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Harlem Children Society (HCS) is a Non-profit organization {501(3)} dedicated to promoting an innovative and formative experience for children and youth living in under-resourced and under-served communities through out the globe. These challenged communities are designated the title of "Harlem", derived from the actual, socio-economically improving and incredibly diverse borough in New York City. In this sense, "Harlem" in the organization's name includes all communities deserving improvement through scientific education, constituent pride and commitment and harmony establish in tolerance. The hope is that by embracing the ubiquitous science and technology of today, success will find these communities tomorrow!

To accomplish these goals, HCS's students are inducted as interns at prestigious institutions including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York University, and Columbia University during a summer research program. These select and dedicated students begin their very own research projects, which will be presented during a street science fair in their own community, under the guidance of some of the best scientists in the world, and also have the opportunity to further pursue their scientific investigations during the following school semester in an after-school program. Additionally, these students attend weekly lectures on a variety of topics ranging from incorporating science into communities to financing a college education, while also having the option to increase their computer program(ming) literacy, to visit college campus and administration, to receive help preparing for the SATs, to earn up to 12 college credits while in the 11th or 12th grade, and/or to visit leading Laboratories, Pharmaceutical companies and research Institutions.

Dr. Sat Bhattacharya founded HCS on June 5, 2000, aiming to increase awareness in the sciences, medicine, engineering and mathematics and provide an opportunity for under-privileged high school aged students throughout to world succeed academically as well as in all other aspects of their lives.

As a exemplary leader, Dr. Bhattacharya wanted to extend his services to sections of the society that are not as privileged, and expand the horizons of education and awareness. Since he lives in New York City, he decided to focus on the public schools in Harlem and other such neighborhoods. Dr. Bhattacharya, who currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer, founded the Harlem Children Society on June 5, 2000.

In its first year, HCS had an enrollment of 3 students from 2 high schools guided by a single mentor (Dr. Bhattacharya) as interns at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center where Dr. Bhattacharya is a senior researcher.

^[1]The CHS endeavor is an enterprise to increase the entrepreneurship of the people. It is considered an Enterprise for generating hope and for creating a culture--an Enterprise for arming a community with knowledge that would propel itself to the future, creating a chain reaction of communities helping each other for a common goal: betterment and enhancement. HCS posits this can only be possible when people are aware of their surroundings and are responsible towards them--willing to engender this awareness in the minds and hearts of others.

HCS's major goals are to increase awareness and scopes, by which people help to transform their own economies, creating employment and other ventures and transforming their own lot. The HCS hopes to create a "seed" and a template for other regions of the world, further increasing awareness and personal aspirations to help one another to ultimately improve their socio-economic status. HCS states, "This would empower the communities and create a village--an entity of self-fulfillment--; a village within a city, a village within a village and ultimately a world of villages!"

The Harlem Children Society is directed to encourage entrepreneurship; however, this goal is not materialistic. Rather it is to inspire the hearts and minds of people--the people who hope and desire: to improve their skills and knowledge, to better their own economies, to understand each other, to increase an awareness, and in whole, to implement a social change for a better tomorrow.

This experiment is said, "To involve a dream to develop an understanding of one another and enhance ourselves for a better tomorrow and to live in a certain peace and harmony, not only among ourselves, but with our surroundings and environment. Ultimately it will be a part of a responsible citizenry of our world and universe. Therefore, ‘Harlem’ in our mind is not just a geopolitical identity, but a certain reality and a certain dream at the same time." The HCS envisions itself as an experiment in research and learning, which explores new avenues in the relationship between science and society. It is aimed at researchers who want to challenge the disciplinary boundaries and extend their scientific and personal perspectives by incorporating novel social and cultural aspects into their work; it interfaces the gaps between science and society, and provides a platform for researchers in the sciences who would like to extend their scientific work to cover specific social and cultural questions and perspectives.

The overall goal well underfoot, is international and trans-disciplinary in nature: to encourage a break across boundaries between disciplines and to strike out new paths in the analysis of the relationships between society and science, hoping encourage a dialogue between the new social, cultural, political and economic issues.

Today HCS serves 183 students from over 50 schools doing hands-on advanced science research with over 250 mentors in more than 50 reputed institutions.

The Program has three components: Students and research projects; seminars and training; and local, regional and national professional conferences and community science street fairs. Family involvement and post-program follow-up provide students with support to plan their futures and mediate the transitions----academic, emotional, and social----to college and post-academic pursuits.

Based on their interests, selected students are matched with a mentor. They enter the program at the beginning of the summer with an orientation, and spend eight forty-hour weeks starting their research and receiving training in lab techniques and safety. During the academic year, students put in 12–24 hours each month at their internship sites and attend weekly seminars.

Students and supporters participate put on an annual science fair on the streets of Harlem, complete with high tech projectors and a sound stage; and at the Hopi Satellite HCS Health Fair.

Students spend a minimum of 450 hours per year for at least two years involved with HCS. They receive a substantial stipend for their participation and contribution.

Heralded as one of the top internship programs of its kind, the Harlem Children Society has had a number of accomplishments:

• To date, all graduates of the HCS have continued on to college
• Over 20% of HCS graduates have gone into Ivy League Universities
• HCS students have won a number of prestigious scholarships including the Posse Scholarship ($150,000), Gates Millennium Scholarship, and The New York Times Scholarship ($30,000)
• Almost 80% of the program's participants in 2006 are first or second generation immigrants to the United States^[2]

• In 2007, HCS intends to expand the program nationally to additional US states and internationally to other countries including: Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Barbados, Canada, Australia, India,and Nepal.

• Increase the number of students in the program from 183 (2006) to 300 in 2007

• Have Simultaneous 'Harlem Science Street Festivals' at 12 separate locations in different states and countries across the world, and have them all webcast in real time.

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• Official Website