What Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program does

Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program (ASDRP) is a nonprofit, pre-collegiate research institution headquartered in Fremont, California, operating as a program of the 501(c)(3) Olive Children Foundation. Founded in 2017 (first Summer Expo held 2018), ASDRP mentors high school students in grades 9–12 in original scientific research across three core departments — Biological, Human & Life Sciences; Chemistry, Biochemistry & Physics; and Computer Science & Engineering — with newer clusters in Biomedical Research and Astrophysics. The organization is run by a consortium of PhD-level scientists with combined academic and industry experience (including prior roles at 3COM and IBM), and serves roughly 600 students annually drawn from the Bay Area, across the U.S., and internationally.

The program is anchored by a physical and computational infrastructure uncommon for a pre-collegiate institution: 15,000+ square feet of wet and dry laboratory space across four Warm Springs Boulevard facilities, containing approximately 78 research-grade instruments valued at over $15M, including the only NMR spectrometers and Thermo Scientific LTQ-XL LC-MS instruments in the United States dedicated to high school researchers. Computational research is supported by a Dell PowerEdge HPC cluster (180 physical cores, 128 GB RAM, 10+ TB storage) running Ubuntu Linux with scientific software stacks (ORCA, GROMACS, AMBER, AutoDock Vina, CP2K, Quantum Expresso, GAMESS, Jupyter/Anaconda). Program outputs include the student-run ASDRP Communications journal, termly research symposia, weekly public colloquia, and conference presentations including SCCUR.

Revenue is donation-driven and not publicly disclosed. ASDRP relies on individual contributions, corporate sponsorships (DuPont, Home Depot, Western Digital, OrcaBio, BioLink Depot), corporate matching programs managed by Development Director David Linnevers, an annual Giving Tuesday campaign ($150K goal for 2026), and apparel sales. The program charges no fees for students with financial difficulty and offers transportation assistance, making the customer base economically heterogeneous but functionally homogeneous (high school STEM aspirants). Verified alumni admissions include Harvard, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Caltech, Cornell, and UPenn.

Name

Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program

Legal name

Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program

Website

https://asdrp.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program (ASDRP) is a Fremont, California nonprofit (under Olive Children Foundation) that mentors U.S. and international high school students (grades 9–12) in original STEM research across biology, chemistry, physics, and computer science, supported by $15M+ in laboratory equipment and an HPC cluster.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Youth STEM Research Education

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Research, Capstone & Extended Essay Mentoring (IB EE, independent research) (EDANAKAH)

Keywords

• Pre-collegiate research mentorship
• Youth STEM programs
• Scientific research training
• High school research
• Nonprofit science education

Headquarters

HQ city

Fremont

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization under Olive Children Foundation, ASDRP relies on donations from individuals, corporate partners, community sponsors, and parents. The program offers corporate matching programs and various donation designations (scholarships, equipment, server expansion, software).
2. Giving Tuesday Campaigns: Annual Giving Tuesday fundraising drive with stated goals ($150,000 goal for 2026). Corporate matching contributions encouraged.
3. Apparel Sales: Sale of ASDRP branded merchandise including face masks, with proceeds supporting student research.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

ASDRP is a nonprofit pre-collegiate research institution that mentors high school students (9th-12th grade) in original scientific research across biology/chemistry/physics/computer science/engineering/medicine/psychology. Students are matched with scientist mentors and gain hands-on access to $15M+ in professional research equipment (NMR, LC-MS, HPC cluster, etc.) at the Fremont, CA laboratories, producing original research, publishing in journals, and presenting at conferences. The program is run year-round with weekly colloquia, termly symposia, and application-based admissions.

Product overview

ASDRP operates as a nonprofit pre-collegiate research institution for high school students (9th-12th grade) in Fremont, California. Its core educational offering consists of mentored original scientific research across three departments: Biology, Life Sciences & Human Sciences; Chemistry, Biochemistry & Physics; and Computer Science & Engineering. The program provides structured research experiences year-round through the ASDRP Student Portal, with weekly mandatory ASDRP Research 101 sessions and ASDRP Colloquia public seminars every Tuesday. Student research outputs are disseminated through the ASDRP Communications Journal and showcased at termly ASDRP Research Symposium & Expo events and Blitz Talks. Underpinning the program is a technology infrastructure consisting of a High Performance Server Cluster (Dell PowerEdge, Ubuntu Linux, 180 cores, quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics software including ORCA, GROMACS, AutoDock Vina, AMBER, and Jupyter Notebook) and a 15,000 sq. ft. R&D laboratory facility housing over $15M in equipment including NMR spectrometers, LC-MS, GC-MS, FT-IR, and other analytical instruments. The ASPIRE Newsletter provides bi-weekly cross-disciplinary research updates.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• ASDRP Mentored Pre-Collegiate Research Program Year-round competitive, application-based research mentorship program for high school students (9th-12th grade) across biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, engineering, psychology, and medicine. Students are matched with scientist mentors and gain hands-on access to NMR, LC-MS, HPC cluster, and other research-grade equipment; free for financially disadvantaged students.
• ASDRP Weekly Colloquia Free public seminars held every Tuesday at 7:00 PM where ASDRP senior researchers present the current state of their research fields. Mandatory for ASDRP researchers; open to the public.
• ASDRP Research Symposium & Expo Public termly research symposia where ASDRP student researchers showcase original work via poster sessions and oral presentations to peers, parents, industry, and academia. Includes annual Blitz Talks capstone events.
• ASDRP Communications Journal Student-written academic journal that publishes original research completed by ASDRP researchers across STEM disciplines; publicly available online.
• High Performance Server Cluster (Computational Research Access) Dell PowerEdge server cluster (14 x R710 + 2 x R610, 180 physical cores / 360 virtual cores, 128 GB RAM, 10+ TB storage) running Ubuntu Linux with ORCA, AutoDock Vina, GROMACS, AMBER, CP2K, GAMESS, QuantumEXPRESSO, Jupyter, Anaconda. Provides remote-access computational research capability for ASDRP students.
• Spectroscopy & Instrumentation Facility Access to research-grade analytical instruments including the only NMR spectrometers and LC-MS instruments in the US dedicated to high school researchers, plus FT-IR, GC-MS, HPLC, XRF, MALS, UV-Vis spectrophotometers, fluorometers, and PCR/real-time PCR systems.
• ASDRP Research & Development Laboratory More than 15,000 sq. ft. of wet and dry lab space across chemistry R&D, biology/life science, instrumentation, and engineering/computer science labs in Fremont, CA. Houses 78 research-grade instruments and ~$15M in equipment/apparatus for student-led original research.

Quantifiable outcome

• 30+ papers published by 2019-2020 cohort students in undergraduate/high school research journals
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability14 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• DuPontminorOthers · 1 January 2019Corporate sponsor of ASDRP 2019 Research Symposium and Exposition. Listed as community supporter.
• Home DepotminorOthers · 1 January 2019Corporate sponsor providing support for ASDRP programs. Listed as community supporter.
• Western Digital Corporation (WDC)minorOthers · 1 January 2019Corporate sponsor of ASDRP. Listed as community supporter on 2019 expo materials.
• Olive Children FoundationcoreOthers · 1 January 2019Parent nonprofit organization - ASDRP is a production of Olive Children Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Fremont, California. Provides organizational umbrella and nonprofit status.
• OrcaBiominorOthers · 1 January 2019Corporate sponsor of ASDRP. Listed as community supporter on 2019 expo materials.
• BioLink DepotminorOthers · 1 January 2019Corporate sponsor of ASDRP. Listed as community supporter.
• SobccminorOthers · 1 January 2019Corporate sponsor of ASDRP. Listed as community supporter.
• Northwestern Polytechnic UniversityminorOthers · 1 January 2019Host venue for 2019 ASDRP Research Symposium and Exposition in Fremont, CA.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Science Internship Program (SIP) at UC Santa Cruz: SIP at UC Santa Cruz pairs high school students with university researchers for original summer research projects, with closing symposia. Operates in California with a similar hands-on lab research model to ASDRP.
• Research Science Institute (RSI): RSI, run by the Center for Excellence in Education, is the most prestigious pre-collegiate summer research program for high school students. Both programs compete for the same applicant pool of STEM-driven high schoolers seeking authentic lab research experience and publications.
• Broad Institute Summer Scholars Program: Broad Institute's summer program places high school students in computational biology and genomics research labs. Comparable in providing authentic research infrastructure and mentorship to motivated high schoolers, especially in biomedicine.
• Garcia Center for STEM Education: Stony Brook University's Garcia Center provides polymer/materials science and STEM research experiences to K-12 students, with strong high school programming. Comparable to ASDRP's chemistry and materials research offerings.
• Simons Summer Research Program: Hosted at Stony Brook University, Simons provides high school students with mentored research experiences in STEM fields. Like ASDRP, students work on original research projects under faculty supervision and present results at a closing symposium.
• MITES Semester at MIT: MITES Semester is a rigorous, fully subsidized residential STEM program for high-achieving high school juniors from underrepresented or underserved backgrounds. Comparable to ASDRP in mission-driven (equity-focused) STEM research exposure, with stronger MIT brand affiliation.
• Stanford SHTEM Summer Internship Program: Stanford's SHTEM places high school students in interdisciplinary research labs combining science, humanities, and engineering. Operates in the Bay Area like ASDRP and competes for the same local high-achieving STEM applicant pool.
• COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science): COSMOS, hosted across University of California campuses, is a month-long residential STEM program for high-achieving high school students. It is a direct competitor in California for ASDRP's applicant pool with similar hands-on research objectives.

Broad incumbents

• Regeneron Science Talent Search (Society for Science): Society for Science administers the Regeneron STS, the premier U.S. high school research competition. While not a lab program itself, it is a brand-defining institution in pre-collegiate research and influences where motivated STEM students apply their time.

Emerging players

• Mathco (formerly MathPath): MathPath and similar small nonprofit enrichment programs serve gifted middle/high school students in STEM. Comparable mission and nonprofit structure but typically without ASDRP's lab-equipment infrastructure.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCZCF3DiAxegkODsAHMnsMVw
• Facebookfacebook.com/FremontASDRP
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/asdrp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program