About

The Science and Research Awareness Series (SARAS) is a three-week summer program at Stony Brook University's Health Sciences Center, offering high school and undergraduate students an immersive, daily introduction to the full breadth of biomedical science and medicine. Now in its 22nd year, SARAS was founded in 2004 by Dr. Srinivas Pentyala, Professor and Director of Translational Research in the Department of Anesthesiology at Stony Brook's Renaissance School of Medicine — entirely as a personal mission, outside the scope of his paid duties, funded by participant tuition alone. Over two decades, the program has influenced more than 2,000 students.

Each day includes two expert lectures and a workshop, with instructors drawn primarily from Stony Brook Medicine's physicians, nurses, researchers, EMTs, surgeons, and allied health professionals. Topics rotate across the full spectrum of biomedical fields — orthopedics, neurology, forensics, robotic surgery, physical therapy, public health, anesthesiology, and more — giving students exposure to specialties they may never have considered. Laboratory sessions lead to a formal lab safety certification, qualifying students to work in a research lab. Additional sessions cover SAT, ACT, and MCAT preparation, and a Stony Brook admissions representative meets with students to discuss college pathways. The program runs weekdays, approximately 10:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., and is commuter-only; no residential housing is available. Tuition is $1,000 for the full three weeks. Admission is entirely first-come, first-served — no transcripts, no recommendations, no application essay. The program fills at approximately 125–140 students and closes when capacity is reached. Applications open in mid-January.

For a Long Island or New York area student who wants three weeks of genuine exposure to what medicine and biomedical science actually look like from the inside — taught by the practitioners themselves — SARAS offers a depth and accessibility that few comparable programs can match at this price point.