The University Partnership Program - A Friends School Signature Program

At Friends School of Baltimore, our Signature Programs provide a variety of opportunities for challenging academic and co-curricular pursuits, allowing our students to explore their interests and passions. Students connect with like-minded peers through experiences on the playing fields, stages, studios, labs, and various clubs and activities. It's not just an option for discovery and exploration; it's a requirement!

The University Partnership Program, currently in its 12th year, was the first of its kind in the Baltimore metro area. Through connections with professors, doctors, and other thought leaders from colleges and major research institutions across the country, students benefit from mentorship and networking opportunities, gain exposure to diverse fields of study, engage in authentic investigations, and apply classroom skills to real-life situations.

Hundreds of partnerships have occurred over the past 12 years including:

• A senior project with Loyola University Maryland and Maryland Historical Society that included researching minutes and profile writers, their essays and poems of Women's Literary Club, established in 1890, to “encourage right and serious views of life & literature.”
• Work with the lab of Dr. Conor McMeniman, assistant professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
• A history/English elective in which juniors and seniors assisted professors at Duke University with ongoing research on enslavement
• An infectious disease project for which sixth-grade science students diagnose and present  “patients” in front of visiting physicians.
• Two upcoming summer opportunities being offered through the University Partnership Program include work with the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) Neurology Department and Pharmacy Summer Camp at Notre Dame of Maryland.

At Friends, we firmly believe that fostering such collaborative experiences – where classroom skills and knowledge are applied to real-world problem-solving – encourages students to act in innovative ways, preparing them for success in the future. This approach not only instills an enduring passion for learning but is also crucial for their development as both students and individuals.

*The logos in the graphic above are only a few of the many colleges and universities that Friend School of Baltimore has collaborated with.