The Musiker family’s dedication to teenagers and education began 46 years ago when Mike and Judy Musiker founded Musiker Student Tours in 1966. Their sons, Bob and Jimmy Musiker, joined the organization in the early 1980s and assumed ownership in 1992. That year, the organization changed names from Musiker Student Tours, Inc. to Musiker Discovery Programs, Inc. to reflect the broad offerings available to students that now include pre-college enrichment, business internships, middle school enrichment, college admissions preparation and community service programs.
The first Summer Discovery program began at UCLA in 1986, with locations and program offerings expanding tremendously since then. In 2009, Summer Discovery formed an exciting partnership with Derek Jeter’s organization, Jeter's Leaders. The joint venture awards Jeter's Leaders scholarships to attend Summer Discovery programs at leading colleges and universities in the U.S.
In 2010, Discovery Internships was created when Musiker Discovery Programs partnered with Dream Careers (internship programs for college students), to acquire Career Explorations (internship programs for high school students) and form Discovery Internships LLC. Today, there are 10 Summer Discovery pre-college programs, 5 Discovery Internship programs, 2 Jr. Discovery middle school programs and 1 College Discovery Experience program in 7 states and 4 countries.
Musiker Discovery Programs are directed by Bob and Jimmy Musiker, Director of Operations Wil Burns-Garcia, Office Manager Karen Tarantino and a bright, energetic full-time staff of 16 associates in the New York headquarters. The company operates year-round to ensure the best possible summer experiences for staff and students from around the world.
Student Tours
Musiker Discovery Programs has been a growth business since it’s founding in 1966, when Judy and Mike Musiker sold Camp Keewanee in Parksville, NY and ran their first of many Musiker Student Tours. From the introduction of the ‘Discover America’ tour in 1967, the start of the European program in 1969, the beginning of the camping program in 1983, the introduction of the ‘Alaskan Hawaii’ program in 1986, and continued introduction of new tours, Musiker Tours has been the innovator in active student tours.
In the fall of 2008, Musiker Discovery Programs ceased offering student tours in favor of focusing their concentration on providing the best academic enrichment and internship programs.
Academic Programs
Summer Discovery Educational Programs began in 1986 on the campus of UCLA. Originally reserving space for 80 students, the program operated with 180 students from all over the world and the future prospects of educational programs in the summer on college campuses was bright. Two years later Summer Discovery at Cambridge University in England was introduced and since 1989, the campuses of the University of Michigan, Georgetown University, University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Pennsylvania, Enforex Language School in Spain, Istituto Lorenzo de’Medici in Italy, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China have joined the Summer Discovery Team.
In recent years the roster of programs offered by Musiker Discovery Programs has increased with the introduction of Jr. Discovery middle school enrichment programs at UCLA and Georgetown and College Discovery college admissions program in Boston. Last year Musiker Discovery Programs announced the addition of the Discovery Internship programs in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and London.
This past summer, Musiker Discovery Programs had participants from 43 states and 55 countries and is recognized as a leading company in the industry with more students choosing Summer Discovery each summer than any other program of its kind.