Center for the Study of Neurodegenerative Disorders

The Young Investigators’ Program was a four-year biomedical research mentorship program aimed at providing advanced high school students the opportunity to actively participate in university-level research at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After three years the program had undergone many changes in its curriculum to evolve into its successful multidisciplinary format. Students were found to respond better to a structured, point-based system rather than a less formal approach, and four students contributed to research that is being submitted for publication. This program could serve as a model for establishing future university-community collaborative mentorship programs.