Qatar Foundation  for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) has hosted a series of educational summer activities to inspire high school students with a sense of discovery and self-belief in their future academic and career opportunities. 
“Many of our comprehensive summer programmes focused on young students considering university and on those wanting to explore their creative talents and future careers,” said Fahad Saad al-Qahtani, president of Community Development, QF.
Students taking part in this year’s summer internship programmes at Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s three research institutes were given the opportunity to learn directly from industry specialists and work on innovative research projects. 
Chosen students were immersed in eight-week summer internships at Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Qatar Computing Research Institute and Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute; each organisation has been specifically designed to build national research capacity and to attract young people to the sciences. 
Students attending the Summer Engineering Academy at Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq) were introduced to advanced topics in engineering and science while also learning important problem-solving skills.
The academy is an elite 10-day STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math — enrichment programme, organised and hosted by Tamuq and Maersk Oil Qatar. 
A total of 24 academically outstanding Qatari students, named Qatar National Vision Scholars, worked with faculty members on hands-on research projects related to Qatar’s research challenges in autonomous vehicles, petroleum production, water desalination and wireless energy. 
Tamuq also ran the Future Engineers Programme, in which more than 30 Qatari students worked on projects related to space, including the design of a near-space weather balloon that was launched from the Texas A&M Engineering Building on June 27. 
At Northwestern University in Qatar, 25 high school students received an introduction to the world of journalism during the two-week Summer Media Programme. 
Students attending Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar’s (VCUQ) series of summer art-camps were given the opportunity to explore their creative side and get to grips with different art and design techniques. 
The QF partner universities held one and two week programmes for students aged 14+ and 16+ including ‘Fashion Illustration’ and ‘Fashion Design Portfolio’ courses, where aspiring designers were introduced to different fashion illustration styles and shown how to create a basic portfolio of fashion design work. 
A select number of high school students got a taste of college life on the Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar (WCM-Q) Summer Enrichment Programme. 
Students with a good foundation in biological sciences and an interest in pursuing a career in medicine got first-hand, on-campus experience and the opportunity to mimic current WCM-Q students’ programmes of study as part of the two-week hands-on course. 
University hopefuls also got the opportunity to put their academic skills and abilities to the test at the Summer College Preview Programme at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. This year, nearly 60 students, almost half of whom were Qatari, participated in the fast-paced, three-week course, experiencing college level math and writing, as well as an exciting hands-on project in a chosen area of interest: Business Administration, Computer Science or Information Systems.  
Finally, 30 high school students, aged 15-18, on the Georgetown Pre-College Summer Programme got first-hand experience of all that’s involved in university life and the admissions process. 
The Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (GU-Q) pre-college initiative features three weeks of full-time classes taught in an English-speaking, coeducational setting where students gain valuable experience developing and practicing the academic and personal skills necessary for university-level success.


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