Junior Journeys: Buff Up Your Resume
by Nahia Pino, Senior, iPreparatory Academy
by Nahia Pino, Senior, iPreparatory Academy
Every college wants to know: how do you spend your time? One easy way to gain structure in an activity is to attend programs. There’s summer programs, study programs, fly-in programs and more than you can imagine if you look hard enough. I can speak about my experience at two programs and then give more options for your future.
MOSTEC
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What is it? MIT’s Online Science, Technology, and Engineering Community. MOSTEC is an online program split into two phases: Academic and Enrichment. The Academic phase happens during the summer from July to August in which participants complete two online STEM courses. The Enrichment phase carries over until December, with 3 weekly events with OEOP staff and your ’cluster,’ with college, career, and life advice. Many iPrepians have attended MOSTEC as well. |
Office of Engineering Outreach Programs
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How was it?
MOSTEC is what you yourself get out of it. I saw many people make life-long friends and many more treat it like another club.
During the Academic phase, the two courses are a project course and a core course. I took a Data Visualization course and a Physics course respectively. Both were about seven weeks long, 2 hours a week, so in advance don’t expect an AP level course - the difficulty is more like a Coursera (online) course.
The Data Visualization class was mostly learning how to use Tableau, a software that teaches graph making. We created visualizations based on the data sets provided, a couple live and others as homework. The course culminated in the final project, where we worked in pairs to find our own data set and create a new visualization.
Each project course has this ‘final project’, which is showcased at the end of summer in the Final Symposium. Most years, the program actually pays to fly you into Boston and the entire symposium is done in person. This year, due to the pandemic, was the first all-virtual Symposium, and there’s no current knowledge if this will carry over to 2021. Having attended this years, I would have my own recommendations for Project courses that had the most excited presenters.
If you get the chance, take Embedded Systems! It’s essentially an intro to Electrical Engineering. They will send you a kit to do labs and is the most active class. It's also the most time intensive. Otherwise, I also saw a lot of positive response from other courses: Mapping Justice, Machine Learning, Thermodynamics & Climate Change, Aerospace Engineering, and Astrophysics. There are still more courses to choose from and they will probably change around this year.
Then you chose core course. There are two options: Science Writing or Physics. In hindsight, I would recommend Science Writing if only for the end result. That’s not to say I hated physics, but the class was limited to mechanical engineering and had no final project to work towards, just our weekly problem sets. Science Writing was a course to your design, in which you (and sometimes a partner) would do research and an interview while learning how to write a science paper on whichever subject you choose. Having this final result to your hard work is valuable for applications and a proven track record.
Beyond my classes, I also enjoyed the enrichment side. It was split between larger webinars with guest speakers, zoom activities, and cluster meetings. A ‘cluster’ was a group of about twenty randomly mixed together students under one mentor which you met with once a week. Being forced to be social was a bit awkward at first, but all in all, everyone became a nice group where we could vent all of our college frustrations.
MOSTEC is what you yourself get out of it. I saw many people make life-long friends and many more treat it like another club.
During the Academic phase, the two courses are a project course and a core course. I took a Data Visualization course and a Physics course respectively. Both were about seven weeks long, 2 hours a week, so in advance don’t expect an AP level course - the difficulty is more like a Coursera (online) course.
The Data Visualization class was mostly learning how to use Tableau, a software that teaches graph making. We created visualizations based on the data sets provided, a couple live and others as homework. The course culminated in the final project, where we worked in pairs to find our own data set and create a new visualization.
Each project course has this ‘final project’, which is showcased at the end of summer in the Final Symposium. Most years, the program actually pays to fly you into Boston and the entire symposium is done in person. This year, due to the pandemic, was the first all-virtual Symposium, and there’s no current knowledge if this will carry over to 2021. Having attended this years, I would have my own recommendations for Project courses that had the most excited presenters.
If you get the chance, take Embedded Systems! It’s essentially an intro to Electrical Engineering. They will send you a kit to do labs and is the most active class. It's also the most time intensive. Otherwise, I also saw a lot of positive response from other courses: Mapping Justice, Machine Learning, Thermodynamics & Climate Change, Aerospace Engineering, and Astrophysics. There are still more courses to choose from and they will probably change around this year.
Then you chose core course. There are two options: Science Writing or Physics. In hindsight, I would recommend Science Writing if only for the end result. That’s not to say I hated physics, but the class was limited to mechanical engineering and had no final project to work towards, just our weekly problem sets. Science Writing was a course to your design, in which you (and sometimes a partner) would do research and an interview while learning how to write a science paper on whichever subject you choose. Having this final result to your hard work is valuable for applications and a proven track record.
Beyond my classes, I also enjoyed the enrichment side. It was split between larger webinars with guest speakers, zoom activities, and cluster meetings. A ‘cluster’ was a group of about twenty randomly mixed together students under one mentor which you met with once a week. Being forced to be social was a bit awkward at first, but all in all, everyone became a nice group where we could vent all of our college frustrations.
How to Apply?
Both the program and application are completely free of charge. There are five short response questions, no more than 150 words each, that must be completed and two additional optional questions. You also must have three recommendations: a counselor, science teacher, and math teacher (although I don’t think I ever got my science recommender, and I still got in, but better safe than sorry).
Student applications are due February 1st, while teacher documents (recommendations) can be submitted until Feb 14.
https://oeop.mit.edu/programs/mostec
Both the program and application are completely free of charge. There are five short response questions, no more than 150 words each, that must be completed and two additional optional questions. You also must have three recommendations: a counselor, science teacher, and math teacher (although I don’t think I ever got my science recommender, and I still got in, but better safe than sorry).
Student applications are due February 1st, while teacher documents (recommendations) can be submitted until Feb 14.
https://oeop.mit.edu/programs/mostec
HSF YLI
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What is it?
Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Youth Leadership Institute. No, you don’t get a scholarship for being in the program. Hispanic Scholarship Fund is actually the name of the organization that distributes a huge scholarship, alongside others (including the Gates Scholarship). It also happens to facilitate and fund lots of different programs, including the YLI. There are more than one YLI programs each summer, each hosted by a University, usually in person. This year those Universities were the University of Chicago and University of Southern California. The program is a week long mentorship and networking program promoting leadership and such. Additionally, those who complete the program get the title of HSF Scholar, which means something probably. |
Hispanic Scholarship Fund
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How was it?
My own experience was webinars ALL day for a week due to the pandemic. Still, even through the screens everyone working was always so enthusiastic that it was actually pretty fun. There was good information on general life and college advice.
The other aspect that was interesting was the ‘Familia’ system. Each familia would be about 6 people, including a mentor who was in college. Then about 4 familias would be grouped together into a ‘Superfamilia,’ and everyday there would be a reflection and activities with the super and regular familia. The people were all super engaging, and the group chats still come alive one a month with life updates, which is pretty consistent for a summer program.
My own experience was webinars ALL day for a week due to the pandemic. Still, even through the screens everyone working was always so enthusiastic that it was actually pretty fun. There was good information on general life and college advice.
The other aspect that was interesting was the ‘Familia’ system. Each familia would be about 6 people, including a mentor who was in college. Then about 4 familias would be grouped together into a ‘Superfamilia,’ and everyday there would be a reflection and activities with the super and regular familia. The people were all super engaging, and the group chats still come alive one a month with life updates, which is pretty consistent for a summer program.
Superfamilia 1 (best superfamilia), photo by me
How to Apply?
Again, free to apply and free to attend. This one requires one essay and a counselor recommendation. The application for 2021 is not out yet, and there is a chance it will be canceled as many programs have, but in the case that applications open up it’s good to have a account ready at https://www.hsf.net/home
Again, free to apply and free to attend. This one requires one essay and a counselor recommendation. The application for 2021 is not out yet, and there is a chance it will be canceled as many programs have, but in the case that applications open up it’s good to have a account ready at https://www.hsf.net/home
Beyond Nahia
Wait! Maybe neither of these programs hold your interest. Or maybe you want an experience with a specific college in mind. In that case, you may want to look towards fly-in programs. Traditionally, these are a chance for a college to literally fly you onto campus, but in 2020 many managed to become virtual. Applications open up later than the following months for many, as most happen in your early senior year, but a comprehensive list that I created over the summer will be linked below. Note that because this was created in the summer of 2021, there may be changes to due dates and requirements, so if any in particular catches your interest, be sure to do your own research. Extra disclaimer, those programs still in my spreadsheet are programs that adapted to covid and became virtual. There may be one or two missing, but there are still plenty to choose from. Happy searching!