Industry Visits

Work has never been this fun
EXPLO Pre-College Career Concentrations take you off campus and into the professional world, where you’ll do real work. We collaborate with industry and academia to make hands-on experiences in medicine, business, engineering, and more part of your EXPLO summer. See your future for yourself.
Discover what it's like to...

Engineer electronic fabrics
Students visit the AFFOA (Advanced Functional Fabrics of America) headquarters in Cambridge, MA, to meet with company leaders and explore the development, manufacturing, and assembly used to transform traditional textiles into sophisticated devices and systems. Students complete an entire engineering design cycle from start to finish; they identify problems, create user personas, design solutions, and prototype their ideas using electronics and fabrics. They present their work to a panel of experts, including the leaders of AFFOA that they had met during the site visit.

Treat a medical patient
Students regularly visit the STRATUS Center Sim Lab, part of the Mass. General Brigham hospital system and a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. Here, students practice hands-on with some of the most skilled medical professionals , and learn sophisticated medical procedures with high-fidelity mannequins and medical task and skill trainers, devices that help train key elements of skills like catheterization or IV placement.

Explore the depths of the human mind
Students take a private tour of Harvard University’s famous psychology department. There, they view collections and artifacts dating from the earliest days of psychological research. They visit the lab of B.F. Skinner, where he conducted novel research that built the framework for behavioral psychology. They also participate in a discussion with a Harvard psychology professor and refine some of their own research ideas.

Launch a business—or save one
Andy Shepard, general manager of Saddleback Mountain ski resort in Maine, hosted EXPLO business students, giving them a tour of the facility and a grounding in Saddleback’s unique business model. Then he presented them with a real business problem to solve collaboratively, under time pressure. The students split into teams to develop creative solutions using research and analysis tools, and create recommendations. A panel of judges consisting of Shepard and consultants from Tyton Partners assessed the overall presentations from the teams and provided feedback. For students interested in business, consulting, and entrepreneurship, case competitions help develop critical thinking, analysis, and communication skills; demonstrate leadership and teamwork; and learn from industry professionals.

Captivate Customers
Students in EXPLO’s Entrepreneurship concentration visited Harvard Business School and participated in a session diving into methodologies for modern marketing. While they were there, they toured the campus and met with current students to talk about the application process, lifestyle, and opportunities at Harvard Business School.
We bring the discovery to you
EXPLO also brings in-classroom visitors to campus to share their expertise about their work and careers. These accomplished professionals can show you what it’s really like to work in fields from cloud computing to biomedical engineering, entrepreneurship to crime scene forensics, and many more.
Learn with leaders like these

Charis Loveland
Former leader of Cloud Intelligence Team AI/ML strategy, Amazon Web Services. Discusses future of AI/ML technologies in Artificial Intelligence + Machine Learning concentration

Rick Thyden
PhD candidate, Boston College | Studies in vitro meat production, scalable bioreactor systems + tissue mechanicsRuns a decellularization lab in Biomedical Engineering concentration

Kristine Rich
Certified Search + Rescue Responder, Massachusetts Canine Response Team. Gives cadaver dog demonstration in Crime Scene Investigation + Forensic Science concentration

Dr. Kristin Goodell
Associate Dean of Admissions, Boston University Medical School. Talks about the medical school admission process in Medical Rotations concentration

Dr. Mark Tetel
Professor + Chair, Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College. Leads sheep brain dissection lab in Psychology + Neuroscience concentration