A year-long, cohort-based mentorship program. Each high schooler is paired with a Stanford mentor and moves through a set schedule of monthly meetings and check-ins, carrying one public-health project from first proposal to finished work.
2026 Cohort Applications Open in
--days
Available Sep. 7th, 2026September 7
Applications for the 2026 cohort open.
September 20
Applicant Info Session on Zoom, optional. An open Q&A on the application and the year ahead.
October 4
Application deadline.
October 18
The cohort year begins at the YPHA Launch Lab (hybrid).
The application is short, but it asks you to have thought a little about direction. You'll tell us about:
Join our Applicant Info Session on September 20 for an open Q&A on the application and what the year looks like. Or reach out any time.
Get in touchCohort 2026–2027, in three phases. Every month has one live meeting and one checkpoint between meetings. Your mentor and your community partner are part of the work the whole way through.
2026
Discover & Co-Design
Understand the problem, read what's already known, talk to the people closest to it, and build a plan you can run.
Oct 18Hybrid (Stanford/Zoom)
Meet your mentor and the rest of the cohort, and start turning the idea you applied with into a working project.
Oct 28Checkpoint
Find out what's already known before you commit to a design.
Nov 9Zoom
A Stanford faculty member or practitioner shares their work, then we get you ready to talk to your own community.
Nov 29Checkpoint
Put the reading and the conversations together, before you design anything.
Dec 13Zoom
Turn your research and your conversations into a project you can finish by May.
Dec 23Checkpoint
Lock the plan before implementation starts. By the end of fall you should have either a confirmed community partner, or an active relationship with an organization and a plan to keep it going.
2027
Implement & Iterate
Start building, hit the obstacles, get help from mentors and peers, and adjust the project to fit what you're seeing.
Jan 21Hybrid (Stanford/Zoom)
Share what happened when you started putting the plan into practice, and get unstuck. Nobody is grading you here, so bring the problems.
Jan 31Checkpoint
Act on the feedback you got at the Workshop.
Feb 7Zoom
A working session on the problems that come up once you're building.
Feb 21Checkpoint
Shift from plans to evidence. What have you built so far?
Mar 7Zoom
Check whether the project is on track, and learn how to tell what it is changing. You still have time to go collect whatever the evidence is missing.
Mar 21Checkpoint
Start the turn from running the project to evaluating it.
2027
Evaluate & Communicate
Finish the work, figure out what changed because of it, and tell the story to a room that wants to hear it.
Apr 4Zoom
Turn the project into a story people can follow, then practice saying it out loud.
Apr 18Checkpoint
The building is done. Now you find out what it added up to.
May 2Checkpoint
Get the project presentation-ready before AP exams start.
May 16Hybrid (Stanford/Zoom)
You present the year's work as a poster and a short talk, in front of the people who helped you get there.
May 23–26Checkpoint
Close out the year, and decide what happens to the project next.