Since the purpose of the summer program is to introduce undergraduates to life as a graduate student in the biomedical sciences, Summer Research Assistants are encouraged to participate in all aspects of life in our department. Upon entering the program, students go through an orientation, which includes an introduction to the Department and presentations by representatives from Institutional Safety, Radiation Safety, and Laboratory Animal Resources. A techniques course, offered during the first several days of the program, provides students with introductions to various basic laboratory techniques including tissue culture, electrophysiological, and neurochemistry techniques. Once students enter the labs, they are quickly enveloped by the lab culture. Summer Research Assistants are given a research project and work closely with their lab group throughout the summer.

In addition to the activities of the Summer Research Assistants' labs, all students attend the bi-monthly departmental journal club and department seminars. Students also take a course, which meets one morning each week. The course offered in the first summer is entitled Biological Bases of Brain Function. This course includes topics such as Excitability and Conduction, The Aging Brain, Substance Abuse & Addiction, and Genes & the Brain. For students returning for a second summer, a course entitled Neuropsychopharmacology is offered. This course includes topics such as Animal Models of Psychiatric Disorders, Translational Research for Mental Diseases, and Genetic Approaches to Mental Diseases. Both courses are the equivalent of one-credit courses and are taught in the manner of graduate level courses, with one overall course director and several lecturers who are experts in the material being presented. During the last week of the summer program, Summer Research Assistants submit a brief paper detailing their research activities and give an oral presentation to the Department.