About

BRAINYAC (Brain Research Apprenticeships in New York at Columbia) is a free, stipended, eight-week neuroscience research internship at Columbia University's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, open exclusively to 10th and 11th grade students currently enrolled in one of five named New York City partner programs: S-PREP, Lang Youth Medical, Double Discovery Center, Columbia Secondary School, and BioBus. Students who are not enrolled in one of these programs are not eligible to apply, regardless of where they live. For students who do qualify, it is one of the most substantive free research programs available to high schoolers anywhere in the country.

The 2026 summer session runs Tuesday, June 30 through Friday, August 14 — eight weeks, Monday through Friday, approximately 9am to 5pm, or about 30 hours per week in the lab. Each student is individually matched with a Columbia neuroscientist at a May matching event, then spends the summer working directly on that mentor's active research project. Mentors may be faculty, research scientists, postdoctoral fellows, or MD/PhD or PhD candidates. A two-hour class session every Thursday morning supplements the lab work with structured neuroscience instruction, seminars, and workshops. The program concludes with a formal poster presentation and graduation ceremony on August 14 at which students present their summer research. The full BRAINYAC cycle also includes Saturday training sessions in the winter and spring before the summer internship begins, making this a year-long program with a defined summer intensive at its core.

Students receive a stipend for their participation. Upon completing the program, alumni become eligible for two significant continuation pathways: the Merit Fellowship, a paid opportunity to continue working in their Columbia lab during the academic year or the following summer, and a paid internship returning to BRAINYAC as a mentor for a future cohort. Both pathways are applied for competitively among alumni. Applications for each cycle open in the fall through the five partner programs — not through Columbia directly — and are distributed and screened at the program level before interviews at Columbia. Applications for 2027 are expected to open in October 2026.

BRAINYAC was founded in 2013 and is now in its thirteenth year. Its explicit mission is to open pathways into neuroscience for students from Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx who are underrepresented in the sciences — a mission that shapes every structural element of the program, from the partner organization pipeline to the stipend that allows students to participate without forgoing income they might otherwise need. For a student enrolled in one of the five partner programs with genuine interest in neuroscience, BRAINYAC is among the most consequential free summer research experiences in New York City, offering individual mentorship from Columbia scientists, a real research project, and a clear continuation pathway into paid scientific work.