Research Experiences in Astronomy at CIERA for High School Students (REACH) is a highly interactive, 3-week program (with an optional 3-week extension) that provides high school students experience with real astronomy research in an atmosphere of team-style learning, hands-on training, and mentorship from professional scientists.
This summer, 28 high school students and 17 CIERA members took part in this two-session program from June 21st to August 26th. Students participated in astronomy lessons covering topics such as cosmology, spectroscopy, exoplanets, and black holes, while also learning Python computer programming using the REACHpy GitHub tutorial and Google Colab. A limited number of students took part in REACH Further, a 3-week extension where they each worked on an independent research project with a CIERA astronomer. In a survey, 100% of respondents strongly agreed that their mentor was a positive role model and prepared the student adequately. Additionally, 100% strongly agreed “this project makes me more interested in pursuing individual research.”
Congratulations to all of the students that participated in the summer research program and thank you to all of the graduate students, faculty, and staff that helped make this program possible!
Program Staff
- Patrick Sheehan – Program Director
- Peter Blanchard – Program Assistant Director
- Michael Stroh – Computational Lead
- James Schottelkotte – Admin/Coordinator
- Jillian Rastinejad – REACH Fellow, Mentor Lead
- Miguel Martinez – REACH Fellow, Computation Lesson Development and Instruction
- Fulya Kiroglu – CIERA BoV Fellow, Computation Lesson Development and Instruction
- Kari Frank – Director of Operations
Mentors
- Michael Stroh
- Fulya Kiroglu
- Giacomo Fragione
- Miguel Martinez
- Monica Gallegos-Garcia
- Rachel Zhang
- Liam O’Connor
- Lindsay DeMarchi
- Huei Sears
- Jonathan Roberts
- Vic Dong
- Elena Gonzalez
- Nabeel Rehemtulla
Additional instructors/helpers
- Diego Munoz
- Dennis Lee
- Lindsay DeMarchi
- Camille Liotine
- Max Paik
- Sam Imperato
Quotes from Students
- “I’d say overall the research portion was amazing! [They] were super helpful and encouraging mentors!!”
- “I really loved this experience, and I am really grateful to everyone for making it possible! [My mentor] was an amazing mentor, and I thoroughly enjoyed working with him.”
- “It was really fun and I was able to get a lot of experience being an astronomical researcher.”
