The Secondary Student Training Program (SSTP) is a six week research camp at the University of Iowa. Students entering their junior year or senior year of high school are eligible for the program. Generally, SSTP accepts between 15-20 students a year. Here, kids spend their days working under the guidance of a faculty mentor in fields ranging from biochemistry to internal medicine to physics. Each person's lab experience is unique and almost always enjoyable. The evenings and weekends are either filled with faculty seminars or workshops where students learn how to write or present information "scientifically", camping trips or other recreational activities, or just time for relaxation. The program is very relaxed in the sense that students generally have the time and the freedom to do what they please during the whole day.

SSTP is a program that has been going on for over 30 years, and in the recent past, participants have used their research to be finalists at ISEF, Intel STS, Siemens, and other science research competitions. Though there is obviously no guarantee that the research will guarantee a medal at a science fair, SSTP provides an environment that will likely give a phenomenal summer experience.

At the end of the six weeks, students are required to write up a formal abstract, summarizing the research they did. Also, the last two days, a symposium is held with all the SSTP participants, as well as faculty and research staff where each student presents his or her research in a 10-20 minute PowerPoint presentation. This presentation can also be used in competitions such as the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS), and the abstract can successfully be expanded into a detailed research paper for other competitions as well.

As a whole, SSTP is an unforgettable experience both inside and outside the laboratory. Strong, lasting relationships are formed with the people who work and/or live with you and the fellow students in the program are truly spectacular. This is definitely an intense and worthwhile way to spend the summer.