Welcome to YouthCampus, Princeton University’s listing of community youth programming.
The University offers a variety of quality programs in the arts, sciences, literacy, and more for ages pre-K to high school. Be amazed by a faculty science lecture, explore the University’s green spaces, listen to a children’s concert, or come and relax in the gallery of our children’s library. There’s plenty for families to do at Princeton University.
Join our mailing list and receive e-alerts about upcoming programs. Simply e-mail youthcampus@princeton.edu to add yourself to the list. Like us on Facebook!
Upcoming Youth Events
Join Princeton University Concerts for a family event featuring host Bruce Adolphe and musicians from The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. What can music say? Can a violin order a bagel in a restaurant? How does music tell us anything at all? Inspector Pulse, the world’s greatest and only private ear, investigates this…
Recurring Youth Events
Explore the subjects below to learn more about youth programming on campus. Please note: some programming may be paused or changed due to COVID-19 restrictions on campus.
Art
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Art for Families at the Princeton University Art Museum
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Currently online due to construction
Athletics
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Campus Rec Day Camp
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The Princeton University Summer Day Camp is designed for children entering grades 1-8. Campers participate in sports, games, arts and crafts, camp activities and field trips.
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Community and Staff Day
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Each fall, local residents join Princeton faculty, staff and students for Community and Staff Day, a celebration of sports, entertainment and community.
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Sports Camps
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The Department of Athletics offers about 70 summer camps and clinics for athletes of various skill levels. Camps are directed by Princeton's varsity coaches with help from other coaches and players from colleges around the world.
Internships
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Laboratory Learning Program
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In support of Princeton University’s education and research mission, the University hosts exceptional high school students each summer to conduct research under the mentorship of Princeton faculty, staff, and students.
A select number of highly-motivated students from a large pool of outstanding applicants may be offered an opportunity to join a state-of-the-art research project. Faculty and research staff volunteer as mentors to provide high school students with this first-hand education in independent research in the fields of engineering and natural sciences. The number of opportunities varies each year and is typically in the range of 20 - 40 students total.
Office of the Dean for Research
Summer
Grades 9-12 -
Princeton Physics Plasma Laboratory High School Internship Program
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Opportunities exist for motivated high school students in the central New Jersey area to perform independent laboratory work in plasma physics. A limited number of unpaid internships for credit may be available throughout the school year.
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Spring, Summer, and Fall
Grade 12Learn more about Princeton Physics Plasma Laboratory High School Internship Program
Literacy
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Cotsen Children's Library
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The Cotsen Children's Library is a unit within the Department of Special Collections at the Princeton University Library. The library serves as a resource for children, families, librarians, and educators. Visitors can explore Bookscape, a picturesque environment with whimsical spaces to read, including a two-story bonsai tree.
The staff host gallery programming for all ages. In addition to special events, Cotsen's programming includes the 350 for 50 writing contest, the BiblioFiles author interview webcast, virtual escape rooms, and First Draft, an editing resource for young writers. Check out their creative literacy blog at popgoesthepage.princeton.edu.
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Community House After School Academy (CHASA)
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The Community House After School Academy (CHASA) is a project for middle school students in grades six through eight. Middle school students participate in daily workshops designed to help them build and improve their academic skill in language arts, math, writing, and science. Homework support is also provided.
Community House programs serve underrepresented youth.
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Generation One
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The Generation One program is dedicated to supporting high school students who will be first in their families to attend college or pursue other kinds of post-secondary education. The primary objective of the program is to ensure that students experience academic success throughout their four years at Princeton High School.
Community House programs serve underrepresented youth.
Mathematics
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Community House After School Academy (CHASA)
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The Community House After School Academy (CHASA) is a project for middle school students in grades six through eight. Middle school students participate in daily workshops designed to help them build and improve their academic skill in language arts, math, writing, and science. Homework support is also provided.
Community House programs serve underrepresented youth.
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Generation One
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The Generation One program is dedicated to supporting high school students who will be first in their families to attend college or pursue other kinds of post-secondary education. The primary objective of the program is to ensure that students experience academic success throughout their four years at Princeton High School.
Community House programs serve underrepresented youth.
Music
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Princeton University Concerts
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Family Concerts?
SAT Prep
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Community House
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The SAT Prep program works with high school students to help them develop standardized test-taking skills. Volunteers teach math and English sessions twice a week and also provide one-on-one tutoring when needed in order to help students perform better on standardized tests.
Community House programs serve underrepresented youth.
Science
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Holiday Science Lecture
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Join Professor Howard Stone and guest Princeton University professors as they lead families on an exploration of science topics. Through live experiments and interactive demonstrations children investigate the world of science.
Princeton Center for Complex Materials
December
Ages 7 and up -
Laboratory Learning Program
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In support of Princeton University’s education and research mission, the University hosts exceptional high school students each summer to conduct research under the mentorship of Princeton faculty, staff, and students.
A select number of highly-motivated students from a large pool of outstanding applicants will be offered an opportunity to join a state-of-the-art research project. Faculty and research staff volunteer as mentors to provide high school students with this first-hand education in independent research in the fields of engineering and natural sciences. The number of opportunities varies each year and is typically in the range of 20 - 40 students total.
Office of the Dean for Research
Summer
Grades 9-12 -
Material Science NanoDay
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Materials science is the study of almost everything around you, what they're made of, how they work, and what you can do with them. Nanoscience is the study of atoms, molecules, and objects whose size is on the nanometer scale (1-100 nm).
Join Princeton University's scientists and engineers to learn more about the exciting new research currently going on in materials science. Visit the many table top activities and demonstrations, engage the scientists and engineers, ask plenty of questions, and have fun with your entire family.
Princeton Center for Complex Materials
Spring
All ages -
New Jersey Science Bowl
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Each year the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab hosts the New Jersey Regional Science Bowl which decides which teams from the local area can continue onto the national competition in Washington, D.C.! The Science Bowl is a double elimination contest with question and answer rounds in the fields of chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy, mathematics and general and earth sciences.
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab
Middle and High School grades school-based teams
Registration required -
Peyton Observatory
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The department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University holds monthly informal open houses for the purpose of observing the night sky. Weather permitting, we can usually look at planets, nebulae, open clusters, globular clusters, and galaxies through a 12-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Students and postdoctoral fellows in the department are also quite happy to answer any astronomy-related questions you might have.
Peyton Observatory
Monthly, weather permitting
All ages -
Science on Saturdays
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Science fans of all ages can explore a rich variety of science and technology topics at the popular Science on Saturday lecture series hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Saturdays, January – March
Ages 14 up -
Stars of Material Science Lecture
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Materials are the basic substance that make up almost everything! Materials can be natural (like wood) or human-made (like plastic). Material scientists create and combine materials in new ways that make new technologies possible. Join a Princeton professor for a talk on the fascinating history and science behind material science.
Princeton Center for Complex Materials
Spring
Ages 9 and Up -
Young Women’s Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
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The conference introduces middle-school and high-school aged girls (in 7th through 10th grades) to women scientists and engineers and the wide breadth of careers available to them in these fields.
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab
Spring
Grades 7 – 10
Learn more about Young Women’s Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
Sustainability
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Campus Green Tour
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The Office of Sustainability offers a virtual or self-guided tour highlighting highlighting campus features that range from an organic kitchen garden to a green roof. this tour to explore Each stop demonstrates the University’s progress toward reaching its sustainability goals.
Walking on Campus
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Self-Guided Tour
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Princeton University’s campus is always open to families. Stroll through our gardens, view our outdoor sculpture collection, visit a Gothic courtyard, and say hello to the tigers guarding Nassau Hall. Pack a picnic for our green spaces. We’ll see you on campus!
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Gargoyles
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Princeton's gargoyles, the small grotesque animal or human figures carved in stone, can be found at dozens of locations on everything from downspouts to arches. This self-guided tour will lead you across campus in search of our stupendous stone guardians.
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Tigers
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Go on a tiger Safari! Visit the Princetoniana webpage to see a preview of the tigers hiding on campus. How many can you find?
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Outdoor Art
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Discover the outdoor sculptures that adorn Princeton's beautiful campus, listen to audio recordings by curators, historians, and conservators, and read about the history of this one of the country’s most significant collections of twentieth- and twenty-first-century sculpture.