Pods Program
Pods is a 6-session, structured program on popular career and research topics with an expert mentor and peers who share your passion. Pods are designed to expose students to new topics in a quick 6-week course that covers the basics of research in the chosen topic and culminates in a customizable project outcome.
Defined project schedule designed to keep students and their research on track
Create a meaningful outcome in a condensed timeframe
Learn and collaborate with peers about a topic you're all passionate about
Thoughtfully designed lessons and customizable projects for each student
The Core Program
The Polygence core program consists of 10 one-on-one sessions between the student and mentor. The program is structured around 3 Milestones in addition to regular assignments to ensure students make steady progress on their project. Given the diversity of projects, these milestones are designed to be as flexible as possible to accommodate any and all types of projects.
10 one-on-one sessions in total
Opportunity to apply to present at Symposium
Opportunity to ask mentor for Letter of Recommendation
Gifted and Talented Institute college credits
Opportunity to earn 3 college credits with research papers! This university-level writing course is partially self-paced and fully remote, a great addition to the Polygence mentorship program. Students who are writing research papers under our mentorship can apply.
Students successfully completing the program can earn 3 transferrable credits
Access to University Library resources + Video Lectures + Online Forum
Students are awarded an A/B/C/D letter grade
of Polygence Alumni feature projects on College Apps
Polygence Alumni have up to 5x greater admissions chances at top institutions
Polygence alumni accepted to at least one Major "R1" Research University
Polygence Program Bundles
Matched with a mentor
Milestone I
Project Title, Description, and Desired Outcome
Milestone II
Initial Draft of Project
Milestone III
Final Draft of Project and Showcase
Launchpad sessions
Core Program
Showcasing Support
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Launchpad Program
Core Program
Showcasing Support
(Publishing, Multimedia or Presenting)
Showcasing Support
(Science Fair)
The Core Polygence Program
The Polygence core program consists of 10 one-on-one sessions between the student and mentor. The program is structured around 3 Milestones in addition to regular assignments to ensure students make steady progress on their project. Given the diversity of projects, these milestones are designed to be as flexible as possible to accommodate any and all types of projects.
Would you like to get a clear sense of your academic interests and explore career paths? Are you ready to get professional support for showcasing you work? Check out our program add-ons through the interactive toggles below!
Alex
Project title: Building A K’nex Sorting Machine
Mentor: Dr. Aaron Olsen, PhD in Integrative Biology, University of Chicago
Description: Alex and his mentor created a reactive digital prototype for a K’nex building toy sorting machine to reduce the manual labor and keep builds more organized.
Where are they now? Alex graduated from Laurel Springs High School at 16 and plans to take a gap year before attending college.
Arihant
Project title: Assessing climate change impacts on agriculture in Kolkata, India
Mentor: Dr. Tristan Ballard, PhD in Earth Systems Science, Stanford University
Description: During a gap year before college, Arihant worked with his mentor to analyze over a petabyte of climate change data to model how severe monsoons may become in his native Kolkata.
Where are they now? Arihant is a junior majoring in Data Science at UC Berkeley.
Himank
Project: Using a Quantum Convolutional Neural Network to classify images containing numbers
Mentor: Lawrence Lin, PhD Cand. in Physics, Cornell University
Description: Himank’s project explored Quantum machine learning algorithms and their application in low-resolution image processing, resulting in a research paper.
Where are they now? Himank is a student at Laurel Springs School planning to graduate in 2025.
Michal
Brown University
PhD candidate in Computer Science, AI
Machine learning
Artificial intelligence
Data science
Natalie
Princeton University
PhD candidate in Musicology
Music Theory
Music Psychology
Media Studies
David
Northwestern University
MBA Master of Business Administration
Entrepreneurship
Stocks
Finance
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