Summer Academic Challenge
University of Puget Sound, 1500 N Warner St, #1019, Tacoma, WA 98416
About
Summer Academic Challenge is a tuition-free four-week enrichment program where students engage with an innovative project-based STEAM curriculum. Participants design their ideal homes using STEAM principles, explore topics like sustainable energy, materials, and environmental impact, use tech tools to create smart home features, and work in teams to solve real-world challenges like space and structure. Students also explore the life cycle and habitat of salmon, investigate how water quality, climate change, and human activities affect salmon, explore the evolution of transportation from horse-drawn carriages to modern technologies and future innovations, build models, execute computer programs, conduct laboratory experiments, design creative, functional spaces using the arts, use math for planning and budgeting, and engage with STEAM concepts through hands-on projects and collaboration.
• Ages: 12–18 years old
• Schedule: Students must be committed to attending all 20 days of Summer Academic Challenge from mid June to mid July; it is a four-week enrichment program.
• Price: Summer Academic Challenge (SAC) is a tuition-free four-week enrichment program.
Summer Academic Challenge is for Tacoma and greater Pierce County students in grades 7 to 12 who are currently attending a public school and who are from underrepresented minoritized groups, are first generation college students, and/or are from underrepresented socio-economic status as determined by the Federal Free or Reduced Price Lunch program. Topics of exploration are organized by grade-level groups: Gold Group (7th and 8th Grade), Green Group (9th and 10th Grade), and Blue Group (11th and 12th Grade). Themes from past years have included robotics, salmon survival, flight, and sustainability, and classes are project-based and require teamwork and collaboration. Teachers are drawn from both the community and the university, and current university students serve as mentors and teaching assistants. The focus includes the rich history of Puget Sound and Tacoma, emphasizing the significance of fishing and water rights in the community.
Over a six-year period (2014–20) at Puget Sound, the one-year retention rate for former Summer Academic Challenge participants (89%) was higher than the rate for all other first-year students (83%), including 100% retention of students who participated in two or more Challenges. Puget Sound will provide a package that meets the demonstrated financial need of Summer Academic Challenge students who wish to attend the University of Puget Sound if they meet specified criteria. The leadership team includes the Assistant Director for Access Programs My Khanh Tran and the Assistant to the Vice President for Institutional Equity & Diversity Margo Palmer.
Parent and student comments describe the program as a “true gift” that “opened doors and provided experiences” a student would not otherwise have had, and note that a student was “always excited to attend and loves talking about what he has learned when he gets home.” Students report that teaching assistants “helped with projects,” “were fun to be around and made the projects fun,” and “were very friendly, helped us out and were easy to talk to.”
Last updated January 8, 2026.
• Ages: 12–18 years old
• Schedule: Students must be committed to attending all 20 days of Summer Academic Challenge from mid June to mid July; it is a four-week enrichment program.
• Price: Summer Academic Challenge (SAC) is a tuition-free four-week enrichment program.
Summer Academic Challenge is for Tacoma and greater Pierce County students in grades 7 to 12 who are currently attending a public school and who are from underrepresented minoritized groups, are first generation college students, and/or are from underrepresented socio-economic status as determined by the Federal Free or Reduced Price Lunch program. Topics of exploration are organized by grade-level groups: Gold Group (7th and 8th Grade), Green Group (9th and 10th Grade), and Blue Group (11th and 12th Grade). Themes from past years have included robotics, salmon survival, flight, and sustainability, and classes are project-based and require teamwork and collaboration. Teachers are drawn from both the community and the university, and current university students serve as mentors and teaching assistants. The focus includes the rich history of Puget Sound and Tacoma, emphasizing the significance of fishing and water rights in the community.
Over a six-year period (2014–20) at Puget Sound, the one-year retention rate for former Summer Academic Challenge participants (89%) was higher than the rate for all other first-year students (83%), including 100% retention of students who participated in two or more Challenges. Puget Sound will provide a package that meets the demonstrated financial need of Summer Academic Challenge students who wish to attend the University of Puget Sound if they meet specified criteria. The leadership team includes the Assistant Director for Access Programs My Khanh Tran and the Assistant to the Vice President for Institutional Equity & Diversity Margo Palmer.
Parent and student comments describe the program as a “true gift” that “opened doors and provided experiences” a student would not otherwise have had, and note that a student was “always excited to attend and loves talking about what he has learned when he gets home.” Students report that teaching assistants “helped with projects,” “were fun to be around and made the projects fun,” and “were very friendly, helped us out and were easy to talk to.”
Last updated January 8, 2026.
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