Learning and Understanding Through Investigations of the Natural Sciences) engages high-school students in informal learning and work opportunities throughout all four years of high school. Through weekly classes, monthly events, and field trips, EVOLUTIONS is designed to increase science literacy, provide college preparation, develop career awareness, and promote transferable skill development. Each year, EVOLUTIONS students produce an exhibition that is installed in the museum and work as science interpreters through the SciCORPS youth employment program—a select group of EVOLUTIONS students are also offered paid internships in Yale science laboratories.

Exercise, Metabolism & Cancer (Rachel Perry's lab group)

Yale Pathways high school students join endocrinologists at Yale’s Perry Lab to learn about the connection between exercise, metabolism, and cancer. During the lab tour, they observe and ask questions about how mice, mini-treadmills, and tracer infusions are used to better understand metabolic, inflammatory, and tumor biology in animals and people.

Exploring Science

Exploring Science is an online discussion series organized by Open Labs at Yale where scientists talk about the subjects they love. Aimed at middle school students, Exploring Science invites scientists from all parts of Yale to present their work, or their pathways into science, in an engaging way to an audience of enthusiastic students. Students are encouraged to respond to the speaker as well as ask their own questions in the chat throughout the event. 

FIRST Robotics: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science Technology

Hill Regional Career and Acievement First Amistad High School students—assisted by local companies, Yale students, and volunteers—design, assemble, and test a robot capable of performing a specified task in competition with other teams. The program demonstrates to students the fun and competitive spirit that can exist in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Flipped Science Fair

The Flipped Science Fair, hosted by Open Labs at Yale, flips the traditional science fair format on its head: middle school student judges evaluate graduate students and post docs presenting their current research. Middle school students learn about cutting-edge research from real Yale scientists in a small group setting, with plenty of opportunities to ask questions and participate in hands-on demonstrations. The presenters learn how to tailor their research pitch to a general audience, with emphasis on keeping talks exciting, understandable, and relevant.

Fortunoff Archive

The Fortunoff Archive’s collection consists of more than 4,400 testimonies of Holocaust survivors, witnesses, and liberators. The archive offers several fellowships, including a two-year fellowship for a postdoctoral scholar, as well as fellowships for doctoral candidates and senior scholars. The collection is available as a free resource for teachers interested in utilizing the archives.  

Gilder Lehrman Center

The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition is dedicated to the investigation and dissemination of knowledge concerning slavery and its legacies across all borders and all time, from the distant past through the present day. The Center fosters improved understandings of the role of slavery, anti-slavery, and the lasting harms of slavery in the functioning of the modern world. Through fellowships, workshops, public programs, and digital resources including annotated teaching guides, the Gilder Lehrman Center supports scholarship, public history, and public education.

Girls' Science Investigations

Girls’ Science Investigations (GSI) is a program that empowers girls in science by giving them both guidance and hands-on experience. On four Saturdays throughout the year, GSI runs theme-based programs for middle school girls to encourage them to pursue careers in science. Recent program themes have included “The World of Light” and “The Electromagnetic World.” Yale University professors and students teach the programs, conduct demonstrations, and lead the girls in activities in laboratory environments.

Graduate Student Women Engineers

GradSWE at Yale is part of the Society of Women Engineers, an international organization committed to promoting women in engineering. Together with Pathways to Science, GradSWE runs numerous Engineering Days for middle and high school students throughout the year. The goal of Engineering Day is to show attendees that learning a new skill to a level that lets them build a real robot or conduct a true scientific experiment does not need to be intimidating. Past projects include programming a self-watering garden and building an air-quality monitor.

Graduate Student Women Engineers Ask a Scientist

In Ask a Scientist, engineering researchers from Yale and elsewhere answer science questions for students in a weekly webinar. Hosted by the Yale Graduate Student Women Engineers, the program explores different areas of science, including environmental engineering, biomedical engineering and physics. Topics vary from frogs to poison to dark matter. 

Green Careers, Women Leaders

Green Careers, Women Leaders is an annual day long conference for high school girls hosted by graduate students at the Yale School of the Environment. Students have the chance to interact with entrepreneurs and leaders from the fields of renewable energy, clean water, sustainable food, health and wellness, urban planning, ecology, environmental justice, and architecture. Individual sessions during the day include an exercise in environmental writing and discussions about green architecture and environmental justice.

GUMI College Life Panel

The Yale Graduate-Undergraduate Mentorship Initiative (GUMI) organizes events for high school studnets offering support and advice for educational planning. At the group’s annual College Life Panel, both undergraduate and graduate students share their experiences, obstacles, and successes in applying to and transitioning to college.

GUMI NASA Event

The Yale Graduate-Undergraduate Mentorship Initiative (GUMI) organizes events for high school studnets offering support and advice for educational planning. The group’s annual NASA event highlights various NASA-affiliated scientists, researchers, and students and seeks to advise high school students on how to pursue a career in space research. GUMI covers how students can get involved in NASA research in high school, college, and beyond.

Health Professionals Recruitment and Exposure Program

Health Professionals Recruitment and Exposure Program (HPREP) is a pipeline program through the Student National Medical Association and Latino Medical Student Association at Yale. HPREP aims to provide high school students with the skills and resources to succeed in the college-application process by providing instructional classroom sessions, workshops, and one-on-one meetings. By the end of the program, each student will have drafted and edited their first college essay and completed a health-related research project and oral presentation.

Hear Your Song

Hear Your Song is an undergraduate organization that gives hospitalized children—or children in long-term care—the chance to become songwriters and to hear their songs recorded. Hear Your Song works with children in nearby medical pediatric facilities to write original songs, which Yale College musicians arrange, record, and share with the patients and their families.

Hemispheres

Hemispheres, a program of the Yale International Relations Association, brings over 60 students in grades 9–12 from New Haven public schools to Yale’s campus every week to explore topics in international affairs and develop their analytical, creative, and critical thinking skills. In addition to weekly sessions and mentorship, Hemispheres offers two field-trip opportunities for students, first to visit the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, where students meet with U.N. officials and learn about diplomacy from experienced professionals, and later to visit Washington, D.C., for a weekend of educational and cultural activities including visits to the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Supreme Court, and international embassies.

Heritage Theater Ensemble Drama Workshops

The Heritage Theater Ensemble, Yale’s premier Black undergraduate drama group, hosts fun theater workshops for Pathways to Arts & Humanities students. During these workshops, students engage in theater exercises, play interactive games, and hone their improvisational skills.

Hill Regional Career High School Partnership

The Yale partnership with Hill Regional Career High School provides students access to Yale classes, laboratories, and structured internships. In addition to the Anatomy Teaching Program, the Yale Simulation Academy invites students to the state-of-the-art Center for Medical Simulation to practice hands-on medical treatments.

Homework Helpline

During the pandemic, the Office of New Haven Affairs, Dwight Hall at Yale, and the NHPS Office of Youth, Family, and Community Engagement created an after-hours support helpline for students in grades K–12 who are having difficulties with homework. The program was available during the week on Zoom from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Yale students volunteered to provide support for these students.

Humanities Now

Humanities Now is a partnership between the Yale Historical Review and Yale Pathways to Arts & Humanities that seeks to bring the history expertise of Yale faculty to NHPS students. Humanities Now holds semesterly events, bringing in Yale faculty to give a brief lecture on a historical topic, after which students work together in groups to analyze and discuss related primary sources.

Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage

Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH) is a research collaborative dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of material culture. IPCH has offered tours of their conservation space and hands-on demonstrations at on-campus science events through Yale Pathways to Science. Each year, IPCH staff offer a Chemistry on Canvas summer workshop series to Pathways high school students.

J.M. Bolin Program

Named after the first African-American woman to graduate from Yale Law School and the first in the United States to become a judge, the J.M. Bolin Program at Yale is an enrichment program designed to engage high school students of African descent. The program provides New Haven students with an opportunity to develop study skills and teamwork as they reflect on readings drawn from both African and African-American studies to reaffirm and preserve traditions of cultural and intellectual community. The program also promotes seminar-style discussions and networking skills, and exposes local students to the work of Yale professors and students to create connection with the New Haven community.

Jones-Zimmerman Academic Mentoring Program

The Jones-Zimmermann Academic Program creates relationships between Yale sophomores and New Haven public school sixth graders in an after school mentoring program. These relationships last for three years, or until graduation from Yale/8th grade. 

Julia Robinson Math Festival

The Julia Robinson Math Festival inspires students to explore the richness and beauty of mathematics through activities that encourage collaborative and creative problem-solving. At the festival, students choose from more than a dozen tables where volunteers, who come from various disciplines at Yale but are all lovers of mathematics, guide students through a set of intriguing math problems and puzzles, supporting students as they work together.

Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium

The Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium is a facility of the Yale Department of Astronomy. The planetarium is used to teach astronomy concepts to undergraduate classes, to support astronomy programs at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and to present planetarium shows to the general public. The planetarium and observatory are open to the public every Tuesday night. 

Make History Your Superpower

In this program students are able to meet Yale historians, learn how the past was shaped, and learn how this affects the world they live in. Over three Saturdays, they have a chance to explore a variety of history topics ranging from the potato, Brazilian dictators, Rome’s first African emperor, medicine and the slave trade, the uprising in Ukraine just seven years ago, and the American Revolution—all brought to the students by experts who can bring the past alive and teach them to use it to change their future.

Marsh Botanical Garden

Sitting on eight acres, with impressive diversity of plant collections in six greenhouses and outdoor gardens, Marsh Botanical Garden (MBG) offers support for researchers, faculty, and students at Yale, as well as an informative and inspirational experience for visitors. MBG also hosts educational tours of collections and the monthly “Green Café.”

Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project

The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project is a collaborative teaching program that sends law students into local public high schools to teach constitutional law. Participants in this student-run organization also have the opportunity to coach their students in a national moot-court competition, the first round of which is run by the Yale chapter in New Haven.

Math Mornings

Math Mornings is a series of lectures and demonstrations aimed at bringing the joy and variety of mathematics to students and their families. Speakers from Yale and elsewhere talk about aspects of mathematics that they find fascinating or useful. Students and families are invited to play math games and then attend engaging talks about mathematical concepts.

MATHCOUNTS

MATHCOUNTS is a national middle school enrichment program. MATHCOUNTS outreach at Yale brings programming to local students in New Haven, West Haven, and Hamden schools by having Yale students lead weekly after-school sessions. Yale coaches use applied and creative problems to inspire students to see math as an exciting and ever-present part of the world, to reinforce the topics that they are learning in school, and to prepare students for a district-wide competition held eachspring.

Medical Mornings

Medical Mornings is a lecture series hosted by the Yale School of Medicine Diversity Committee. Each event is designed for families and involves a lecture by a Yale medical school professor and hands-on health-related demonstrations by Yale medical students and organizations. Hands-on demonstrations include healthy and unhealthy pig lung specimens, blood pressure kits, and more.

Medical Specialty Exposure Pipeline

Launched in 2021, the Medical Specialty Exposure Program (MSEP) is a pipeline program that aims to empower URiM (underrepresented in medicine) high school students to choose career paths in medicine. Resident physicians of diverse backgrounds in pediatrics, internal medicine, OB-GYN, psychiatry, and surgery specialties lead monthly case-based sessions geared toward exposing students to each field, developing clinical reasoning skills, and providing them with interactive learning and networking opportunities.

MedSci

MedSci is an undergraduate organization that educates New Haven students about interesting and useful health skills and knowledge, on subjects ranging from vaccines to nutrition to allergies. MedSci introduces elementary school students to higher-level biological concepts through engaging lessons that connect health topics to relevant and grade-appropriate experiences and knowledge. 

MorseOnline

MorseOnline is a free, interactive music program that is conducted on-line for four weeks. The program is open to all New Haven Public Schools students finishing grades three through 12 who are in good standing in their music classes. MorseOnline provides instruction to singers, percussionists, and woodwind, brass, guitar, and string players. Students in the MorseOnline program will engage in wellness activities, take private lessons, participate in studio classes, learn to use recording and editing tools, compose their music, study different cultures and musical contexts, and understand the fundamentals of music theory.

MOSAIC: Minds on Society, Arts, Ideas, and Culture

MOSAIC: Minds on Society, Arts, Ideas and Culture, is a lecture series that offers local students the opportunity to engage in thought-provoking discussions with Yale professors and interactive workshops with graduate students. These events challenge their ideas about identity, civic engagement, history, community, and culture. Past topics include “Ballots after Bullets: Democracy Design Lab” and “No Laughing Matter: Comics in the Middle East.” All MOSAIC events are free and open to the public.

Music in Schools Initiative

The Music in Schools Initiative, New Haven (MISI), is an active partnership between the Yale School of Music and New Haven Public Schools. During the academic year, MISI places graduate-student teaching artists from the Yale School of Music in more than two dozen public schools throughout New Haven. Teaching artists are trained to complement the work of full-time New Haven public school music teachers. They teach sectionals, ensembles, private lessons, and other activities depending on the needs of the school to which they are assigned. In addition, MISI coordinates after-school ensembles for New Haven students throughout the school year.

Music in Schools Initiative All-City @ Home

Conducted entirely online, All-City @ Home is a tuition-free music program emphasizing mentorship, community, and creativity. The program is open to New Haven public school students entering grades 4 - 12. All-City @ Home provides instruction to singers, percussionists, guitarists, and woodwind, brass, and string players. Students participating in All-City @ Home will have private lessons, participate in small group classes by instrument, learn to use recording and editing technology, compose their own music, study various cultures and musical contexts, and establish foundations in music theory

Music in Schools Initiative All-City Ensembles

All-City Ensembles provide tuition-free rehearsal and performance opportunities for students beyond the activities they have in their schools. The All-City band, choir, and string ensembles are led by a collaborative team of teaching artists from the Yale School of Music and music educators from New Haven public schools. In addition to large ensemble rehearsals, students work with teaching artists in small-group workshops to develop technique and musicianship.

Music in Schools Initiative Yale/New Haven Young Artists Solo Showcase

The Yale/New Haven Young Artists Solo Showcase takes place annually in the spring. A collaboration between the Yale School of Music and the New Haven Public Schools, the showcase offers students the opportunity to perform solo pieces and/or in chamber ensembles. The Solo Showcase is free and open to the public and takes place in Morse Recital Hall at the Yale School of Music.

Music in Schools Morse Summer Music Academy

The Morse Summer Music Academy is a free music program for intermediate and advanced music students in the band, choir, and/or orchestra programs in New Haven public schools. Over the course of four weeks, students are taught and mentored by a team of music educators from the New Haven public schools and teaching artists from the Yale School of Music. This month-long program offers opportunities for growth in musicianship, technique, and personal achievement. New Haven public school students entering grades 4–12 are eligible to apply and audition.

Music in Schools Symposium

The Symposium on Music in Schools is held once every two years at the Yale School of Music as part of the Music in Schools Initiative. This invitational “working symposium” brings together national leaders for three days of intense discussion on pressing issues surrounding music education in public schools. The symposium also honors outstanding music educators and teaching artists with the Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award.

NACLO at Yale

The North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition (NACLO) is a contest in which high school students solve linguistics puzzles drawn from a variety of languages. Students do not need prior knowledge of linguistics or fluency in multiple languages in order to participate. The Yale Linguistics Department offers four training sessions, led by Yale undergraduate students under the supervision of a faculty member. These training sessions take place once a month between October and January. The Open Round of NACLO is on the fourth Thursday of January. students with the highest scores are then invited to participate in the Invitational Round, which takes place the first Thursday of March.

Neurology Internships in the Serena Spudich Lab

New Haven high school students join Dr. Serena Spudich’s lab in Yale’s Department of Neurology for a six-week deep dive into their neuro-investigations through their work with the International NeuroHIV Cure Consortium (INHCC). Students learn from a wide array of professionals while contributing to ongoing studies. In a virtual component, alongside other interns from around the country, students connect and work with HIV-focused basic, translational, and clinical research global leaders. They are exposed to neuroimaging, genomics, neuropsychology, and biostatistics/data visualization. Students also gain academic and professional insight on future directions in medical research and career planning.

New Haven Promise

Yale is a founding and primary sponsor of New Haven Promise, the only scholarship, support and career preparation program of its kind in the national Promise movement. Promise provides scholarships and paid internships for New Haven residents who are graduates of New Haven public schools and selected charter schools. Students who live in the city and meet certain achievement, attendance, community service, and disciplinary requirements are eligible for up to full tuition for in-state public colleges or a partial scholarship for in-state private colleges. Since the program’s inception, more than 2,300 New Haven students have pursued higher education with a Promise scholarship. 

New Haven REACH

New Haven REACH is a Yale undergraduate organization that pairs New Haven high school juniors (in the spring) and seniors (in the fall) with Yale students to support and guide them through the college application process, one-on-one, for about one hour per week. REACH mentees also have access to organization-wide programming. REACH was founded by graduates of Wilbur Cross High School, and its purpose is to help New Haven youth access the higher education best suited to their dreams, potential, and ambitions. 

New Haven Reads
Founded to share the joy and power of reading, New Haven Reads provides free weekly tutoring to students across the Greater New Haven area and distributes tens of thousands free books to individuals, families, teachers, and organizations each year. Programs are hosted at three different locations in New Haven, two of which are Yale-donated spaces. Additionally, Yale sponsors up to 20 tutors every year to ensure that every aspiring reader can receive at least one hour of one-on-one instruction each week with support from a dedicated tutor. 
New Haven Science Fair

The annual New Haven Science Fair offers mentoring for students and professional development for teachers on investigative hands-on science-fair projects that promote scientific skills and research communication. More than 8,000 New Haven students and 43 schools participate annually, utilizing more than 160 volunteers for mentoring and judging. Yale community members make up over 80 percent of the judges and mentors in the program.

New Haven Urban Debate League

The New Haven Urban Debate League (UDL) promotes debate and public-speaking skills in New Haven public schools. Coaches work weekly with teams in 18 New Haven public middle and high schools, focusing on a different topic each month. Students learn the rules of parliamentary debate and compete in regular district-wide tournaments held on Yale’s campus. Students also have the opportunity to travel outside of New Haven for tournaments.

NEWT Café

The Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Center (NEWT) is a multi-university collaboration that aims to make the production of clean water more sustainable and cost effective. Yale graduate students involved with the center host an annual event that brings Pathways students to campus to learn how scientists utilize nanotechnology to enhance water-treatment methods. Through demonstrations and short talks, Pathways students learn how these issues are related to their daily lives.

PALS

PALS is a tutoring and mentoring program for New Haven area students. At PALS, Yale undergraduate mentors make learning fun through educational games and interactive activities that develop children’s content knowledge and skills. Tutors and children meet on Saturdays throughout the year.

Pathways Bones, Biology, and Behavior: Understanding Human Osteology

During this event for Pathways students, bones take center stage. Students are introduced to the science behind human evolution and forensic anthropology through a series of hands-on exploratory demonstrations with real human bones and fossil casts. Students learn the structure and function of the human skeleton and how markers of injury can be diagnosed and used for research or criminal investigations.

Pathways Brain Education Day

Brain Education Day is an annual neuroscience event for for 100 students in Yale Pathways to Science. Students explore the brain with Yale’s top neuroscientists through speciman dissection, visits to the mock fMRI scanner, tours of the Yale Cushing Center, learning how the brain uses electricity to send signals, and controlling a robotic claw using electrical activity produced by their own muscles.

Pathways Day of Immunology

Day of Immunology is an annual event for 80 high school students hosted by Yale’s Department of Immunobiology in collaboration with Pathways to Science. Through interactive workshops, students are introduced to exciting facets of immunology, including allergy, infection, the microbiome, and vaccines. Throughout these activities and lab tours, students also learn about local opportunities to get involved in immunology research and about diverse careers in the biomedical sciences.

Pathways Discover Chemistry Day

At Discover Chemistry Day, Pathways high school students take part in hands-on chemistry experiments that encourage inquiry, examination, and exploration. Students can work with a gas chromatographer, separate caffeine from tea, engage in simulations of receptor-binding molecules that give rise to our sense of smell, and much more. This event is hosted by graduate students in the Yale Department of Chemistry.

Pathways DIY Microscope Build

At this event, Pathways students work with Yale graduate students in biology to build their own DIY microscopes. Together Pathways and graduate students use the microscopes to explore cells, crystals, and everyday materials that students bring from home. After the event, students are able to keep the microscopes to continue the exploration at home.

Pathways Engineering Days

Hosted by GradSWE, Engineering Days bring middle and high school students in Yale Pathways to Science to tour laboratories and try their hands at an engineering design-build. Past Engineering Days have included building an air-quality monitor, a bionic arm, and a self-watering garden.

Pathways Environmental Science Café

The Environmental Science Café brings Pathways high school students to listen to short talks about new and exciting work at the Yale School of the Environment. Graduate students also provide hands-on workshops related to the café talks. Previous topics include how scientists use X-rays to study plant evolution, how to 3D print a flower, and how drones are used in forest management. Students are also invited to attend the annual Yale School of the Environment Research Day.

Pathways Exploring the Intersection of Physics, Engineering, & Biology

An event for Pathways middle school students, Exploring the Intersection of Physics, Engineering & Biology allows students to interact with Yale scientists working at the intersection of these fields. Through hands-on activities and demonstrations, Pathways students learn how to build a balloon-powered car and watch demonstrations such as “Fluorescence: Glowing in Science” and “Viewing the Nanoscopic World.”

Pathways Exploring the Yale Farm

At this annual event, Pathways middle school students are invited to explore Yale’s beautiful urban farm. Students learn the science of farming, the importance of sustainability, and urban horticulture techniques.

Pathways Exploring Yale’s Marsh Botanical Gardens and Greenhouses: World Plant Diversity and Evolution

At this annual event, Pathways students are invited to explore Yale’s incredible Marsh Botanical Gardens and Greenhouses to discover the importance of plants to life on earth. Students learn about plant diversity and evolution through hands-on science activities and close examination of diverse florae, including a vast array of carnivorous and desert plants.

Pathways Ophthalmology Day

Aimed at increasing interest in ophthalmology, Pathways students are invited for a full day of learning about the eye. Students use software to “travel” into the eye, are trained on slit lamp machines, and try their hands at cow-eye dissection. This annual event is hosted by the Yale Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

Pathways Play Cafés

Hosted by the Yale Center for Health & Learning Games and the play2PREVENT Lab, Pathways middle and high school students are invited to explore how video games can be used to change the way people think and act. Students learn how games are created, why they are important, and how doctors, mathematicians, and scientists use them for their jobs. Students also play games created by the play2PREVENT lab.

Pathways Public Health Day

At Public Health Day, Pathways scholars are invited to explore the diversity and interdisciplinary nature of public health applications through interactive workshops, hands-on demonstrations, and discussions. Participants learn about cutting-edge research happening at the Yale School of Public Health and have lunch with current graduate students.

Pathways Reproductive Physiology Day

At this event, Pathways high school students are invited to discover the science of reproduction with Yale Medical School faculty. Students use microscopes to identify different cells of the reproductive tract, as well as learn the differences between human and other mammalian reproduction.

Pathways Summer Scholars Program

The Pathways Summer Scholars program brings 100 high school students from New Haven, West Haven, and Orange public schools to study science for two weeks on Yale’s campus. Summer Scholars provides an intensive, hands-on science curriculum that emphasizes discovery, critical thinking, and problem solving. Rising seniors have the opportunity to live on campus during the program and engage in a variety of college-prep enrichment activities. The curriculum is designed by Yale University faculty, graduate and professional students, as well as teachers from local public schools. Yale students serve a vital role as teaching assistants and mentors.

Pathways to Arts & Humanities

Since its inception in 2017, Yale Pathways to Arts & Humanities has welcomed hundreds of New Haven public high school students to Yale’s campus for dozens of arts and humanities programs and events. Pathways to Arts & Humanities explores how humans use literature, art, music, theater, history, and language to understand our connection to the world and to one another. Programs encourage creativity, help solve real-world problems, and allow students to become civically engaged both locally and globally.

Pathways to Arts & Humanities Manuscripts and Archives Day

Pathways to Arts & Humanities students are invited to visit Yale Manuscripts and Archives in Sterling Memorial Library for an afternoon of archival research and digital curating. Students learn about the work of archivists and explore scrapbooks and letters from late 19th-century Yale students and New Haven residents. After the workshop, students curate their own digital “exhibits.”

Pathways to Arts & Humanities The Art & Science of Library Preservation and Conservation

At this event, Pathways students get an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the brand-new Yale Center for Preservation and Conservation including the: Gates Conservation Lab, Exhibition Preparation Rooms, and the Photo Documentation Studio. Students also participate in a hands-on demonstration of the Traveling Scriptorium to learn about medieval pigments and book binding.

Pathways to Science

With an overarching goal of encouraging and supporting promising young scholars to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, Yale Pathways to Science opens the door for middle and high school students to explore STEM at Yale University. The more than 1,900 Pathways students are considered the youngest members of Yale’s scientific community and are invited to more than 130 special events, academic lectures, demonstrations, hands-on activities, summer programs, and research opportunities throughout the year.

Pathways to Science Festival @ West Campus

Pathways middle and high school students are invited to this annual festival at Yale’s West Campus for a full day of lectures, hands-on demonstrations, student panels, science exploration games, and tours of the state-of-the-art West Campus facilities, under the guidance of more than 50 Yale scientists and students. Past themes for the festival include “Colors & Dyes” and “The Science of Energy.”

Pathways Wright Laboratory Tour

Pathways students get a behind-the-scenes look at the Yale Wright Laboratory and undertake hands-on activities that reveal how Wright Lab researchers can make the invisible visible. Wright Lab is transforming our understanding of the universe by exploring fundamental questions about the physical world through a broad research program in nuclear, particle, and astrophysics; inspiring and preparing a diverse group of future scientists; and promoting the value of science in society. Wright Lab researchers explore the frontiers of science, investigating dark matter, neutrinos, how matter is made and interacts, quantum phenomena, the beginnings of the universe, and more.

Physics of...Series

The Yale Society of Physics partners with other Yale organizations to teach and excite high school students about the physics of many everyday phenomena, such as juggling, dance, art, fire, and common electronics. Students apply math and science principles to better understand how physics can be applied in the real world.

Play2PREVENT Lab - ForAGirl Program

Using an innovative videogames research program as a platform, the ForAGirl program provides training and mentorship to summer-program participants in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); medicine; and research. The program, which is open to both girls and boys, focuses on promoting girls’ engagement in these areas. Scholars learn about research, serious and commercial game development, game intervention design and evaluation methods, data collection and analysis, and community engagement. Scholars also learn first hand how games can be used for purposes other than entertainment and add to their broader understanding of how innovations in the STEM fields affect our lives.

Quarantine Tutors

During the pandemic, Yale undergraduates and graduate students served as virtual tutors for small groups of K–8 students who were required to quarantine. Each Yale student was assigned to a New Haven Public Schools certified teacher, who provided guidance and materials.

Refugee and Immigrant Student Education

Refugee and Immigrant Student Education (RISE) is a Yale organization that seeks to connect and engage with New Haven’s refugee and immigrant communities. Tutors work with refugee and immigrant students in schools and homes each week to foster community and civic engagement. RISE also hosts monthly community events, including a picnic, spoken word poetry performances, and an annual multicultural festival.

Resonance

Resonance is an annual event hosted by Synapse, the official outreach team of Yale Scientific Magazine, that brings high school students to Yale’s campus for a day of hands-on demonstrations, presentations by Yale professors, and tours of Yale’s science facilities. Breaking away from traditional scientific teaching, Resonance presents science in a way that is applicable to students’ daily lives and future goals.

Sci.CORPS

Sci.CORPS (Science Career Orientation & Readiness Program for Students) is a program open to students who have participated in the Yale Peabody EVOLUTIONS program for at least two years. After a period of training and community service, participants receive paid work experience as science interpreters at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. While the museum is closed, these youth staff will work as outreach educators and provide online learning. In the 2019–2020 academic year, Sci.CORPS staff provided nearly 4,000 hours of educational experiences to Peabody Museum visitors.

Science Café

Open Labs at Yale hosts an event called Science Café, where students get to learn about exciting new research at Yale from the scientists doing the work. Students also learn how the scientists got into their field and what they are passionate about in their work. Presenters give a short, engaging talk about their research, and students get to meet scientists from all over campus in Q&A and interactive demonstrations. Open Labs also works with local community groups to host events where students get hands-on experience with interactive science demonstrations.

Science Haven

Science Haven is a collaboration between Open Labs at Yale and New Haven neighborhood leaders that is designed to engage Yale graduate students more deeply in their neighborhoods through hands-on science demos at community gatherings. Through attending neighborhood leadership meetings and connecting with families, Science Haven aims to inspire students to pursue a career in science and to help adults to see scientists as approachable. By putting a face to the lab coat, Science Haven hopes to foster a sense of trust between residents and their neighborhood scientific community.

Science in the News

Science in the News is a series of fun science lectures delivered by Yale graduate and professional students and postdoctoral scholars each spring. Past lecture topics have included “How to Build an Earth: Just Add Water!” and “Life is Strange: Legendary Heroes of Survival.” The series is organized and hosted by Yale Science Communication—A Graduate Student Organization, a campus group devoted to igniting scientific engagement and training effective science communicators. 

Science on Saturdays

This award-winning lecture series features scientists whose passion for their work inspires us all. Each event involves a lecture by a Yale professor and engaging science demonstrations by Yale college students. Science on Saturdays provides an opportunity for Yale scientists and residents of New Haven and beyond to come together over a shared sense of wonder. Past topics have included “How to Grow a New Head: The Secret of Eternal Life” and “Peering into the Dark Side of the Universe.”

Shafer Family Summer School Scholarships for Yale University Summer Session

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. Students take Yale College courses in the company of college students and are able to 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.

Special Needs Undergraduate Swim Lessons

Special Needs Undergraduate Swim lessons (SNUGS) at Yale provides swim lessons free of charge to local special needs children. SNUGS services more than 150 children and more than 100 Yale students volunteer annually.

SpinWearables

The student volunteers at SpinWearables, a project of the Society of Women Engineers at Yale, help students code their own light-up device called the SpinWheel! Students dive deeper into coding with Arduino and learn the physics behind motion and how our eyes see color. These sessions feature small-group workshops and culminate in a Final Masterpiece Project where students design their own creations via their SpinWheels.

Splash at Yale

Splash at Yale is a biannual event that brings local middle and high school students to Yale University for one day of unlimited learning. Students take classes in a variety of subjects taught by Yale undergraduate and graduate students. Students get to learn about things that they normally would not have access to, empowering them to find what they love to learn, discover new career opportunities, and become tomorrow’s leaders. Splash at Yale also hosts Sprout, a similar program that gives students the opportunity to delve deeper into one topic in a series of three workshops.

Squash Haven

Squash Haven is a year-round enrichment program which uses the sport of squash, in combination with academic tutoring, literacy development, fitness education, community service, college access, and career development to empower and make a lasting difference in the lives of New Haven young people. This free program works intensively with students and families for as long as 14 years between the ages of 10 and 24. 80 percent of team members attend top-100 colleges and universities, and 50 percent of team members play squash in college.

Stem Mentors

STEM Mentors is a graduate student organization that serves to prepare and encourage young students to pursue STEM in college and in their careers. STEM Mentors organizes college-essay-writing workshops, college Q&A sessions, and career fairs to help expose students to the exciting world of STEM.

Sterling Memorial Library

Located in the heart of Central Campus, the Sterling Memorial Library is one of Yale’s most prominent buildings, as well as being the largest of all the Yale libraries. It currently houses about three million books on 16 floors. It was built in the Collegiate Gothic style, resembling a European Gothic cathedral, with a soaring nave, cloisters, clerestory windows, side chapels, and a circulation-desk altar. Sterling Memorial Library also houses the Gilmore Music Library, the university archives, and the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, as well as numerous reading rooms and departments.

Teeth Spoken Word Poetry Workshops

The mission of Yale’s TEETH Poets is to produce meaningful and illuminating pieces and promote the appreciation of spoken word in the New Haven community. At monthly outreach events, Pathways to Arts & Humanities students meet Yale’s TEETH Poets f to watch spoken word poetry in action, participate in small group workshops with TEETH performers, and try their hand at writing poetry.

The View from Here

The View from Here is a free, semester-long photography-based program for young adults in Greater New Haven. Hosted by the Yale Center for British Art and the Lens Media Lab, this program seeks to deepen young people’s engagement with visual art by exposing them to the history, materials, and practice of photography. Students learn the essential principles of taking and composing their own photographs using a smartphone or personal digital device. Working with curators, museum staff, Yale faculty, and photographers, students gain access to unique workshops, experiences, and mentorships. The program culminates in an exhibition of students’ work. A $500 stipend is awarded at the completion of the course.

Ulysses S. Grant Program

The Ulysses S. Grant Program is a six-week academic summer program for motivated middle school students from New Haven Public Schools held on the Yale University campus. Since 1953, U.S. Grant has drawn upon the enthusiasm of Yale undergraduates to deepen students’ current interests and explore completely new ones, while developing their critical thinking and collaborative skills.

Urban Improvement Corps

Established in 1968, the Urban Improvement Corps provides one-on-one mentoring and tutoring to students in the New Haven area. Tutoring occurs after school weekly at the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale. The program also provides supplemental classes on the weekends for students interested in creative writing, SAT/ACT practice, computer science, and music composition.

Urban Resources Initiative

Urban Resources Initiative (URI) is a university not-for-profit partnership actively engaged in community forestry activities throughout New Haven. Its mission is to foster community-based land stewardship, promote environmental education, advance the practice of urban forestry, and provide Yale students with clinical learning opportunities. URI is dedicated to community participation in urban ecosystem management.

Visualizing Animal Embryos Using Your Own DIY Microscope

During this virtual science workshop, students build their very own microscope from scratch. They then use their self-built microscopes to visualize the first steps of development in animals like frogs to see how a single cell transforms into an adult organism through the process of embryonic development.

WILL POWER! Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre

WILL POWER! is Yale Repertory Theatre’s annual educational initiative offered in conjunction with one or more of its productions. It features specially priced tickets and early matinees for middle and high school student groups. The program often includes free professional development for educators, study guides for students, and post-performance discussions with members of the company. Since the program’s inception in 2003, more than 26,000 students and educators from across Connecticut have participated.

Windham Campbell Literary Festival

Now in its tenth year, the Windham Campbell Literary Festival brings the Windham Campbell prize recipients in the fields of drama, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry to Yale’s campus for a week of celebratory events. Highlight events from past festivals have included a panel discussion and writing workshops for students at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, film screenings, and a group reading by all the prizewinners. All festival events are free and open to the public.

World Culture and Language After School Studies (World CLASS)

The World Culture and Language After School Studies Program (World CLASS) offers language instruction, along with cultural exposure, in several less-commonly taught languages, including Arabic, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, and Urdu. Weekly classes are taught by Yale faculty and graduate students, as well as local teachers. The program is open to all high school students in the area and culminates in a student showcase of their language skills they have developed over the course of the year.

WYBCx Yale Radio Internship

The WYBCx Yale Radio Internship uses radio waves to give New Haven high school students a voice. In six sessions, students learn about radio techniques an take over the controls for the “Teen Takeover” hour. Over the course of the program, students learn how to run their own news segments, talk shows, music hours, and radio dramas. As a final project, students have the opportunity to combine elements from what they have learned to form their own personalized shows.

Yale Athletics Youth Days

The Yale Athletics Department hosts several annual Youth Day events including: Fall Youth Day at the Yale Bowl, Winter Youth Day, and Yale Hockey Youth Day. Students engage in free sports clinics, gain free admission to varsity events and earn special prizes for participation. Youth Days are free and open to the public and draw hundreds of New Haven students to Yale’s campus.

Yale Center for Analytical Sciences

YCAS Young Scholars is an intensive, two-week summer program geared to promising high school juniors and seniors interested in math and science. Students are introduced to biostatistics and statistical computing using the R programming language and to research methods used in medical science. Students work in teams, using real health-science data, to address study questions and develop a final presentation of their work.

Yale Center for British Art

The Yale Center for British Art houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom in a landmark building designed by Louis Kahn. The YCBA has a rich array of exhibitions and educational programs, as well as fellowships and academic resources, including a reference library and study room for examining works on paper in the collection. The museum is open to the public and admission and all programming is free. The Yale Center for British Art encourages families and children of all ages to explore the collections.

Yale Center for British Art Exploring Artism program

Exploring Artism is the center’s free monthly program for families with children ages 5–12 who are on the autism spectrum. Participants look at artwork in the museum’s galleries and participate in a hand’s-on activity in a museum classroom. A quiet room is available throughout the session with blankets and sensory toys. All family members are welcome.

Yale Center for British Art Family Programs

The Yale Center for British Art offers children’s programs and community family festivals that explore the collections and special exhibitions. Through gallery experiences, games, and activities, children and families learn how to look at and talk about a work of art. Self-guided group and family materials are available at the front desk.

Yale Center for British Art Guided Tours for K-12 School Groups

School and community groups can explore the center’s collections, architecture, and special exhibitions on an interactive docent-led tour. These free tours encourage close looking, critical thinking, and creative evaluation. Upon request, tours can be customized to connect content from the collections to a class curriculum. Classroom and homeschool teachers are also welcome to bring their students and lead self-guided visits. The center’s educational programming is designed to support visual literacy instruction and complement curriculum goals and standards. Bringing art into the learning process builds students’ inquiry, observation, description, and critical-looking skills.

Yale Center for British Art Summer Teacher Institute

The Summer Teacher Institute offers practicing teachers an enriched understanding of how visual art can support their students’ reading, writing, and thinking. Workshops, discussions, and lectures by university faculty and museum educators demonstrate how “visual text” can be used to enhance literacy instruction. Institute sessions include hands-on experience with works of art and exploring ways to make the museum an extension of the classroom. Participants are given the tools they need to lead dynamic museum visits and to incorporate visual arts into classroom instruction.

Yale Center for British Art Visual Literacy Consortium

The YCBA Visual Literacy Consortium brings together a group of educators for a bimonthly consortium to promote the important dialogue about visual literacy and its role in school curricula. The purpose of the group is to share experiences, research, and resources and to work toward an expanded notion of literacy that includes making meaning from visual as well as written texts.

Yale Child Study Center's Comer School Development Program

The Comer School Development Program is committed to the total development of all children by helping to create learning environments that support children’s physical, cognitive, psychological, linguistic, social, and ethical development. The Organization’s professional and consultation unit provides New Haven teachers, administrators, and parents with professional development opportunities on a range of topics including child and adolescent development; creating positive classroom and school climate and culture; engaging families and communities; and more.

Yale Children's Theater

The Yale Children’s Theater is a Yale undergraduate organization that brings together a group of Yale students devoted to teaching, entertaining, and engaging kids with the dramatic arts. The Yale Children’s Theater produces four student-written shows each year, offers drama workshops and writing workshops for local students, and performs throughout the New Haven community. Programming reaches hundreds of students per year. The writing workshops are free of charge for New Haven students and are held on weekends at Dwight Hall during the academic year.

Yale Community Rowing

The Yale Community Rowing Program (YCR) officially began in 1999 with the idea that opportunities in the sport of rowing could be made available to young people throughout this community. The program has grown to become one of the largest programs of its kind in the nation, unique in its scope and inclusiveness. Each year, close to 900 young people between the ages of ten and seventeen take part in YCR-sponsored activities.

Yale Daily News Summer Journalism Program

Run by members of the Yale Daily News, the Summer Journalism Program is a one-week intensive course in journalism for high school students. Students participate in workshops on the fundamentals of reporting and writing, attend lectures by guest speakers from major national publications, and create a full summer edition of the Yale Daily News by the end of the week. The program is open to all Connecticut high school students and is free for New Haven Public School students.

Yale Education Tutoring Initiative

The Yale Education Tutoring Initiative (YETI) is a free online tutoring program for New Haven public middle and high school students. Admitted students are matched with an undergraduate or graduate student tutor who helps support their work in one or several school subjects. 

Yale Farm & Yale Sustainable Food Project

The Yale Farm is a lush and productive teaching farm that produces vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers, as well as providing a home to free-ranging chicken flocks and honey bees. It provides a place where the community can come together to learn about the agriculture and the complex systems that feed us. The farm hosts workshops, seminars, open workdays, and a program for New Haven public school second graders.

Yale Funbotics At-Home Engineering Challenges

Yale Funbotics conducts at-home engineering camps. Kids receive custom kits in the mail, containing materials that will be used throughout six session camps during which students learn core engineering skills, critical thinking, and design principles while having fun in the comfort of their homes. Throughout the sessions kids explore engineering design by building structures from popsicle stick bridges to race cars. For the final session, kids are encouraged to use their resourcefulness to gather everyday materials to build an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine, instilling the idea that engineering can occur anywhere.

Yale Landscape Lab

The Yale Landscape Lab, located at Yale’s West Campus in Orange, Connecticut, fosters growing collaborations across Yale and beyond, connecting more than 20 professional schools, departments, organizations, and student groups across the university. Partners include the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Architecture, and Public Health, as well as Yale College. Numerous student groups utilize the Landscape Lab as a place to put their ideas into action.

Yale Latino Network Group STEM Workshop

The Yale Latino Network Group (YLNG) seeks to strengthen the professional and social relationships between Latino employees, the university, and the outside community. Each year, the group invites Pathways middle school students to explore science and engineering with its members during a day of hands-on workshops. The most recent event included a virtual design-thinking workshop, where students built prototypes of superhero beds with craft supplies mailed to their homes. The Design for America student organization led the workshop with assistance from YLNG and Pathways volunteers.

Yale Model Congress

Yale Model Congress provides high school students with an opportunity to learn about and experience the American legislative system first hand. As part of the program, students learn parliamentary procedure, write legislation, develop research strategies, and practice public-speaking skills. During the annual Yale Model Congress conference, students assume the responsibilities of elected representatives and tackle the issues facing our nation, such as security, the environment, and healthcare.

Yale New Haven Teachers Institute

The Yale–New Haven Teachers Institute is an educational partnership designed to strengthen teaching and learning in New Haven public schools. Yale faculty members and New Haven teachers work together in discussion seminars to develop new curriculum units. The seminars, which meet over a five-month period, are designed in response to teacher requests and have addressed topics across the sciences and humanities. Fellows become members of the Yale community for one year, with library and other campus privileges, and receive a stipend upon successful completion of the Institute.

Yale Online

Yale Online brings access to professors, programs and courses to a range of people around the world, including career changers, lifelong learners, educators, and high school and college students. From online courses to on-campus experiences, there are a range of learning opportunities available for degree and non-degree seekers. The courses are free and open to the public.

Yale Pathways Research Internships

The Yale Pathways Research Internships (YPRI) connects highly qualified Yale Pathways students with science research internships at Yale. During the summer, students participate in a series of workshops and activities that supplement their internship experiences and enhance their scientific research skills. Students are paired with Yale undergraduate mentors, who provide one-on-one-one guidance throughout the six-week internship experience.

Yale Pathways to Arts & Humanities Summer Scholars Program

Pathways Summer Scholars is a free two-week summer arts and humanities-focused program for local high school students. Each summer, Yale faculty, graduate students, and staff come together to create a program designed to share Yale’s rich resources with New Haven students. Pathways Scholars take a variety of workshops where they examine the vast resources of the Beinecke, discover art and sculpture at the Yale University Art Gallery, explore the world of comics, learn professional photographic techniques, practice graphic design, study ancient languages, and more.

Yale Peabody Museum Annual Events

Each year, the Yale Peabody Museum hosts several public events for the community, most notably the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy of Environmental and Social Justice event in January and ¡Fiesta Latina! in October. Though these programs will evolve with the museum’s renovation, both events will continue to be free and open to the public. The Peabody Museum also sponsors numerous lectures and talks throughout the year.

Yale Peabody Museum Education Programs for K-12 School Groups

Each year, the Yale Peabody Museum provides earth- and life-science programs to more than 20,000 students from Connecticut and surrounding states. During the museum’s renovation, school and group programs will continue to be offered online and at the Peabody’s Community Education Center located at Yale’s West Campus in Orange, Connecticut. The West Campus Education Center features over 3,000 square feet of classroom, presentation, and activity space, and an extensive network of on-campus nature trails for hands-on life science programs. School programs are free for New Haven, West Haven, and Orange public schools from September through March.

Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History houses a diverse collection of 13 million objects that includes Egyptian mummies, samurai swords, and animals and plants from across the world. The museum’s paleontological collections rank among the most historically important fossil collections in the world. The Peabody also offers an increasing number of online programs and activities for all ages, and their online catalog houses digital images of more than 163,000 specimens, artifacts, and objects.

Yale Physics Olympics

The Yale Physics Olympics (YPO) is an all-day physics competition for Connecticut and surrounding area high school students and teachers and is free for registered teams. YPO  brings more than 100 high school students to compete in teams on a variety of physics-related tasks that get students to practice the skills of experimental physicists. Awards are given to the three best-performing teams.

Yale Reading Corps

Through Yale Reading Corps, Yale undergraduate and graduate students serve as reading tutors and mentors at New Haven Reads. New Haven Reads, founded to “share the joy and power of reading,” increases the literacy skills of children to empower their academic success by providing individually tailored one-on-one after-school tutoring, educational family support, and a community book bank. The Yale Reading Corps also places Yale undergraduate and graduate students as teaching assistants in classrooms at the Wexler-Grant Community School in New Haven. Fully integrated into the educational environment, the Yale students support teachers’ activities by helping prepare class materials or working with individuals or small groups of students. In addition, the program supports the school’s literacy efforts by sponsoring two book fairs, allowing students to expand their home libraries.

Yale School of Medicine Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program

Yale’s Interdepartmental Neuroscience Outreach Program welcomes middle and high school student groups to Yale. Students explore neuroscience on campus through lectures, hands-on demonstrations, and a tour of the Cushing Center, all led by current graduate students. At interactive demo stations, students can use their muscles to power a robotic claw, record electrical changes in neurons from a cockroach leg, compare brains from several animals, and learn how common brain teasers work. In the Cushing Center, volunteers partner with a talented librarian to lead students on a scavenger hunt to learn about the history of neuroscience at Yale and see a variety of brain specimens collected by Dr. Harvey Cushing.

Yale School of the Environment Research Day

Research Day is an annual spring conference that gives master’s and Ph.D. students at the Yale School of the Environment a chance to present their research to the community. During this daylong conference, students present with poster sessions and oral presentations. The conference features a prominent scientist keynote presentation. The event uses multiple formats including the UpGoer5 session that restricts presenters to describe their research using only the 1,000 most common words in the English language. Ten Pathways high school students are invited as the youngest members of the conference.

Yale Science Olympiad

Working with state directors, regional coordinators, the university, teachers, and countless Yale students, the Yale Science Olympiad put together the nation’s first college student–run tournament in January 2014 and continues to host an invitational every year. Students compete at a regional level and challenge themselves to gain valuable skills in STEM.

Yale Simulation Academy

The Yale Simulation Academy (YSA) is a procedure-based anatomy and physiology curriculum spanning the school year. Students from Hill Regional Career High School and Metropolitan Business Academy come to the Yale Center for Medical Simulation (YCMS) one day a week to work with physicians and faculty at the Yale School of Medicine. The program employs active engagement as the vehicle by which students learn to apply concepts in biology, math, physics, and chemistry through advanced medical procedures. YSA exposes students to the varied careers within the biomedical sciences, promotes peer mentorship, and supports those interested in higher education.

Yale Social Robotics Lab Open House

The Yale Social Robotics Lab focuses on building models of human social behavior, especially the development of early social skills. Scientists in the lab use computational modeling and interactive robots to explore questions about social development that are difficult or impossible to investigate with other disciplines. Each year, the lab hosts an open house for families and students of all ages. Guests tour the lab, see live robot demonstrations, learn about past and current projects, and have an opportunity to chat with lab members about their research.

Yale Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science

The Yale Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) chapter is dedicated to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for all in STEM. A large component of this work includes science outreach to K–12 students within the New Haven area. This exciting event started in-person in the first year but transitioned to virtual for the last two years. SACNAS directly brought science demonstrations to students’ homes and taught them core scientific concepts.

Yale Summer Debate Program

Offered by the Urban Debate League, the weeklong Yale Summer Debate Program is open to all New Haven high school students, regardless of debate experience. During the program, students develop their skills in public speaking, constructing arguments, and delivering rebuttals. The program is premised on the philosophy that students can use debate as a tool to critically engage with the world around them, helping them to become better debaters and students and more active members of society.

Yale Synapse

Synapse is the educational outreach arm of Yale Scientific Magazine. It aims to inspire New Haven public school students to pursue careers in science, engage in research, and try their hands at scientific journalism. Synapse conducts science demonstrations over the course of three spring workshops and the annual Resonance program, a series of science enrichment activities hosted at Yale for high school students. Synapse also sends out a monthly newsletter with science news and puzzles and organizes a scientific writing contest in the Fall.

Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association Outreach Events

The Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association (YUAA) is Yale’s largest engineering club, and they build rockets, birdlike planes, satellites, and cool robots/rovers. Through their outreach, YUAA usually build small-scale versions of these items, such as small rockets, model airplanes, or model rovers. They then also explain the basic science governing these projects and how they work.

Yale University Art Gallery

The Yale University Art Gallery has more than 4,000 works of art on view from cultures all over the world. The more than 200,000 objects in its permanent collection range from American decorative arts and American paintings and sculpture to African art and art of the ancient Americas. In addition to its permanent collection, the Gallery also has many educational programs and special exhibitions. The museum is free and open to the public.

Yale University Art Gallery Family Programs

The weekend family programs at the Yale University Art Gallery are designed to help start conversations about art with children of all ages. Currently, all family programs are online.  Each month, the Gallery releases a new set of videos in English and Spanish. Tales of distant times and faraway lands inspire children of all ages to view art in new ways. Gallery teaching staff tell folktales, myths, and exciting stories from all over the world that highlight unique features of selected objects in the gallery’s collection. 

Yale University Art Gallery Guided Tours for K-12 School Groups

School groups can explore the Yale University Art Gallery’s collection, buildings, and exhibitions on free interactive guided class visits. Visits for school groups are led by the museum’s Wurtele Gallery Teachers, Yale graduate students trained as museum educators. Class visits stress critical thinking, observation skills, and creative evaluation through close examination, interactive activities, and discussion of works of art and are tied to Common Core Standards. During the pandemic, pre-K–12 students visited with their classes and as part of after-school programs. School groups can schedule virtual single visits or work with the Education Department to develop virtual multi-visit partnerships.

Yale University Art Gallery Museum Club

As part of the partnership between the Yale University Art Gallery and Betsy Ross Arts Magnet Middle School, visual arts students from Betsy Ross visit the gallery with their parents monthly for a tailored after-school program.

Yale University Art Gallery Sidewalk Studio

Sidewalk Studio is a summer outdoor program set up in front of the gallery that fosters impromptu art making on a drop-in basis. Led by gallery staff and Yale University undergraduate and graduate students, each session focuses on a single medium and connects to related works in the collection.

Yale University Art Gallery Teacher Leadership Program

The Teacher Leadership Program is a free one-hour workshop for educators of all levels and disciplines that meets at 4:00 pm on the first Thursday of the month throughout the academic year. The sessions are held on Zoom and are led by Jessica Sack, the Jan and Frederick Mayer Curator of Public Education; Wurtele Gallery Teachers; and Education Department staff. In this program, educators explore innovative ways to connect their curricula and interest in art with the Yale University Art Gallery’s collection. The sessions also address online and in-person teaching techniques.

Yale University Art Gallery Teen Program

Begun in 2014, the Teen Program at the gallery is open to all local high school students. Students meet weekly for sessions focused on making art and exploring the gallery’s collections. This past year, the teen program met online. They hope to resume sessions at the once in-person gallery programming is permitted. 

Yale University Library Digital Humanities Lab

The Digital Humanities Laboratory (DHLab) at the Yale University Library supports cutting-edge research and teaching in the humanities. During the school year, Pathways students are invited to the DHLab for hands-on workshops that explore the leading questions and tools driving digital humanities research forward, from Tableau Public—free software for creating interactive data visualizations—to StoryMaps—a platform for publishing maps alongside text, images, and audio.

Yale University on iTunes U

Yale University has a wide array of podcasts available from faculty, alumni, and distinguished visitors Topics include arts and humanities, science and engineering, health and medicine, the environment, as well as other areas of interest.

Yale University President's Public Service Fellowship

Established in 1994, the President’s Public Service Fellowship (PPSF) provides full funding for up to 35 Yale students to work full-time with public sector and nonprofit organizations in New Haven each summer. PPSF has created a legacy of current Yale students and recent graduates who have a sophisticated view of community development and remain active in community building in New Haven and other cities. To date, more than 900 Yale undergraduate, graduate, and professional-school students have contributed more than 380,000 hours of community service to local organizations serving New Haven residents through this program.

Yale University Visitors Center

The Yale University Visitor Center is the front door of the university as it welcomes visitors from across the world. It is conveniently located on Elm Street, across from the New Haven Green. Visitors can participate in a guided tour with Yale College students or visit the campus “virtually.” Groups of ten or more visitors can schedule a private tour. The group-tour fee is waived for all New Haven Public Schools.

Yale West Campus Showcase

At Yale’s West Campus, science is taking place in gardens, galleries, microscope rooms, and laser labs, and the showcase allows it to be shared with students. This event welcomes students in grades 6–12 for a behind-the-scenes virtual tour of Yale labs, including live experiments and a chance to have their questions answered by Yale scientists.

Yale YouTube Channel

The Yale University YouTube channel supplies a variety of videos to the viewing public. Covering anything from speeches and course lectures to videos made about happenings on campus, the Yale YouTube channel is a free way to experience all that Yale has to offer.