NextGen Roundtable: AI & Democracy Summer Institute

The institute is open to students who, at the time of the program, will be rising tenth graders through rising college freshmen. Participants should be interested in how tech and AI intersect with education, the environment, the economy, and/or democracy.

Residential tuition is $3,500 (students will stay at an area hotel; all academic sessions will take place on the Stanford campus). Nonresidential tuition is $3,150 (hotel accommodations are not included). Tuition includes all institute sessions, evening activities, meals, and daytime and nighttime supervision and security. Transportation to and from Palo Alto is not included.

All participants must complete an application, including a $50 nonrefundable application fee, and submit a teacher recommendation. The early application deadline is February 15; the regular application deadline is March 8. Early acceptance notifications will be sent on March 3; regular acceptance notifications will be sent on March 21. A $750 deposit is due upon acceptance. The final payment deadline is May 13.

All payments are nonrefundable. We encourage all participants to purchase travel insurance.

Yes. Close Up strongly recommends that each person purchase travel insurance through Travel Guard, America’s #1 travel insurer. This will protect against delays, flight cancellations, and other travel-related issues, including a medical emergency that may prevent passengers from traveling. To assure the full promotion benefit of the policy, travel insurance should be purchased 15 days after the first payment is made.

A participant may elect to purchase Travel Guard coverage up to 48 hours before the trip begins, but coverage is limited. After completing traveling information, select “CLOSE-UP FOUNDATION” under “Tour Operator.” If you do not know your airline at the time of purchase, choose “NONE.” Participants can elect to purchase travel insurance upon completion of their enrollment forms online.

Residential students will stay at a hotel near Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. There will be two students per room and each room will have two double beds. Roommates will be assigned at registration.

Nonresidential students must arrange for their own accommodations near the Stanford campus and are responsible for traveling to and from campus each day of the institute.

The full program days run from approximately 9am to 10pm. Students will engage in a variety of experiential, academic, and social activities in both large-group and small-group settings facilitated by Close Up program instructors. All academic programming will take place at Stanford with occasional social activities in other locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

For residential students, Close Up provides night monitors on each hotel hallway who will check the students into their rooms each night. Night monitors are available should students need anything overnight.

Close Up will be utilizing its extensive 50+ years of experience in programming for high school students to oversee the supervision of students. While we do maintain close supervision of students, this is a pre-college program that encourages students to be independent and reach out to staff as they need support. As responsible young adults, it is important to note that students may not be supervised at all times, such as during unstructured time.

Tuition does not include transportation to and from Palo Alto. When making your own travel arrangements, please plan to arrive in Palo Alto in time to register prior to the institute start time. On the departure day, all participants must check out with Close Up staff prior to leaving.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at programsupport@closeup.org!

Close Up is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, civic education organization that informs, inspires, and empowers young people to become active citizens. Since 1971, we have served more than one million students and educators through experiential learning programs in our nation’s capital and in local communities, professional development, and curriculum design and consulting. Our goal is to connect what students learn in class to the real world around them and help them articulate their own views, listen to those of others, and engage with people of different backgrounds with tolerance and understanding. To learn more, visit closeup.org.

DDL is devoted to research about democracy and public opinion obtained through Deliberative Polling®, a practice of public consultation that employs random samples of the citizenry to explore how opinions would change if they were more informed. Deliberative Polling® was developed by DDL Director James Fishkin and has been used in more than 50 countries and over 150 projects at varying levels of government and society. DDL Associate Director Alice Siu has advised policymakers and political leaders at various levels of government worldwide, including leaders in Argentina, Brazil, and China. To learn more, visit https://deliberation.stanford.edu/.

Housed within Stanford Engineering, the Crowdsourced Democracy Team is dedicated to scaling up collaboration and decision-making. The team envisions an era in which large communities can deliberate and brainstorm with one another on important issues with the aid of intelligently designed algorithms and digital communication platforms. The team believes that this will not only aid decision-makers in harnessing collective intelligence, but also lead to community members who are more informed and engaged in making their communities better. Professor of Management Science & Engineering and (by courtesy) Computer Science Ashish Goel does research in design, analysis, and applications of algorithms. He also designed and prototyped several of Twitter’s early algorithmic and monetization products. To learn more, visit voxpopuli.stanford.edu.