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Service Scholars

Service Scholars is not accepting students for summer 2025.  Students interested in paid internships should apply to the Cooper Next Scholars.

Service Scholars is a leadership and community service internship program for 10th and 11th grade women attending a public school in New York City. Prior experience in an out-of-school STEM enrichment program (Summer STEM, STEM Saturdays, Girls Who Code, STEM From Dance, First Robotics, etc.) is required. In addition to learning engineering in a Summer STEM class and leadership and skills through workshops, STEM Scholars will work with a Cooper Union student mentor on a community service project at partner site. 

Benefits

  • Explore culturally relevant applications of design and engineering. 
  • Improve communication skills. 
  • Develop relationships with peers, professionals, and community members interested in applying STEM skills to improving their neighborhoods and cities. 
  • Gain experience talking to a variety of people from elementary students to engineers to community elders. 
  • Complete 30 hours of community service and receive a certificate 
  • $1500 Stipend and full fee waiver for a six-week Summer STEM class
  • Metrocards for travel to and from the Summer STEM program and community service site  

Commitment

  • Participate in a Six Week Summer STEM Class 
  • Participate in Community Service activities at a partner site in NYC Fridays, 9 am to 3 pm
  • Attend training in June or July (dates TBD)
  • Participate in communication and career workshops on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5 pm during Summer STEM

Requirements

  • Live in New York City and attend a high school in New York City
  • A 10th or 11th grade student in June 2025
  • Enrolled in a Summer STEM class.
  • Self-identify as a woman or girl
  • Motivated with a demonstrated interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), including experience in an out-of-school STEM program in middle or high school

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.