Arts and Sciences Summer Institutes

Big City Journalist Boot Camp

In today’s 24-hour news cycle culture, journalists need to have good instincts and a strong ethical code. This dynamic five-day summer program is cross-presented by Drexel's Department of Politics and Department of Communication, and provides students with an introduction to the exciting and rapidly changing environment of news media and journalism. This is an intensive, hands-on experience where students will learn about the theory and history of media and journalism in Philadelphia, and about relationships between journalism and public relations in today's digital/social media environment. Campers will pitch and produce stories for various local media outlets, including radio stations, newspapers, podcasts, and blogs, amongst others. 

Big City Journalist Boot Camp will be hosted at Drexel's University City Campus in Philadelphia, but students will also spend time shadowing working journalists at various sites throughout the city.  

Coding and Decoding Secret Messages

Mission Possible! Drexel’s Mathematics Department will lead students on a fascinating journey into the world of cryptography, the art of secret communication through coding and decoding. This cryptic and highly specialized technique involves the skillful transformation of plain messages into enigmatic text, rendering them comprehensible only to their intended recipients. In an age marked by the widespread use of modern communication technologies, the need for security in transmitting vital messages over the Internet has become a paramount concern. Future James Bonds will have the opportunity to utilize software such as Excel or python.  

Experience Math, Music, and Coding

Can you feel the beat?  Have you ever wondered why music sounds the way it does? Why are some combinations of notes pleasant while others are unpleasant? Why do some sounds make us feel joy and others bring nostalgia? 

Students in Drexel's Math, Music, and Coding Camp will investigate these harmonic questions through the lens of mathematics. In this one-week program presented by the Department of Mathematics, we'll explore how math can help us make sense of different aspects of sound and music. Each day, students will apply musical and mathematical concepts using a coding platform called Sonic Pi, an open-source live coding language for music creation and performance used by professional musicians, VR developers, and programmers. This program is open to students regardless of musical background. We will be using algebra and trigonometry, but calculus is not a prerequisite. 

STARTALK Drexel: Experiential Chinese High School Summer Program

Drexel University, located in the heart of University City in Philadelphia, offers high school students a free, two-week experiential Chinese language program for up to 25 participants from July 14–25, 2025. This immersive STARTALK-funded program is open to high school students with no prior Chinese language experience and those with some background in Chinese. Managed and funded by the National Security Agency, STARTALK is a federal grant program that supports innovative courses with strong language learning outcomes for K-16 students. Drexel's STARTALK program will feature collaboration with a Chinese teacher with over 30 years of experience in top high schools and Chinese language professors from prestigious universities. We will also partner with the local Chinese community and one of China's top universities — East China Normal University in Shanghai.