About

The ENLACE summer research program, hosted by the UC San Diego CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials and Systems, is a seven-week residential research experience that places high school and college students from the United States and Mexico side by side in UCSD faculty labs. Founded in 2013 by Professor Olivia Graeve — a mechanical and aerospace engineer and citizen of both countries — ENLACE began with five high school students from Tijuana and has since grown into one of the most distinctive binational STEM programs in the country. The program costs $7,500, which covers housing, meals, field trips, and all program activities; all admitted students automatically receive a $1,000 scholarship, and need-based aid is available beyond that.

Eligibility for high school students is restricted to current juniors (11th grade only); seniors and students graduating before the program begins are not eligible. Students from both the US and Mexico are welcome, and the binational design is central to ENLACE's identity: participants are paired across the border and placed together in the same research lab for the duration of the program. Lab placements span engineering, chemistry, physics, and the biological sciences, with each pair working on a specific, real research project under UCSD faculty guidance. Students also earn educational credit through UC San Diego Extension.

Beyond bench science, ENLACE integrates a structured curriculum that includes anti-bias training, science and society lectures, featured scientist talks, college and graduate school preparation workshops, and Saturday field trips. The seven weeks culminate in a research symposium where students present their work in oral and poster formats. University students who participate as chaperones receive full scholarships and serve as mentors to the high school cohort — a pipeline structure that frequently brings ENLACE alumni back in new roles.

ENLACE occupies a genuinely unusual position in the pre-college landscape: a binational, residential research program that treats cross-border collaboration not as a program add-on but as its foundational premise. For a US junior with serious interest in STEM research and an openness to a multicultural, bilingual environment, ENLACE offers something few programs can match — authentic lab placement at a major research university, paired with a peer experience that is unlike anything else in this space.