The Catalyst Program

A ten-week remote program connecting undergraduate students and mentors to work on projects related to global health, animal welfare, AI safety, and any field with the potential for enormous positive impact.

Mentor Application Express Interest
About

Turning ideas and drive into impact

We run a 10 week program where groups of students work with a mentor in one of several high impact cause areas. Mentors can propose and lead projects in AI safety, global health and development, biosecurity, or animal welfare.

Students should apply if they care about having an impact and want to build experience doing useful work. Mentors should apply if they have some experience in their cause area and want to help with developing future talent. We think you can be a great mentor even if you are early in your career, and we encourage you to apply even if you’re a grad student or highly experienced undergraduate.

How it works

Our process

  1. 01

    Applications

    The student application will be released on August 21st. Students filling out the application will rank their top three projects and answer project specific questions. Mentors will rank the student applicants to their project, and the two rankings will be used to create groups for each project.

  2. 02

    Kickoff

    Successful applicants will be put into groups with their mentor, an experienced student or professional working in one of our cause areas. The students will meet with their mentor at least once a week, and will work towards a specific goal or deliverable. Along the way, students will improve their problem solving abilities and knowledge of their cause area.

  3. 03

    Wrap up and extension

    If possible, students will publicly publish their deliverable and reflect on their project with their mentor. In some cases, the project could be extended at the discretion of the mentor.

  4. 04

    Onward and upward

    With the completion of their project, students will have gained legible experience and skills. This will help them as they work to obtain other opportunities, and give them a better sense of how they are best suited to make an impact.

Timeline

Key dates

July 20

Mentor application available

August 14

Mentor application deadline

August 21

Student application released

September 14

Student application deadline

September 28

Projects begin

November 30 – December 7

Final week and wrap up

Team

Our organizers

Brian Foerster

Co-President, EA Purdue

Jeremy Pan

Co-Organizer, EA Berkeley

Madeleine Hoffman

Co-President, UChicago EA

Ian Habich Ramirez

Co-Organizer, EA Berkeley