Summer in the City at Barnard College

Barnard Institution, a women’s liberal arts college, offers female high school students the once-in-a-lifetime chance to spend three weeks studying college-level classes while experiencing what it’s like to live in a lively and busy city like New York City.

Spend the summer at Barnard in New York City! As a Young Women’s Leadership Institute participant, you should be interested, enthusiastic, and eager to grow as a leader. As you examine leadership through a feminist lens, the Institute will help you build pioneering traits and push you in new ways. Students can attend a course in one of our seven tracks and then work in small groups to create and implement a solution utilizing the skills they learned in their courses and workshops. You will also have the chance to meet with women in companies around the city to hear about the skills and perseverance required to succeed.

STEMinist Pathway:

The STEMinist track is ideal for students wishing to expand their STEM abilities in both lecture and laboratory settings. It is designed for daring and curious young women. Through virtual field excursions and projects, you will be able to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in motion no matter where you are in the globe. This program, in addition to your education, begins to explore some of the inequities that women experience in STEM fields and how we may begin to rewrite the narrative by our presence.

Writing and Literature Pathway:

Our Writing and Literature Track invites authors to discover and share their unique voice with the world. On the same campus where authors like Greta Gerwig, Zora Neale Hurson, and Jhumpa Lahiri got their start, students will spend their mornings learning from Barnard academics in classes like The Art of the Essay, Writing New York, and playwriting. Afternoons will be spent in intensives focusing on creating a writing portfolio, getting published, and pursuing a writing career.

Tracks in Political Science and Economics:

Our Political Science and Economics track is ideal for students interested in learning more about the role of the economics in determining politics and government—and vice versa. Students will also investigate the role of gender in creating social and economic policies.

Track in Urban Studies:

The Urban Studies Track is intended to provide students with an understanding of the history of cities and architecture. Students will study about significant topics in the history of the built environment as well as urban development logistics.

Track in Art History:

Do you want to study about the history of art and self-expression while immersing yourself in the art scene of New York City? Students in our Art History Track study about the evolution of art via many mediums throughout history. Students will also tour famous museums and galleries, as well as discover New York City’s flourishing art scene, while working on projects ranging from classic sketching to digital design.

Track in Sociology and Gender Studies:

Students will investigate gender and its relationship to class, race, ethnicity, and sexuality in this track. Students will apply these principles to examine the human experience throughout history via the lenses of politics, culture, and economics.

Track for Dancing:

This course provides an interdisciplinary curriculum that combines dance education with intellectual and artistic discovery in a liberal arts atmosphere. Located in an international dance capital, students will study what dance is in New York City.

Series on Leadership in Action

Every Wednesday throughout the Leadership in Action series, you will work with members of the Athena Center for Leadership team to deepen and develop your communication and collaboration abilities, as well as examine your unique leadership identity and narrative. You will get a better knowledge of what leadership means to you and experiment with new approaches of conveying your narrative by connecting with your peers in small group sessions.

Where: Barnard College in New York, New York
Duration: Three weeks
Subjects: include astronomy, environmental science, neuroscience, psychology, STEM, and technology.
How much: $7,900 (residential), $4,700 (commuter)