Wayne State Discovery to Cure High School Internship Program

The Discovery to Cure High School Internship Program is a summer research internship at the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development, part of the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, for rising high school seniors. The program also accepts undergraduates on a separate track. Interns spend eight weeks in a Wayne State lab, usually working about 40 hours a week under a faculty member, postdoc or research assistant. Each intern gets a mentor and an individual project and learns to form hypotheses, run experiments and analyze data. Research areas include reproductive biology, immunology, oncology, toxicology, and prenatal and precision medicine. The program does not provide housing or transportation. The 2026 program ran June 22 to August 14.

Open to rising high school seniors who are at least 16 years old; students take part in the summer between junior and senior year. Interns must attend at least 6 of the 8 weeks, join mandatory trainings and weekly seminars, and give a 10-minute oral talk on Research Presentation Day, and they cannot attend another summer program that conflicts with the internship. Interns arrange their own housing and transportation. International students can get an acceptance letter for a visa application but no visa processing help. Apply through the online application on the program website; for 2026, the high school application opened March 13 and closed March 30.