I dont know if she was in the same situation, but I went to a Math/Science Magnet High School and we were required to conduct a research project at the local university with a professor as an advisor. My school had relationships with many professors that were willing to mentor us.
Basically, each day we would leave school a couple hours early and head to the university lab where we would work. The projects were often a part of or a very small version of projects that the lab was already involved in. So at the end of our research we got to talk about the super amazing project we had worked on and generally looked like amazing geniuses, when in fact we were more or less tagging along and doing some semi-advanced lab tech work.
Basically, each day we would leave school a couple hours early and head to the university lab where we would work. The projects were often a part of or a very small version of projects that the lab was already involved in. So at the end of our research we got to talk about the super amazing project we had worked on and generally looked like amazing geniuses, when in fact we were more or less tagging along and doing some semi-advanced lab tech work.