Psychology & Neuroscience at UC San Diego
Learn from a psychology instructor with over 20 years of teaching experience
Psychology summer program for teens, located on a university campus in San Diego
Program Highlights

Residential Tuition :
$5,498
Commuter Tuition:
$3,198
Session 1:
June 30, 2024
July 12, 2024
Session 2:
July 14, 2024
July 26, 2024
SESSION 3:
July 28, 2024
August 9, 2024
UC San Diego
San Diego, CA
Course Overview
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 UCSD, 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.
Meet your instructor

Rob Cortes
Psychology & Neuroscience Georgetown University
Dr. Rob Cortes obtained his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from Georgetown University, where he was a National Science Foundation and Patrick Healy fellow.
Learn moreTopics you'll explore
Hands-On Learning
Students will learn to tackle these fundamental questions with the tools of psychological science. Students will learn about classic experiments in psychology, with the goal of getting a hands-on, experiential understanding of how people work and how psychologists study them. They will explore social dynamics; emotions; personality; mental illness; the nature of beliefs; neuroscience; and the relationship between the mind, brain, and body. As a capstone project, they will construct their own miniature psychology theory, design/run an experiment to test it, and present findings to the class.

Career Exploration
Students will visit the Brain Observatory at UC San Diego to learn about one of the most famous patients in neuroscience. The Brain Observatory is building the first museum and learning center in the world that is fully dedicated to the human brain. Students will have the opportunity to view exhibits, attend informative lectures, and interact with neuroscientists as they conduct research on Alzheimer’s and other diseases of the brain utilizing cutting edge neuroimaging technologies.
