15 Programs for Middle School Students in Philadelphia
As a middle school student, you have access to structured programs that go far beyond the classroom. You can learn directly from professionals, including scientists, engineers, artists, and coders, while working on real projects in real labs and studios. Whether you want to sequence DNA, build a robot, code an app, or perform on stage, there is a program designed to give you that experience before you even set foot in high school.
Why should you attend a program in Philadelphia?
Philadelphia is home to various universities and institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, which run programs specifically designed to bring middle school students onto their campuses. You might spend a week experimenting in a molecular biology lab, engineering robots, producing a short film at a nationally recognized public media station, or working on a STEAM project. If you live in the city, you have easy access to these programs without leaving home, and out-of-city students will find programs that welcome participants from across the country.
To help with your search, here are 15 programs for middle school students in Philadelphia.
If you’re looking for online programs, check out our blog here.
1. Penn SAS Future Scientists: Biology Edition
Location: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $2,400
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: Session 1: July 6–10 | Session 2: August 10–14
Application Deadline: Rolling until full
Eligibility: Current 7th or 8th grade students
This program lets you spend a week in actual Penn research labs and work through core molecular biology techniques, including DNA extraction, PCR, gel electrophoresis, bacterial transformation, light microscopy, ELISA, and sterile cell culture. This isn't just about watching demonstrations; it's about actually handling the equipment and performing the experiments yourself. Along the way, you'll tour active Penn research spaces and meet the researchers who work there, with opportunities to ask questions and learn what real research is like. This program is developed specifically to give 7th- and 8th-graders an early taste of university-level science and a head start in exploring where their interests might lead.
2. Veritas AI’s AI Trailblazers
Location: Remote
Cost: Varies by the program. Financial aid is available
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective
Dates: 25 hours over 10 weeks (on weekends) during the spring cohort and 25 hours over 2 weeks (on weekdays) during the summer cohort.
Application Deadline: Rolling deadlines. You can apply to the program here.
Eligibility: Students in grades 6–8
The AI Trailblazers program by Veritas AI is a virtual program that introduces middle school students to the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Over 25 hours, you will learn the basics of Python as well as key concepts such as data analysis, regression, image classification, neural networks, and AI ethics. The program combines lectures and group sessions, maintaining a 5:1 student-to-mentor ratio. By the end of the program, you won't just understand the concepts but apply them. Past students have built a machine-learning model to classify music genres and developed an algorithm to generate a custom list of educational resources based on user specifications.
3. Temple University Philadelphia Youth for STEM (PY-STEM)
Location: Temple University College of Engineering, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $425, with need-based scholarships available
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective
Dates: July 6–10
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Rising 6th–8th graders
PY-STEM is a one-week, full-day engineering camp hosted by Temple's College of Engineering. It is built around hands-on, problem-based learning, giving you an opportunity to explore different engineering fields while seeing how design thinking is used to solve real-world challenges. You'll take part in lab tours and demonstrations that show how Temple's faculty and students approach engineering research, and team-based challenges push you to think collaboratively from day one. Undergraduate and graduate students from Temple's College of Engineering serve as mentors throughout the week, walking you through activities and giving you a clear picture of what studying engineering at the college level actually looks like. No prior STEM experience is required, making this a highly accessible introductory program for middle schoolers.
4. Lumiere Junior Explorer Program
Location: Online (Founded by Harvard and Oxford researchers)
Cost: Varies. Full financial aid is available
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective
Dates: 8 weeks (rolling cohorts throughout the year)
Application Deadline: Varies across different cohorts
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 - 8; open to motivated students globally interested in exploring academic research or writing.
If you are interested in research, Lumiere’s Junior Explorer Program could be a great fit. This program pairs you with PhD mentors from prestigious universities, such as Harvard, Oxford, MIT, and Princeton, who are specialists in physics. Over the course of the program, you will conduct original research, learn to read and interpret academic literature, build research questions, and create outputs such as a high school-level research paper or case study. Along the way, you'll receive detailed feedback and writing coaching sessions to develop your critical thinking and scientific communication skills. Lumiere also offers a Junior Research and Publication Program for students who wish to publish their research in academic journals in 16 weeks.
5. Young Dragons Summer STEAM Program
Location: Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Open enrollment
Dates: June – July, keep an eye on the program website for specific dates
Application Deadline: Keep an eye on the website for more information
Eligibility: Rising 6th–8th-grade students who live or attend school in the West Philadelphia Promise Zone
Young Dragons is a free, six-week summer day camp run by Drexel's ExCITe Center, a research and innovation hub within Drexel University and the Community Partnerships division. Each week focuses on a different STEAM theme, such as physics, robotics, health science, environmental science, coding and game design, and arts-integrated STEM, so you can choose the one that best suits your interests. The program is led by faculty and students from multiple Drexel colleges. You can sign up for individual weeks based on your interests. Past highlights have included hands-on BattleBots-style robotics engineering with Drexel's robotics team, an environmental science week involving field trips to places such as Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center, a health sciences week run in collaboration with Drexel's College of Medicine, and a "Girls in STEAM" week built around coding and dance.
6. Jefferson STEM Summer Camp Experience
Location: Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Open enrollment, but very limited capacity
Dates: August 3 – 20
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Students entering grades 6–9 in the Greater Philadelphia area
This three-week day camp by Jefferson's Kanbar College of Design, Engineering, and Commerce introduces middle school students to applied engineering through hands-on, project-based learning. You will work on real-world challenges; use data science to analyze the performance of the Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies, design a custom part in SolidWorks and produce it on a 3D printer, write code to retrieve real sports statistics, and work through a supply chain planning exercise covering product procurement and delivery. The curriculum is built around technologies such as data analytics, logical programming, engineering design process, and logistics, helping you see how engineering is used to solve problems across different industries.
7. Ensemble Arts Philly Middle School Summer Arts Sessions
Location: Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective
Dates: June 22 – July 3 (no weekend days)
Application Deadline: Generally, in the spring, keep an eye on the website for the next batch
Eligibility: Rising 5th–8th grade students
This free, two-week program held at the Kimmel Center introduces you to four performing arts disciplines: Music, Dance, Theater, and Digital Arts. You will work directly with mastery-level teaching artists and performers in each field, with the curriculum designed as an entry point into the performing arts. The Kimmel Center is home to the Philadelphia Orchestra and serves as one of the region's premier performing arts venues, giving you access to professional-grade rehearsal and performance spaces. This is a selective opportunity to learn directly from experienced performing artists.
8. CCP Jr. STEM Summer Camp
Location: Community College of Philadelphia Career and Advanced Technology Center, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $550
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Open enrollment
Dates: June 29 – July 30
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Rising 6th–8th grade students
This five-week summer camp brings together performing arts, visual arts, STEAM, and technology by building everything around a full theatrical production, and even includes a trip to see a Broadway show. You will work across five distinct modules: Performing Arts (acting, vocal technique, and choreography), Visual Arts (painting set backdrops and scenic elements), Set Engineering (applying geometry and measurement to build physical structures), 3D Printing and Coding (designing props with CAD software and programming LED costume elements), and Drones and Special Effects (using Tello indoor drones to design lighting for the production). Each module connects a technical discipline directly to the creative process. You are not learning coding in a vacuum; you are building interactive costume components that will appear in an actual show.
9. Camp Tech Revolution at UPenn
Location: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: Varies by course, starting as low as $599
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Open enrollment
Dates: Multiple 1-week sessions from June 15 to August 14
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Varies by course; many are open to middle school students
Camp Tech Revolution runs weekly, full-day tech camps on Penn's campus across the summer, giving you the flexibility to choose a new focus each week. With more than 50 options, you can choose everything from robotics using LEGO and VEX systems, coding in Scratch, Python, and Java, to game design in Minecraft and Roblox, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, filmmaking, graphic design, spy technology, and even a combined STEM and Medicine track. Instructors are primarily from Ivy League and top-tier universities and lead small groups throughout the day, so individual instruction is built into the format. What makes this program stand out is that you are not restricted to just one subject. You can try out different technical fields over the summer and discover what you enjoy the most.
10. WHYY Middle School Narrative Filmmaking Camp
Location: WHYY Public Media Commons, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $800
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Open enrolment but limited spots
Dates: August 3 – 14
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Middle school students
WHYY's two-week, full-day camp puts you inside a working public media station and teaches you how films are actually made from the ground up. You will learn story structure, scriptwriting, and storyboarding, and then move on to developing hands-on skills such as camera operation and video editing using WHYY's professional-grade equipment. The program also introduces animation and stop-motion filmmaking as a secondary track. You will work in small production teams throughout the two weeks, applying each new skill to create your own original short film. WHYY has operated youth media programs in the Philadelphia region for decades through its Media Labs partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and its public media training work, letting you benefit from their expertise in storytelling and technical production.
11. All City Orchestra Summer Academy (ACOSA)
Location: The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: While the orchestra is comprised of 100 musicians, a diverse breakdown of instrumentation is required, so positions for individual instruments are highly selective
Dates: July 20 – 31 for full orchestra, August 10 – 14 for jazz, August 17 – 21 for pop
Application Deadline: April 24
Eligibility: Students entering grades 6–12 must have intermediate-level skills on their instrument
ACOSA is the School District of Philadelphia's flagship summer music training program, developed in partnership with the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra. The program is structured around high-quality orchestra and jazz training, helping you strengthen your technical playing skills through consistent practice over the summer. You will rehearse and perform in an ensemble setting with other serious young instrumentalists from across the city, in one of Philadelphia's premier outdoor performance venues. This is not an introductory program; an intermediate level of proficiency on your instrument is a prerequisite for participation. The partnership with the Philadelphia Orchestra offers a real connection to professional-level musicianship, going far beyond just a well-known name association.
12. PAFA Summer Art Camp
Location: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $400 / week
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Limited spots
Dates: Multiple 1-week sessions available from June 22 to August 3
Application Deadline: Rolling until sessions fill
Eligibility: Multiple camps available for middle school students
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), founded in 1885, is the oldest art museum and school of fine arts in the United States, and its Summer Art Camp places you directly inside its historic galleries and studios. Each week runs independently, with its own creative theme, and you will move through a range of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and mixed-media projects, guided by practicing artists. Weekly gallery tours connect what you are making in the studio to works from PAFA's permanent American art collection. Every Friday, the week culminates in a camp exhibition in PAFA's Cast Hall studios, where families are invited to see what you have created. The program is hands-on from morning to afternoon, and you can attend a single week or return across multiple weeks in different themes.
13. Kode With Klossy
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Competitive, limited seats per session and location
Dates: June 1–12, July 6–17, July 20–31, or August 3–14
Application Deadline: March 31
Eligibility: Young women and gender-expansive students ages 13–18
Kode With Klossy is a free, two-week coding camp that runs both in-person and virtually. You choose from three tracks, viz. Web Development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS), Machine Learning (Python, data sets, algorithms), or Data Science (SQL, Python, data visualization), depending on what interests you the most. The program blends technical learning with community-building activities, so you're not just coding on your own but are a part of a collaborative environment . The program brings in guest speakers from the tech industry and gives you access to a Discord community of KWK alumni. You'll complete and present a final coding project in the last two weeks, and leave with a certificate and access to KWK's alumni network, which includes ongoing mentorship opportunities and pathways to partner events with companies such as Goldman Sachs, Google, and Apple.
14. Girls Who Code Pathways
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate / Cohort size: Open enrollment
Dates: June 29 – August 14
Application Deadline: February 25 for early, April 10 for general
Eligibility: Girls and non-binary students in grades 9–12, including rising 9th graders
Girls Who Code Pathways is a free, seven-week, self-paced virtual program covering five technology tracks: AI and Society, Cybersecurity, Data Science and AI, Game Design, and Web Development. You work through interactive video tutorials and hands-on projects at your own pace, and optional Student Hours offer live support and peer collaboration. Partner Events run throughout the program, connecting you with engineers and technology professionals from major companies. With its flexible structure and wide range of topics, Pathways is a great way to start building your coding skills before high school.
15. Camp Walnut
Location: Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $1,300 for the Discovery Division, $1,500 for the Development Division, $1,700 for the Performance Division
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Open enrollment for the Discovery Division, auditions required for the other two
Dates: July 6 – 30
Application Deadline: Rolling, with auditions taking place May 11 – 15
Eligibility: Age requirements vary by Division and performance
Camp Walnut is the summer program run by Walnut Street Theatre, one of the oldest theatres in the United States, founded in 1800. The program offers three options: the Discovery Division is open to all, the Development Division for intermediate-level performers, and the Performance Division for advanced students working toward a fully produced show in Walnut's Studio Theatre. A variety of productions are available. all directed by industry professionals and performed on Walnut's own stage. Each follows a structured daily schedule, with additional time on some days. All tracks conclude with public performances.