Summer is a time when many students binge-watch Netflix and sleep-in, but for some students, this is not so.
Every year about 40 of the brightest students from around the world are invited to participate in Secondary Student Training Program (SSTP), a prestigious 5 ½ week summer program providing high school students the opportunity to conduct research with University of Iowa professors. This past summer, three students from Pleasant Valley attended the program and presented their research findings at the end-of-the-program poster session.
At the program, students conduct research on a broad spectrum of disciplines, ranging from biology to computer science. On the weekdays, students are usually in their respective lab/work spaces during 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (timing is dependent upon the assigned lab group), with planned activities, seminars, and free time in the evening. On the weekends, activities take up a small portion of the day, leaving the attendees with free time for the rest of the day. Aadil Manazir, a junior at Pleasant Valley, said “Attending SSTP requires a certain amount of devotion. The students here work long hours on their research project.” He adds, however, that “though the work can be tough, the result of those long hours is gratifying.”
Since the research program is located in Iowa City, students have a vast amount of options to spend this free time. In addition, almost every weekend, Iowa City has some event happening for the public whether that be a concert or a movie night. For those who desire time to work on other assignments, the library is located only a few minutes away with many available work spaces.
Also, during the program, students are paired with one another and assigned rooms in the Burge Residential Hall of the University of Iowa. Along with their residential room key, students are provided a free food pass which they can use when dining at the Burge or Hillcrest Market Place. Although the meals at Burge and Hillcrest are free, some students opt to explore the variety of dining options elsewhere in Iowa City.
Overall, the most memorable part of SSTP is the people attending. Aman Manazir, a senior at Pleasant Valley, said, “In SSTP, for 5 ½ weeks, I literally did everything with a group of 46 kids, so I got to know all of them really well. So that was the best part… the sense of community that I felt in that camp.”
Next year, the Secondary Student Training Program will begin mid-June, and applications will be available starting November 1st, 2018. More information about the program can be found here: http://www2.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/students/program.aspx?P=SSTP
If you have any other questions about the application process or the research in general, reach out to [email protected].
