Session Information

Please see How to Apply for this year's application and for more information.

The Girls and Science (GAS) Camp was established at Vanderbilt University in the summer of 1999 by Dr. Virginia Shepherd and Vicki Metzgar in partnership with the Vanderbilt University Medical School and Peabody College of Education in response to the gender differences in science achievement found in high school. During the summers of 1999 and 2000, the camp was held for two weeks, one for rising 8th graders and one for rising 9th graders. In response to overwhelmingly high numbers of girls on the waiting list, the camp was expanded in the summer of 2001 to include two weeks for each grade. The goals of the GAS Camp are to engage girls in science activities, to foster confidence in science achievement, and to encourage girls' enrollment in high school science courses.

The camp is held in the biosciences laboratories at Vanderbilt and staffed by middle and high school teachers. Additional camp personnel include graduate and undergraduate science students, high school junior counselors, and staff from other partnering university and community organizations.

The camp has been funded in part by the Vanderbilt Department of Medicine; the Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center; the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach; private donations; the National Institutes of Health; the National Science Foundation; the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology; and Tennessee Women in Medicine.