Program Overview
Explore. Experiment. Discover what inspires you.
Discover what inspires you through a three-week immersive academic experience at Lawrence University. Rising juniors and seniors choose from four rigorous, hands-on courses led by accomplished faculty across disciplines. Earn college credit while learning across three dynamic locations—from the shores of Lake Michigan to the cultural energy of London.
Go farther this summer.
Who can attend?
- Rising Juniors
- Rising Seniors
Courses
Strange Loops
Explore the interconnected worlds of Gödel’s mathematics, Escher’s art, and Bach’s music to uncover the “strange loops” at the heart of creativity, consciousness, and paradox—through geometry, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and more.
Dates: July 12th – August 1st, 2026
Application Fee: $300
Professor: Alex Heaton, Assistant Professor of Mathematics (view full profile)
Illuminate
Across multiple arts disciplines, explore how collaboration, creativity, and reflective practice shape your artistic voice—from managing performance anxiety to refining skills, engaging in critique, and building a compelling portfolio.
Dates: July 12th – August 1st, 2026
Application Fee: $300
Professor: Andrew Mast, Associate Dean of the Conservatory and Kimberly-Clark Professor of Music (view full profile)
Invisible Worlds, Visible Impact
Through labs, fieldwork, site visits, and historical reenactments, investigate how microbes shape health, environments, and societies—past, present, and future.
Dates: July 12th – August 1st, 2026
Application Fee: $300
Professor: Brian Piasecki, Associate Professor of Biology (view full profile)
Stardust Memories
Drawing from physics, literature, and art, explore evolving ideas about the structure and origins of the cosmos—and our place within it.
Dates: July 12th – August 1st, 2026
Application Fee: $300
Professor: Megan Pickett, Associate Professor of Physics (view full profile)
Summer 2026 Odyssey Programming
Invisible Worlds, Visible Impacts
Through labs, fieldwork, site visits, and historical reenactments, explore how microbes shape and have shaped health, environments, and societies.
Stardust Memories
Drawing on perspectives from physics, literature, and art, explore evolving ideas about the structure and origins of the cosmos and our place within it.
Illuminate
From multiple arts disciplines, explore how collaboration, creativity, and reflective practice shape your artistic voice from managing performance anxiety to honing skills, giving and receiving critique, and building a compelling portfolio.
Strange Loops
Explore Gödel's mathematics, Escher's artwork, and Bach's music to unravel "strange loops" at the core of consciousness through fugues and canons, geometry, Zen Buddhism, paradoxes, ant colonies, artificial intelligence, computer languages and more.