About

The Summer Research Experience in Cancer (SURE-CAN) program at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a free, six-week mentored research internship for high school juniors, running June 26–August 7, 2026, in Buffalo, New York. Roswell Park is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Upstate New York — a designation that reflects both the institution's research infrastructure and the depth of its faculty expertise — and SURE-CAN places students directly inside that institution's active research programs, matched to individual faculty mentors from a named list of 20 Roswell Park scientists. The program is entirely free, with limited subsistence allowances available for a select number of participants based on financial need and funding eligibility.

Eligibility is strictly geographic and class-year specific. Applicants must be current high school juniors (graduating class of 2027) who are both residents of and enrolled in school in one of four Western New York counties: Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus, or Chautauqua. Both enrollment and residency are verified. The program is commuter-only with no exceptions, operates 40 hours per week (eight hours per day, with start and end times determined by the assigned mentor), and requires full daily attendance for all six weeks — no time off is permitted for family vacations, college visits, or other appointments. Students must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and at least 15 years old at the start of the program.

The six-week curriculum combines direct mentored lab research with structured didactic programming. Students receive instruction in cancer biology, medical imaging, genomics, and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence methods in cancer research. Basic statistics, research ethics, rigor and reproducibility, and scientific communication are all covered. The curriculum deliberately integrates mathematics, physics, and engineering with biological research, giving students a cross-disciplinary view of how cancer science actually works at an institutional level. The six weeks culminate in a formal research symposium at which interns present their work as scientific posters to the Roswell Park community — the same format used by professional researchers at academic conferences.

The 2026 mentor roster includes 20 named Roswell Park faculty members with specializations spanning tobacco biology, gynecologic oncology, cancer genomics, imaging, statistical genomics, epidemiology, experimental therapeutics, and translational research. Students rank their preferred mentors in the application and are matched based on availability and fit. The application requires a 300-word personal statement addressing educational goals, prior science access (or lack thereof), and what the student wants their mentor to know about them — a prompt that explicitly acknowledges barriers to access as a relevant factor, not just an equity gesture. There is no application fee. Applications for 2026 are now closed; future cycles are expected to open in late fall or early winter.

For a Western New York high school junior with genuine interest in any aspect of cancer research — biology, computational, clinical, or public health — SURE-CAN offers something that cannot be replicated at a distance: six weeks inside an NCI-designated cancer center, paired with a faculty scientist whose professional work is the thing being studied, culminating in a formal scientific presentation. The geographic gate is the binding constraint; within it, the program is among the most substantive free research experiences available to a high school student in the United States.