15 Programs for Middle School Students in New Mexico
- Stephen Turban
- 5 hours ago
- 9 min read
If you’re a middle school student who wants to try something beyond your usual classes, a program can be a great choice. Middle school programs give you a chance to test new subjects, learn through practical tasks, and see what academic and career paths your interests might lead to. These early experiences also help you understand what direction you might want to pursue in high school.
What programs are available for middle schoolers in New Mexico?
New Mexico has a wide range of options for middle schoolers. You’ll find programs linked to science, land and environment, cultural studies, writing, and community work. Many of these programs introduce you to projects, group activities, and habits that can shape how you learn and think. You’ll gain experience that can support your applications to selective high schools and future opportunities. A local program allows you to avoid travel and extra spending.
To make the process easier, here are 15 programs for middle school students in New Mexico!
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
Cost: Free
Dates: June 9 – 13
Application Deadline: May 1
Eligibility: Students exiting grades 6–8
NM PREP is held at New Mexico State University, and the whole idea is to get middle school students working on actual engineering problems instead of just hearing about them. You will try out robotics, physics, and math through activities that ask you to test something, adjust it, and see what happens next. Mentors walk you through each step, so you’re never stuck on your own. Since it’s fully funded, you can focus on the work itself, and you finish the program with a better sense of what engineers actually do and whether this kind of problem-solving feels right for you.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: Online (Founded by Harvard and Oxford researchers)
Cost: Varies. Full financial aid is available
Program Dates: 8 weeks (rolling cohorts throughout the year)
Application Deadline: Varies across different cohorts
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 to 8; open to motivated students globally interested in exploring academic research or writing.
The Lumiere Junior Explorer Program pairs middle school students with Ph.D. mentors from universities such as Harvard, Oxford, MIT, and Princeton to explore academic subjects and develop a written project. Across eight weeks, you’ll learn to read and interpret academic literature, build research questions, and create outputs such as a high school-level research paper or case study. You’ll receive individualized feedback through eight mentor sessions and two writing-coach sessions, ensuring you master both analytical and writing fundamentals. Research topics range from gene editing to behavioral economics.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Moderately selective
Location: Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Cost: Free
Dates: July 12, July 19, and July 26 (Three Saturdays)
Application Deadline: June 23
Eligibility: Grades 6–12
HMTech is run inside Sandia National Laboratories, so you spend part of your summer learning science and engineering in the same place where national lab research happens. You rotate through short classes taught by scientists and engineers who walk you through experiments in chemistry, physics, electronics, and basic computing. The sessions are hands-on rather than lecture-heavy, so you get a feel for how problems are tackled in technical fields tied to national security. By the end, you’ve seen more of how a major research lab works than most students your age, and you’ve tried enough different STEM areas to know what you might want to follow later.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective, with small group cohorts
Location: Virtual
Application deadline: Rolling deadlines. You can apply to the program here.
Program dates: 25 hours over 10 weeks (on weekends) during the spring cohort and 25 hours over 2 weeks (on weekdays) during the summer cohort.
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-8
The AI Trailblazers program by Veritas AI is a virtual program that teaches middle school students the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Over 25 hours, you will learn the basics of Python as well as topics like data analysis, regression, image classification, neural networks, and AI ethics. Students learn through lectures and group sessions with a 5:1 student-to-mentor ratio. Previous student projects have included building a machine-learning model to classify music genres and creating a machine-learning algorithm to provide a custom list of educational resources based on selected specifications.
5. NMT BuzzCamp
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Limited spots due to its free and exclusive nature
Location: New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM
Cost: Free
Dates: July 13–18
Application Deadline: May (or until full)
Eligibility: Grades 6–10
BuzzCamp takes place at New Mexico Tech and brings middle school students onto campus for a week to learn coding, cybersecurity, and app design in a hands-on way. You spend the week living in dorms, moving between labs and workshops, and getting a small look at what college feels like. Since the program covers the full cost, students don’t have to worry about expenses, which keeps the focus on learning. By the end of the week, you’ve built projects, tried out real tools, and seen how computer science works beyond the classroom.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective, applicants need to be nominated by Math and Science teachers, and only 3 nominations are accepted per school.
Location: New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM
Cost: Fully funded
Dates: One week in June
Application Deadline: January 23
Eligibility: Girls entering 8th grade
Tech Trek is a week-long residential STEM camp for girls heading into eighth grade, held at New Mexico Tech. You will stay in dorms and rotate through workshops in areas like astronomy, engineering, and marine biology, all taught by women working in those fields. The idea is to show what science looks like in real careers and to give girls a space where they can experiment and ask questions with confidence. Students are nominated by their math or science teachers, so getting in already feels like a meaningful step toward STEM.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Open registration; spots fill quickly
Location: NMSU, Las Cruces, NM
Cost: Free
Dates: June 2 – 6 and June 9 – 13
Application Deadline: Registration opens in April/May
Eligibility: Students exiting grades 4–7
New Mexico State University’s STEM Outreach Center puts on several week-long camps each summer, and they jump around quite a bit in theme. One session might have you programming drones, another might be about building robots, and another could blend art and math into creative projects. The teaching is very hands-on and usually built around games rather than lectures, so you’re trying things rather than just hearing about them. Because the offerings change from summer to summer, students can pick what fits their interests and try out fields they may not have seen in school yet.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Location: Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM
Cost: Free!
Dates: June to July
Application Deadline: Typically late Spring
Eligibility: Open to students in 5th grade (invited back every summer until they graduate 8th grade)
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe runs this long-term Art and Leadership Program for middle schoolers from New Mexico, and it gives you steady access to the museum’s educators and teaching artists over three summers. You spend time making your own work, visiting places connected to O’Keeffe, and learning how artists think about community and identity. A big part of the experience happens outdoors in places like Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch, where you draw or paint on site and learn directly from the landscape. Each summer ends with a public exhibition, so your work is shown to families and the local community rather than kept in a classroom drawer.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Competitive
Location: New Mexico School for the Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Cost: Free. A stipend is also provided upon completion
Dates: June 2 – 13
Application Deadline: Usually around April, keep an eye on the website for updates
Eligibility: Students living in NM who have completed Algebra I, which can include advanced 8th graders
The Summer Physics Camp run by Los Alamos National Laboratory brings students together for a two-week intensive program. You will explore physics, engineering, chemistry, computer science, and energy-related topics through experiments, demos, and lab tours. You’ll work alongside scientists, take part in projects about renewable energy, cybersecurity, or bioengineering, and learn how real researchers approach big technical questions. The camp includes resume and interview workshops, a chance to visit LANL facilities, and guided team projects that mix physics and engineering.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: NMSU Alamogordo, Alamogordo, NM
Cost: $25 per week or $40 for both weeks
Dates: June 2 – 13
Application Deadline: Late Spring
Eligibility: Entering 6th grade to completing 8th grade
Hosted by NMSU Alamogordo in collaboration with the New Mexico Museum of Space History, this camp offers a focused experience in aerospace technology. Week one typically covers rocketry, where you will learn the history of space flight and build your own models to launch. The second week shifts focus to drone technology, teaching piloting skills, and the mechanics of flight. This hands-on approach allows students to see the immediate results of their engineering work.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Registration-based, though cohorts are small
Location: Los Alamos Nature Center, Los Alamos, NM
Cost: $480 for the Living Earth Adventure Program and $450 for the Space Camp
Dates: June 9–13 for LEAP (grades 7–8); July 7–11 for Space Camp (grades 4–6); July 14–18 for Space Camp 2.0 (grades 7–8)
Application Deadline: Rolling till full
Eligibility: Grades 4–8 (Specific camps for 4–6 and 7–8)
The Pajarito Environmental Education Center runs camps that mix outdoor life with STEM learning for middle school students. The Living Earth Adventure Program for grades seven and eight takes you on a weeklong trip across the Pajarito Plateau. You camp in the Jemez Mountains, raft on local rivers, and learn about the land as you move through it. If you want more science, Space Camp 2.0 gives you NASA-style missions where you build and test your own ideas to solve space problems. Both programs let you explore the landscape around Los Alamos while taking part in steady hands-on work.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Open registration
Location: Explora, Albuquerque, NM
Cost: $195 per camp
Dates: July 21 – 25
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Grades 4–7
Explora offers many programs, but its summer tracks for middle schoolers focus on skills like coding and artificial intelligence. Two courses matter most for you: Tech Girls and Intro to AI: Machine Learning. In these sessions, you build working models, program robots, and design wearable tech. The week-long courses stand apart from general science camps because they stay with one field and let you go deep. They work well if you want early experience in computer science before high school.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Open and community-focused
Location: Ghost Ranch, Abiquiú, NM
Cost: $15
Dates: June 16 – 19
Application Deadline: Opens April 16 and closes when full
Eligibility: Youth aged 5-17 years
Ghost Ranch runs a Community Camp that gives you an affordable and immersive week in the landscape of Abiquiú. The program builds connection and creativity through art, outdoor time, and shared work. The camp follows the core mission of Ghost Ranch, which is to offer learning, spiritual growth, and time in nature. You take part in art sessions, hikes, community circles, and simple service projects that support the ranch. Meals and lodging are provided on site, and you move through the property with staff who share the history and purpose of the ranch.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Limited group sizes for safety
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Cost: $395 per week
Dates: Week-long sessions from June to August
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Grades 5–7
The Outdoor Trekkers program pushes your mental and physical limits through tough outdoor work. You go on long trips that include rock climbing, kayaking, horseback riding, and fly fishing. The program mixes environmental science with movement. You learn about local ecosystems while moving through them. Instructors guide each activity and help you understand the land you travel across. It works well for students who want challenge, adventure, and steady mentorship in the outdoors.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Extremely selective, only 12 students admitted per cohort
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Dates: July 6–24 (summer course); August 26–December 9 (fall seminars)
Application Deadline: March 25 for the summer session
Eligibility: Current 6th or 7th graders who are U.S. residents with a family income below $90,000
The Stanford Middle School Scholars Program is a free virtual program for high-achieving middle school students from low-income families. It starts with a three-week summer course and continues with weekly seminars in the fall. You choose from four courses: Democracy and Dissent, Discovering Geometry, History through Graphic Novels, and Real Life Applications of Mathematics. Stanford faculty teach each class and guide you through the work. The program gives you early access to strong academic support and steady mentorship while you study from home.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.
Image Source - Sandia National Laboratories logo