SummerCulinary San Francisco Cooking Camp for Teens
A residential and day culinary camp held on the San Francisco State University campus where teens ages 12-17 train in professional kitchens under working chefs, covering knife skills, savory cooking, plating, and artisan baking in a curriculum modeled on culinary school tracks. The program includes evening excursions exploring San Francisco's food and neighborhood culture.
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Foodwise Teens
A free youth development program from the San Francisco nonprofit Foodwise (formerly CUESA) that trains SFUSD high school students in sustainable food systems through three tracks: Seed (foundational after-school learning), Grow (teen-led projects), and Cultivate (paid summer job placements with mentorship in gardens, kitchens, and farmers markets).
Immerse Education Software Development & AI Summer Programme (Bay Area)
A one-week overnight coding and AI summer program hosted at UC Berkeley for students ages 15-18, covering programming fundamentals, algorithms, data structures, applied AI, and game design, with career-skills sessions and one-on-one coaching from industry professionals. The program emphasizes exposure to Silicon Valley's tech and gaming industries alongside hands-on coding projects.
NSLC Engineering Summer Program
The National Student Leadership Conference's Engineering program is a residential pre-college experience (offered at UC Berkeley among other U.S. campuses) where high schoolers explore civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering through hands-on projects such as drone design, aquatic robotics, and wind turbines.
Camp Kala Teen Studio: Digital Photography
Kala Art Institute in Berkeley runs Camp Kala, a summer arts program with week-long small-group sessions; its Teen Studio: Digital Photography session teaches teens ages 11-17 digital photography fundamentals and techniques in a hands-on studio setting. The 2026 camp runs weekly sessions from June through early August, with reduced tuition and financial assistance available.
Criminal & Forensic Science at UCLA (Summer Springboard)
A two-week residential pre-college course on the UCLA campus teaching forensic investigation techniques - fingerprint, fiber, blood-spatter, and DNA analysis - through crime scene simulations and team case studies, taught by a 36-year veteran Forensic Identification Specialist from the LA County Sheriff's Department. The program includes a field visit to a real police department crime lab and ends in a moot court presentation.
Summer Springboard: Kinesiology and Physical Therapy at UC San Diego
A two-week pre-college immersion in human movement and rehabilitation held on the UC San Diego campus, where students learn manual muscle testing, gait and balance assessment, and sports taping, and visit local physical therapy and sports medicine clinics.