Pathways
Programs
The Department of Anesthesiology at Yale invites New Haven public school students to a day of workshops where they learn how anesthesiologists keep patients safe during surgery, how they literally “take your breath away” at the start of the surgery, and have patients “breathe again” at the end. Students also get hands-on experience with some of the airway devices used for both adult and pediatric patients.
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.
Day of Immunology is an annual event for 100 Pathways 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.
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.
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 to Science high school students are invited to a one-day exploration of an array of scientific questions including, how do scientists measure earthquakes? What can we learn about brains from worms? What does the beginning of development look like? These hands-on sessions are led by Yale faculty, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows.
Aimed at increasing interest in ophthalmology, Pathways high school students are annually invited for a full day of learning about the eye. Students use software to "travel" into the eye, are trained to use 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.
Pathology Day is a full-day exploration of how pathologists investigate diseases at the cellular level, extract valuable information from DNA, and even uncover the mysteries left behind after people have passed. Local high school students step into a day in the life of a cancer researcher, examine clinical cases with a pathology resident, and learn how community clinicians improve healthcare access with a high tech van.
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.
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 explore how our human ancestors lived and behaved, as well as how we evolve to become the species we are today.
Yale Pathways to Arts & Humanities annually welcomes 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. The highlight of the program is the free, two-week on-campus summer 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. Students 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 at the Yale Center for British Art, learn professional photographic techniques, practice graphic design, study ancient languages, and more.
Pathways students get an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the 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. Students meet conservators and preservationists who dedicate their careers to preserving invaluable books, works of art, and much more.
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 2,100 Pathways students are considered the youngest members of Yale’s scientific community and are invited to more than 150 special events, academic lectures, demonstrations, hands-on activities, summer programs, and research opportunities throughout the year.
The Pathways Summer Scholars program brings over 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.
Middle and high school students in the Pathways to Science program 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 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.
The Yale Pathways Research Internships (YPRI) connects highly qualified Yale Pathways students from New Haven and West Haven public schools 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 graduate student mentors, who provide guidance throughout the six-week internship experience.