Atlas Scholars is an innovative development program providing high school students with mentorship, scholarships, and exposure to performance-based, professional environments.
Introduction
Each year, a group of high school students participate in a transformational energy / finance-focused development program.
Recruitment is focused on students from a range of diverse backgrounds across Houston. Once accepted, students are a part of a dynamic three-year program consisting of summer internship sessions, year-round mentoring, energy / finance curriculum, field trips, industry-leading leading guest speakers, college preparation, and scholarships. The program exposes students to high-pressure, performance-based environments.
Students join a lifelong network and go on to become leaders in their communities and careers.
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Over the course of three summer internship sessions in the summers after sophomore, junior, and senior year of high school, Scholars are immersed in a refined curriculum focused on energy, finance, and current events.
Projects are aimed at:
Developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills
Nurturing teamwork and presentation skills
Exposing Scholars to topics that will help them develop a more informed worldview
Past projects have covered topics such as foreign affairs and geopolitics, global commodities markets, energy transition and climate change, and public equities investing.
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Scholars are closely guided through the college preparation and application process with hands-on mentorship, test prep, essay-writing guidance, and a proven methodology for selecting schools.
College acceptances have included many of the top schools in the nation — Harvard, Yale, MIT, University of Pennsylvannia, University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, and Rice, among many others.
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The speaker series provides our students with real-world context and exposure to some of the most accomplished professionals in the world from a diverse range of backgrounds and fields.
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Students are exposed to real-world environments across all sectors and fields to provide context and experience. Past field trips have included the Houston Mayor's Office, WebberVille Solar Farm, CyrusOne Data Center, EDF trading floor, and NRG Cedar Bayou Power Plant, as well as a number of universities.
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Scholars are assigned individual mentors tasked with guiding the students through school, SAT prep, and overall personal and professional growth. Our continually-expanding alumni network is a constant source of mentors for our Scholars, as many of our alumni are now leaders at their universities and in their post-college careers.
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Based on performance and improvement, Scholars are awarded college scholarships upon completion of the three-year program. Since inception, Atlas Scholars has awarded over $600,000 in scholarships.
Atlas Scholars in the news
Atlas Scholars was featured on KPRC Channel 2's "Houston Newsmakers" with Khambrel Marshall.
“I come from a humble background...neither of my parents finished university. When I was on the trading floor and saw these programs for the children of traders, of people in finance that really didn’t need that experience and exposure...I thought it would have been really great if I had had that kind of experience coming up.”