This summer Harvard will host Quest Scholars, a mentoring program that offers low-income high school students the opportunity to develop leadership and public service skills while studying environmental issues.

Quest is modeled after a summer program that started at Stanford University and is the founders' first step to making the program national.

Like its Stanford counterpart, Quest will focus on academics, college preparation, personal development and public service.

At the end of the summer, its 20 high school participants will return to their home communities and implement a public-service project.

"The program doesn't supply the motivation, we supply the know-how. We help them remove the obstacles in their way," said Michael J. McCullough, the co-founder of the Stanford program.

Quest expects over 1,000 high school applicants from all over the East Coast and hopes to hire Harvard undergraduate and graduate students to staff the program.

In addition to housing Quest students and staff, Harvard has offered a number of resources to the program. Dari Shalon, director of the Harvard Center for Genomics Research, serves as president of the newly founded Harvard Quest chapter.

Shalon worked with University President Neil L. Rudenstine and Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles to establish Quest at Harvard as an ongoing summer program. This summer Shalon will give lectures for the students, while other faculty members will be asked to teach and participate in the program.