UCLA

With companies like Boeing, SpaceX, Relativity Space, The Aerospace Corporation, Northrop Grumman, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – to name a few – located nearby, there’s no better place to launch into the field of Aerospace Engineering than with Summer Springboard in Los Angeles this summer. Ever wonder how a rocket works or how an aircraft stays airborne? What is actually needed to launch a person or satellite into space? Our Aerospace Engineering program on the campus of UCLA offers students the chance to understand the physics and dynamics of air and spacecraft using basic orbital mechanics. Students will participate in hands-on design challenges, ultimately building and launching their own glider or rocket. Previous foundational knowledge in the following classes is either recommended (R) or strongly recommended (SR), but not required: algebra (R), geometry (R), trigonometry (SR), calculus (SR), and physics 1 and 2 (SR).

Guest Speakers and Excursions: Students will visit a local aerospace engineering company in the L.A. area.

Are you considering a career in architecture or design? Are you working on your college application and portfolio? Or are you simply curious about what it is like to be an architect?

The Summer Springboard architecture course for high school students introduces architectural ideas, design principles, and methods of exploring problems of the built environment in a collaborative setting. While working on a design project, you will learn about the academic path to an architectural degree, the day-to-day work of an architect, and the career opportunities.

Excursions may include visits to architecturally significant buildings, design studios, and top-tier engineering and architecture firms.

Summer Springboard’s Business & Entrepreneurship course on the campus of UCLA introduces aspiring entrepreneurs to the world of business and the areas that affect growing a business. Our course explores the aspects involved in starting, owning, and operating a business – from thinking through ideas, planning a business, and managing various considerations for growing a small business into an enterprise. Topics such as entrepreneurship, idea generation, customer relationships and revenue streams, personnel and human resource management, product design, cost accounting, financial analysis, marketing, and more will all be explored.

Throughout the course, students will work in groups to generate a business idea of their own, and then follow the entrepreneurial process to develop the idea into a feasible prospective business startup. Ultimately, students will pitch their innovative ideas to a panel of business and entrepreneurship “judges” in a Shark-Tank type experience.

Excursions in Los Angeles – Visit multiple companies and meet with a range of business people, from small business owners and mid-level managers to high-ranking executives.

“It’s a match!”. We’ve heard it all across our favorite crime scene TV shows – NCIS, Law & Order, Criminal Minds – but just how realistic are they? Forensics is a field focused on the scientific gathering and analysis of evidence that can ultimately be utilized in the legal field. Through Summer Springboard’s Criminal & Forensic Science course on the campus of UCLA, you’ll be introduced to the reality of what a crime scene investigator does, the process in which evidence is collected, cared for, and presented, as well as the various paths and careers you can pursue with a background in forensic science. Ultimately, students will apply the knowledge they learn by processing a mock crime scene and presenting their findings in a moot court scenario.

Whether you’re interested in policing, processing crime scenes as a Forensic Identification Specialist and Criminalist, or working in a lab, this course will help sharpen your investigative and observational skills while considering a range of scientific concepts.

If there is anything we’ve been reminded of these past few years, it’s how essential a role our emergency care doctors, nurses, first responders, and other healthcare professionals play in society, and how necessary they are. The average emergency room nurse makes between $77,000 and $107,000, with top earners making $124,500 annually. Whether your goal is to become an EMT or paramedic, an emergency room doctor, an ICU nurse, or any other profession that utilizes emergency care skills, Summer Springboard course in Emergency Medicine on the campus of UCLA will immerse you in a variety of foundational skills and knowledge. Our course will prepare you for a future career in emergency care, and expose you to the healthcare field overall and the various paths you can pursue.

Students will learn a variety of skills and techniques, ranging from basic first aid to triaging emergency situations and wounds, through a variety of hands-on activities and practical simulations. Skills and techniques explored include positioning and extraction, wound care, bleeding control, stitches and sutures, usage of splints and slings, and other life-saving skills.

Students will have the opportunity to research a simulated patients history and symptoms, create a diagnosis based on their findings, and develop a treatment plan. Ultimately, students will be able to apply the knowledge they’ve learned from the course through a simulated mass-disaster scenario. This simulation will teach students how to respond to a patient just like a medical professional, assessing information and applying their medical knowledge in high pressure environments.

Home to the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Emmys award ceremonies, Los Angeles has long been recognized as the film and movie capital of the world. What better environment to complement your passion for filmmaking. Summer Springboard’s Filmmaking course on the campus of UCLA focuses on the fundamental elements of visual storytelling that enables students to direct their own projects. Whether you have little-to-no experience or considering yourself a professional, discover the foundational tools and skill sets to prepare yourself to be the next Steven Spielberg in the making.

The first week will focus on technical coursework on each element of the filmmaking process. Each day will be about a new topic of filmmaking and will be designed for students to gain new skills to use in their final projects the following week. The second week will be all about creating the final project videos. Students will break into small teams that will write, shoot, and edit their own short films. The students will take on different roles throughout production of these final projects; from directing, to acting, to editing, and more.

The adult human brain weighs approximately 3 pounds making up less than roughly 2% of a person’s body weight, yet it defines our humanity and makes us the individuals that we are – and yet no two are the same. The brain is responsible for the generation of language, thought, attention, consciousness, memory, imagination, and more. But how? And what makes certain people in society behave one way, and others another? Nothing is more fascinating and mysterious than the inner workings of the brain and human psychology.

In Summer Springboard’s Psychology & Neuroscience course on the campus of UCLA, students will explore these fundamental questions and more. Our course will explore the anatomy of the human brain, how it functions, and how that correlates and influences human behavior. Students will learn about how the brain works, how that affects behavior such as social dynamics, emotions, personality, mental illness, and how psychologists study them. Students will get to construct their own miniature psychology theory, design/run an experiment to test it, and present findings to the class.

Successful management is required in all segments of the sport industry whether professional, amateur, collegiate, club, public, private, etc. In the management function, the same basic elements are needed, regardless of organizational type: personnel management, program development, marketing, information management, facilities management, and legal responsibilities. Depending on what kind of sport management career interests you, possibilities include working directly with athletes, coaches, and organizations, or working behind the scenes as a promoter, marketing manager, or sports economist. Our course will explore the business management side of sports and expose you to the number of different directions you can take with a background in Sports Management.