At some institutions, graduate students are the driving force in creating the high-school research programs. A decade ago, two graduate students in earth sciences at the University of Southern California created the Young Researchers Program, which is still run by graduate students today [and supported by C-DEBI!]. The program had its biggest class last summer, when 15 local students, nearly all from low-income families, were paired up with Ph.D. candidates as mentors. “At the beginning, a few of them can barely look you in the eye,” says Erin McParland, the program’s coordinator and a Ph.D. candidate in marine and environmental biology. “By the end of the summer, they’re able to explain all the science they’ve done really well. That confidence they gain really helps spur them on to get a four-year degree.”

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