About the ASAP Program

A Cohort Program with Practical Internship Experience

Aspiring Scholars and Professionals (ASAP) is a new initiative in the Emma Bloomberg Center for Access & Opportunity at Princeton University, designed to introduce students to careers in higher education. The ASAP program provides undergraduates from New Jersey colleges and universities with a full-time, nine-week paid summer experience on one of two pathways: Scholars and Professionals. Interns on the Scholar Pathway conduct undergraduate research with one of Princeton’s research groups. Interns on the Professional Pathway participate in a professional internship with a Princeton University-affiliated organization. Recognizing the unique power of meaning-making that humanistic skills bring to bear on issues of access and opportunity, ASAP offers research experiences and career preparation in the humanities and qualitative/humanistic social sciences. The Summer Institute includes professional development and research methods workshops designed to support students in their daily work and prepare them for their professional lives after college.

Fostering Cross-Institutional Connections

In addition to pairing student interns with a Princeton faculty or staff mentor for the summer, the program also works with partner institutions to identify a faculty or staff mentor on the intern’s home campus with whom the student can continue their experience through the academic year. As part of the program, the intern, the Princeton mentor, and the campus mentor meet together to determine goals for the intern’s research or professional internship experience and connect the learnings of the summer with objectives for the academic year. In this way, ASAP serves as a foundation for cross-institutional mentoring and collaboration among faculty, staff, and students.