Chris L.
Study Sprint
Aryesh K.
ToxiClear AI
Paul H.
Rising Builders
Raghav K.
Veralis
Aanvi M.
CreateYourNextFour
Archie Ovitigala
Founder, HidroCare · Stuyvesant HS '27
My friends used to wipe their hands on their jeans after touching mine or ask, “why the f*ck are your hands so wet.”
Small thing. Sticks with you.
Handshakes make me panic. Introductions are dreadful. And for years, I thought I was just... broken.
Took me years to find out it's actually a condition. Hyperhidrosis. Excessive sweating. 1 in 20 people have it — and most of them have no idea.
So, I built HidroCare. At 16. Mostly alone.
HidroCare lets you:
→ Track your symptoms over time with charts
→ Read the latest research and news on sweat conditions
→ Get AI-powered support
→ Actually understand what's going on with your body
With guidance from the Lumos Fellowship Program, a lot of help from ChatGPT, and way too many late nights, it's finally live.
Alexander Z.
Automated Market Intelligence Bot
“My Lumos Fellows experience helped me fast-track learning a variety of different tools necessary for the development of my project, and the process redefined how I approach problems and leverage current tech innovations to boost efficiency.”
Emily W.
Haven · Personal wellness and safety app
“The Lumos program pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable of, providing many learning experiences that allowed me to build a fully functional app.”
Reed K.
Nook · 3D room planning lifestyle app
“As someone who's always had ideas for potential business ventures, it's extremely helpful to have someone to go to for advice on how to bring my ideas to life. I've made more progress in my business in 2 weeks than I did in 3 months, and that really goes to show how useful a program like this is.”
Chris L.
Study Sprint · Gamified focus and study tracker
“Lumos was a great experience for me. I was exposed to different AI tools and I learned how I could use them creatively for innovation. I also learned technical fundamentals that gave me the confidence to turn ideas into real products and apps.”
Rithwik S.
FoodScan · AI-powered food nutrition scanner
“At Lumos Fellows, I learned to push myself by testing my ideas in a fulfilling and fast paced environment.”
Archie O.
HidroCare · Hyperhidrosis symptom tracker
“Through Lumos, I built and deployed my hyperhidrosis app, including a sweat log feature, and AI integration (using caching and cost-limiting strategies that I picked up from the course) in just over 2 weeks (which honestly surprised me).”
Arjun A.
Ukiyou · Cross-platform fashion search aggregator
“A pretty good program if you want to learn how to push and develop apps quickly without much experience! This is a self-driven program, so it is still your work, and you have to pour in your initiative and time. The mentors are friendly, won't leave you hanging, and are open to helping students with any and every question they have, whether its technical or not.”
Lumos Fellows helped me actually turn my idea into a concrete product despite my limited experience in coding.
Lumos Fellows always has mentors available who can assist with all of your needs and problems that you might have.
Overall great experience. There was a guest speaker who was really insightful, he really had meaningful experience and he gave some really valuable tips to getting internships at top startups.
Lumos Fellows helped me bring my dream project to life. It helped me learn about AI tools and bring my project to life.
This program is NOT only for CS or Business majors; it's for anybody looking to ship a real product, learn about business and marketing, and gain experience in AI-coding in a field they're passionate about.
Lumos opened a whole new world for me. I was learning about product development, coding tools, digital marketing, and many more.
Meet your mentors.
Tim Ng
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley EECS student exploring agentic AI and alignment, with experience spanning product development and engineering.
Interests
Food, powerlifting, chess, and spending time with friends
Alan Chen
Duke
Exited founder who scaled apps to millions of users, with experience across product, engineering, and growth and a Division I athletics background.
Interests
Running, tetris, and brawl stars
Cailey Chin
Wharton
Growth and college advising mentor with expertise in viral marketing and admissions storytelling, generating 10M+ views in < 1 year.
Interests
Overwatch, video editing, education equity, fragrances, hip-hop, and Beli
Chris Kim
Penn
AI/ML product engineer with experience building at Speak Genie and turning emerging technology into useful, approachable products.
Interests
Chemistry, soccer, and poker
Ola Amr
Caltech
Caltech ECE student and AWS software engineering intern building LLM-powered tools, with experience shipping cloud features and teaching computer science.
Interests
Pipe-cleaner flower arranging and crocheting
Sahej Bahl
Waterloo
Startup builder since age 13 with experience across product, engineering, and growth at fast-growing Canadian startups, including a YC-backed company.
Interests
Soccer, basketball, volleyball, and rugby
Daniel Lim
Duke
Former Duke pre-med student and viral growth mentor helping fellows shape products, grow audiences, and position their work for college applications, with 750K+ followers.
Interests
Skateboarding, tennis, and camping
Bobo Li
UCLA
UCLA computer science student with software engineering experience at Illumia and UCLA DevX, and a member of Startup School 2026.
Interests
Playing sports and watching shows
Zenil Karia
Waterloo
University of Waterloo computer science student and TripToGo software engineering intern focused on developer tools, machine learning, and building fast, scalable AI-powered software.
Interests
Music, table tennis, dancing, and exploring new places
What Lumos looks like.
Every week you'll work through custom videos from our instructors, quick quizzes, focused readings, and hands-on exercises reviewed by your mentor. Plus 1:1 office hours and direct messaging with your mentor whenever you need them.
Week 0
Onboarding
Before week one, you're paired with a mentor from the Lumos team. You'll share what you want to build, get onboarded, and join our private community.
Weeks 1–2
Sharpen
Refine the problem you want to solve. You'll learn how to grade your idea and submit an idea review to your mentor.
Weeks 2–4
Build
The main build phase. You'll plan your MVP and learn how to best use AI tooling. Work with your mentor to bring your product to life.
Weeks 4–5
Growth
Marketing runs alongside building. You'll create videos to promote your product, and start putting your product in front of real people.
Week 6
Refine
Polish your product, tie up loose ends, and incorporate feedback from your first users. Then present what you've built at our program demo day alongside the rest of your cohort.
After week 6
Continue
Every fellow joins our alumni community. You can continue getting advice from mentors, and get support long after the program ends.
An investment in your future. At a fraction of the cost.
The old way
Coding bootcamps
10–12 weeks, no 1:1 mentorship
Admissions consulting
Comprehensive packages$5K – $15K+
Hourly consulting$150 – $350/hr
Won't help you build anything
The Lumos way
$4,500
With scholarship
$0 – $4,050
Merit scholarships (10–100%) and need-based financial aid (25–100%) available.
15 hours of AI-first curriculum
Unlimited 1:1 office hour mentorship
Ship a real product with real users
Strengthen your college application
Frequently asked questions.
What does the application process look like?
After you apply, our team will review your application. If you move forward, we'll invite you to a short 15-minute interview before making a final decision.
Is financial aid and scholarship available to international students?
Yes. Both merit scholarships and need-based financial aid are available to international students.
When do I hear back on my application?
We review applications on a rolling basis and respond as soon as we can, typically within a few days to a week.
What are the start and end dates?
There are multiple cohorts throughout the year. You can see the start and end dates for the current cohort on the application form.