I hear of so many people here doing research and would love to help out with some. However, I am clueless about how to find an opportunity as the summer programs I can find online are far away from me and often do not provide housing. I do live very close to a state university but they hold very limited programs for high schoolers. Thanks!
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You could look on the web to find someone at the state university you want to work with and have some classes in that area. Write up a resume and send it by email. Ask to meet with the professor. You would probably need to send it to several professors to get a response. Somewhere there is an old thread about how to do this that was useful. Sorry, I don’t have a link.
My school has several research programs to facilitate the process of finding a research mentor but basically you browse through faculty at your local university, look through their research interests, and email people whose work you find interesting… try taking a look at their lab website or their papers beforehand and you can include some references to their research in your email. It’s probably not good to ask more than one professor at a time, and if they don’t respond within about 5-7 days, send a follow up, and move on if they don’t respond for another few days. Be specific about why you want to do research and what you’d be interested in, such as helping out with their projects or conducting an independent project of your own that relates to their research.
If someone says yes, be sure to consider what kind of paperwork your university requires (especially for science laboratory work) and get that done ASAP so you won’t be sitting around reading researching articles or waiting forever (like me right now).
This may help:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1773755-high-school-research-opportunities.html#latest
Here’s the big thread I was remembering: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1063234-how-to-apply-for-independent-research-internships-p1.html
Wow that’s so helpful! Thanks!