Our Approach
SEIZE THE SUMMER!
Wonderworks is a non-profit organization that provides pre-college summer learning experiences in arts and humanities, primarily for Houston-area and Texas high school students. We also provide need-based scholarships in the form of full-tuition waivers for all academically-qualified Houston-area and Texas students who require them.
By exploring challenging subject matter and techniques in a college setting with college-level instructors, students acquire skills, information, outlooks, and connections that significantly expand their cultural and academic horizons. In the process, they also become better-qualified college applicants and better equipped to succeed in undergraduate studies.
Athletes, musicians, dancers– anyone who has to perform at a high level year in and year out – make a point of staying in training during the offseason. The same goes for academic endeavors – if you don’t do something to keep the rust off, studies show you’ll actually lose ground over the summer. If you value learning for its own sake and want to keep your momentum going en route to college, Wonderworks or something like it should be part of your summer. Wonderworks at the University of Houston and Rice University is more than just a change of venue– it’s fresher, more relaxed, and far more challenging than school as you probably know it. In fact, it’s almost like being in college but with the luxury of pursuing a single area of interest intensively. And since it’s only five weeks out of three months, you’ll still have plenty of time left to chill, travel, save the world, or whatever else comes next. Unless you happen to be a rising 12th grade student and wish to take advantage of our free post-session college essay/counseling workshop, in which case your downtime will have to wait another potentially game-changing week.
Although most Wonderworks students already reside in the Houston Metropolitan area, those who do not must make arrangements to stay with family friends or relatives since we do not offer residential accommodations nor out-of-class supervision. Our programs are supported in part by The Brown Foundation, Inc., The Elkins Foundation, and the Susan Vaughan Foundation, whose generosity helps keep tuition affordable and underwrites scholarships in the form of full-tuition waivers for all academically well-qualified Houston-area and Texas students who demonstrate need. This is the only financial aid we provide.
Admission to all programs is competitive and based on academic performance and potential as indicated by PSAT/SAT scores (or their ACT equivalent) and grades/course work, supplemented, as needed/appropriate, by teacher or counselor evaluations. Students who will be entering the 10th, 11th or 12th grades the following fall, or who will have just graduated from high school before the summer begins, are eligible to apply. All admission decisions are made on a need-blind basis. Students who are enrolled in any of the following programs:
federally-subsidized free or reduced-cost lunch at school based on family income
Children’s Medicaid
State of Texas Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
Durable fee waivers for SAT and/or ACT
automatically qualify for full-tuition waivers, as do students whose family’s adjusted gross income falls within four times the federally-defined poverty level with assets typical for that income bracket (aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines).
Courses and workshops carry neither high school nor college credit. Regular attendance and satisfactory participation are expected of all students.