Project SEED provides a $2,500 fellowship to economically disadvantaged high school juniors or seniors, who exhibit high achievement and passion for science, to participate in summer research at an academic laboratory. Project SEED is an enrichment program sponsored jointly by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and local industry that provides underprivileged high school juniors and seniors, , with the opportunity to perform guided chemistry research in an academic laboratory. Ultimately, SEED is about more than doing science. Part of the mentoring experience is learning life skills, preparing students for the real world, and opening their eyes to careers they had never even dreamed of pursuing. There is a true emphasis on career development and motivating students to pursue higher education in the natural sciences.

Project SEED is a national program sponsored partially by the American Chemical Society (ACS), and Rider has hosted fellows since 1976, when Dr. Bill McCarroll and Dr. John Sheats, both now Professors Emeritus, recognized that Rider and the surrounding community would benefit from a program that would train motivated and talented individuals to do chemical research. Lack of monetary and educational resources within areas like Trenton and Hamilton typically often impede exposure of under-serviced high school students to science as a profession. Rider’s SEED program addresses this gap, with opportunities for mentorship within the Department of Chemistry.

Our summer program includes:

• 6-8 Weeks of laboratory experience, working on a scholarly research project alongside one of our chemistry professors and other undergraduate researchers
• Tours of chemical and pharmaceutical companies, as well as other types of companies that employ chemists. Fellows in previous years visited sites including Bristol-Myers Squibb (Lawrenceville), Sanofi Aventis (Bridgewater), Firmenich (Princeton), the New Jersey State Forensics Laboratory (Hamilton), ChemGlass (Vineland), and the Salem Community College Glass Education Center (Salem).
• Opportunities to present your research on a local and national level.  Previous fellows have traveled between Boston and Washington, DC to present their research.
• Counseling on applying and paying for college

Over the past 35 years, the 110+ students who have participated in Project SEED at Rider have moved on to study chemistry in college and graduate school, and have become anything from benchtop chemists and local pharmaceutical companies to patent lawyers and dentists. Whether the past SEED fellows became chemists or lawyers, they all attribute Project SEED with instilling in them the confidence and guidance they needed to pursue science in college.

If you have any questions regarding Project SEED at Rider University, contact:

Danielle L. Jacobs
Assistant Professor II
Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry & Physics
Rider University
2083 Lawrenceville Rd
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Ph: 609-895-5667
Email: djacobs@rider.edu

2013 Summer Program Information
The application for the Summer 2013 Project SEED program at Rider University is currently available. Download application & instructions (.pdf). Download student financial form (.pdf).

Important Dates

Eligibility

• Students entering their junior or senior year in high school in Fall 2013
• Students who have excelled in at least one chemistry course
• Maximum family income may not exceed 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines based on family size
• Students from underrepresented populations are encouraged to apply

Candidate applications that do not follow the eligibility requirements above will not be considered.

Current Project SEED Fellows

2013
See Press Release for 2013 Program (coming soon)

Previous Project SEED Fellows

2012
See Press Release for 2012 Program

2011
See Press Release for 2011 Program

2010

2009