Where Future Innovators Begin: Inside UC San Diego’s Research Scholars BRIDGE Program

When Los Angeles area high school student Adina Medencevic logged into her UC San Diego Research Scholars BRIDGE course for the first time, she wasn't just looking for something to do over the summer. She was looking for a challenge.

"When I heard there was a program that combined business, creativity, and research, I knew I wanted to be part of it," she explained. 

Ambitious and looking to get a head start on her career, it was exactly the experience she was looking for.

Across the country in New Jersey, Dahlia Solomon joined for a different reason. Attending a school with no AP classes, the Research Scholars program was an opportunity for her to get exposure to college-level learning while still in high school. 

“I wanted to see if business could be a path for me," she said. "I took a financial literacy and business class at my school, which got me interested. My counselor then suggested this program for me because she thought it would be a good experience.” 

What both students found was a transformative opportunity to experience enterprise-level research and entrepreneurship that will set them up for more successful experiences in college and beyond.

Developing Entrepreneurial Skills Early

The Research Scholars program at UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies was developed specifically to help high school students prepare for college-level learning in a rapidly changing world.

"We're giving them a jump start,” said Vish Krishnan, Research Scholars instructor and Faculty Director of the Entrepreneurship Initiative at UC San Diego Rady School of Management. "We introduce them not just to business and economics, but to what it means to create new knowledge. That's what the program is really about.”

BRIDGE, which stands for Business Research in Innovation, Design, Growth and Entrepreneurship, is the business-innovation track within the Summer Research program. Other tracks include bioengineering, life sciences, marine science, and sports medicine. Infused throughout the program is the changing nature of the future job market and what this will mean for current students.

In an increasingly competitive college and employment landscape, rote learning and exam scores are likely to be less relevant. It's the students who can innovate, adapt, think critically, collaborate globally, and lead through uncertainty that will be more appealing to colleges and employers.

"Companies don't care as much about GPA anymore," said Krishnan. "They want to know: what did you build? What did you explore? What contribution did you make outside the classroom?"

These experiences help students write more compelling college applications, speak more confidently in interviews, and stand out as future leaders. For Krishnan, this is the ultimate purpose of BRIDGE. "We want to help them get a head-start on building their entrepreneurial muscles, which will be important to survive and thrive in the AI age," he reflected. 

Learning by Doing: The Startup Simulation

Unlike many high school and college courses that focus on lectures and retention of information, the BRIDGE program focuses on hands-on learning: using interactive exercises, projects, and gamified "startup simulations" to help students learn. “We have them learn by doing,” Krishnan said. "They operate a business and the concepts we want them to learn happen to them as they run it."

One of the most important exercises is The Startup Game. Teams must build a product, pitch investors, allocate resources, and balance cash flow to build a viable company. "The only currency they have to start with is ownership in their company,” Krishnan explained. “Over time, they sell portions of that ownership to outside investors to gain operating capital.”

But that’s where the simulation gets interesting! Students must learn to navigate the delicate balance of entrepreneurship. “There is a trade-off,” Krishnan continued. “If you raise too much money, you dilute yourselves. If you raise too little, you can’t grow. They learn to find that ‘Goldilocks’ level of outside involvement.”

For Medencevic, the simulation was revelatory. "We made mistakes. Big ones,” she laughs. “We overspent at the wrong time. We under-invested at the wrong time. But that was part of the lesson. We had to learn to adapt and deal with mistakes as we went. It helped me realize: ‘Oh wow, this is something I can be good at.’”

Solomon recalls a similar moment of insight. “We kept selling shares for our company for funding because we wanted to grow fast,” she said. “But at one point, we looked and realized we only owned 18% of our company. The investors owned the rest! That was a huge lesson.”

For both students, making the abstract real was a key dynamic of the learning experience. 

The Research Component: Creativity as a Science

While the simulations teach business instincts, the research component helped with creativity and intellectual discipline. Krishnan sees this as essential preparation for college-level inquiry.

“Research is about creating order out of chaos,” he explained. “At first it seems like: why are some people more creative than others? Why do some teams innovate more? It's not fully understood but research gives frameworks.”

These were lessons that hit home for the students too. “I loved the research papers,” said Medencevic. “It showed me that creativity isn’t random. There are patterns to it—psychological, organizational, social. It made me think differently about why people create things and why some ideas spread.”

For Solomon, the research component helped her understand business beyond the surface level. "I didn’t know the difference between invention and innovation before,” she said. “I learned that an invention is something you create; innovation is bringing that invention to the market. Once I understood that difference, the simulations made more sense.”

Innovation and Leadership for a Changing Future

Perhaps the most striking takeaway from the BRIDGE program is not simply that students learn how businesses operate—it’s that they learn how innovation and leadership must evolve in a rapidly changing world. With artificial intelligence reshaping industries and global networks redefining how teams collaborate, creativity and innovative thinking is becoming just as important as technical skill. 

“The bar is getting ever higher, especially with AI taking center stage,” said Krishnan. “If you’re doing mundane work, you will be replaced.”

Through the BRIDGE simulations, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking isn’t something discussed in theory. It’s actually put to the test!  “We had to make decisions, reflect on the consequences, and adjust our strategy,” Medencevic said. “The program opened my eyes to what real decision-making looks like.”

For Solomon, innovation came alive through collaboration across cultures. Her partner in the startup simulation lived in China, forcing Solomon to navigate a 10-hour time difference as well as a different cultural approach to business. “My simulation partner suggested serving tea and snacks to customers during meetings to make them feel more comfortable,” said Solomon. “I would have never thought of that. It helped me see that innovation is also about understanding people and thinking beyond your own experience.”

Krishnan sees these interpersonal and intercultural skills as just as critical as technical ability. “You can see them changing week by week,” said Krishnan. “The more they engage, the more their confidence grows. When students internalize that confidence, they begin to envision a future in which they’re not simply participating in the world—they’re helping to shape it.”

Where Young Innovators Begin

In many respects the BRIDGE program is more than a pre-college experience. It is a preview of the kind of leadership the world of tomorrow will require. The program helps students discover their strengths, experiment with ideas, and prepare for a world that rewards curiosity, initiative, and innovation.

For Medencevic, she hopes that future includes the eventual launch of her own startup. For Solomon, it means blending her creative interests with entrepreneurial thinking. Both see themselves as future leaders—and both credit the program with showing them what leadership could look like.

“This program didn’t just teach me business,” Medencevic said. “It taught me how to think.”

And for Solomon, who arrived unsure of her place, the transformation was personal. “I’ve always been creative,” she said. “But now I know how to turn that into something people might actually want. That’s what is most exciting to me.”

Enrollment to the Research Scholars and BRIDGE programs are open on a rolling basis. Visit the website to learn more and apply.