The Student Teacher Internship Program (STIP) is the largest science education grant sponsored by The Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The grant, which is awarded to the Montgomery County Public School System in Maryland, encourages educational advancement in science by placing highly motivated high school students and middle and high school teachers in research laboratories at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At NIH the student and teacher interns conduct hands-on scientific research under the direction of experienced mentors.

The program was piloted in 1990 with nine high school students and three high school teachers. Nearly two decades later, it has grown to 22 students and approximately 10 teachers. After attending an intensive one-week biomedical technology course, the teachers and students enter the laboratory. In the STIP's present form, the teachers' internship extend only to the summer, while the students work in the labs full-time during the summer and part-time for the rest of the year. Teachers apply directly for the internship with a letter of support from the principal of their school, while the students are nominated for the internship by their respective high schools.

The STIP furthers science education by giving teachers a clear understanding of the science process, which they impart to their students and colleagues. Second summer teachers share original laboratory inquiry-based lessons on the MCPS website. The STIP also advances science education by informing the career choices of highly able students whose experience with hands-on scientific research may lead them toward a path they might otherwise have overlooked. For example, a 1990 student who was part of the first cohort during her junior year said that because of the internship she was now thinking of earning both a M.D. and a Ph.D. and entering the field of medical research, a possibility she had not earlier contemplated. A 1997 intern, who had been frustrated with his experience in high school, felt that the internship had altered the direction in which his life was heading. He is now pursuing a career in neuroscience. Preliminary results from our student alumni survey indicate that 73% of the students returned to NIH to work in the lab after the program ended, and 64% had published their research. Eighty-six percent felt that the internship at NIH shaped their career choice and 86% are currently employed in a science-related field.