High School Students: Learn from IGS this Summer

Our high school program is incredibly competitive. Those who are chosen follow a live online curriculum that includes field trips to places such as IGS labs and the nearby Illumina training center. Applications close each April.

IGS High School Summer Bioinformatics Program

This is a multi-week hybrid program open to Maryland, Northern VA, and Washington DC residents.

A group of 15-20 students will participate in the program together.

Types of topics and activities included in the program:

• Introduction to Omics and Bioinformatics
• Command line interactions within the Linux Operating System
• Analysis of genomic and/or transcriptomic data using bioinformatics tools
• Career information
• Campus/IGS tours
• Lab visits and activities
• Student project presentations

General schedule:

• Synchronous online sessions: Each morning (Mon-Fri) there will be lessons, demonstrations, or group activities from 10:00-12:00 (Eastern). These sessions will be synchronous Zoom sessions and recorded. Each afternoon students will work independently on exercises or tasks related to the morning content or their independent study project (see below). The expectation is that students will spend ~25-30 hours per week on program tasks.
• In-Person Lab days: Spread over the four weeks will be several in-person “lab days” which are events held at IGS or partner organizations during which students will have an opportunity to engage in hands-on laboratory activities.
• Student Presentations: All students in the program will pick a biology or bioinformatics topic of choice (for example: echolocation, sequence alignment tools, spatial transcriptomics), engage in independent study on the topic (via literature review, database searches, use of NCBI resources, etc.), and prepare a 10-15 minute oral presentation which they will present at the end of the four weeks.

Dates:

The program generally starts in early July and ends in early August. Specific dates for each year will be posted when applications open in late fall. Applications are due in early March for the following summer. 

To apply: Fill out the form at the link below and provide your resume and a cover letter describing your interests and why you wish to join this program. Note that we generally get more applicants than we have available slots, thus placement in the program is not guaranteed.

Applications for Summer 2026 are closed.

For more information on applying to our IGS High School Program, contact: igs_outreach@som.umaryland.edu