California MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement)
A year-round college and career prep program, headquartered in Oakland since its 1970 founding at Oakland Technical High School, that serves over 350 middle and high schools statewide with engineering-focused enrichment activities that feed into MESA's community college and university tracks and the National Engineering Design Competition.
You might also like
GetSET (SWE Santa Clara Valley)
A four-year outreach program of the Santa Clara Valley Society of Women Engineers in which 25 incoming high school freshmen are selected annually to attend an intensive week-long summer program with over 50 hands-on engineering and science workshops led by volunteer women engineers, returning each summer through senior year.
Summer Springboard: Fundamentals of Engineering at UC Berkeley
A two-week immersive pre-college program held on the UC Berkeley campus where high schoolers tackle hands-on mechanical, structural, civil, and biomedical engineering design challenges, including building a prosthetic limb and a scale-model building to code and budget, plus tours of Tesla Fremont Factory and Google HQ.
EPICS High
A national engineering-design service-learning program in which high school teams partner with schools or nonprofit organizations to identify community needs and design and deliver real engineering solutions, applying human-centered design across themes of community development, education, health, and sustainability.
SWE Berkeley High School Engineering Program (HSEP)
Free Saturday program at UC Berkeley with SWE mentors, 10-week fall/spring term.
Cal Day at the Archaeological Research Facility (UC Berkeley)
An annual free open-house event where UC Berkeley's Archaeological Research Facility hosts lectures, panel discussions, lab tours, and hands-on activities (ceramic reconstruction, rock art painting, paleoethnobotany, career talks) for prospective students, families, and the community.
Fire Hacks 2026
A free one-day in-person hackathon for high school students hosted by nonprofit CodeStarters at Zoho HQ in Pleasanton, CA, featuring a dedicated AI Track where students build AI apps, agents, and copilots with mentor support.