How to Find (and Land) a High School Internship
Author: ExtracurricularHub Editorial Team · Reviewed by Parker, Founder — editorial policy
Published · Last updated
Article Summary
How to find and land a high school internship: where to look, how to cold-email a lab or business, and how to turn a no into a real position.
Full Article
Here's the thing career centers won't tell you: most high school internships are never advertised. They exist because a student emailed someone and asked. Once you understand that, "finding" an internship becomes two clear paths.
Path 1 — Structured programs that accept high schoolers
These are competitive but real, and they hand you a named role plus mentorship. Deadlines cluster in winter and spring for summer positions, so start in the fall. A few that take high schoolers directly:
- Naval Research Enterprise (SEAP) — paid summer research placements in Navy labs for high school students.
- AEOP High School Apprenticeship (HSAP) — apprenticeships in university and Army research labs.
- NASA SEES Summer Intern Program — earth-science and data internships.
- MSK HOPP Summer Student Program — biomedical research at a major cancer center.
Browse the full internships hub and, for lab-based roles, our research listings.
Path 2 — Create your own
This is where most teen internships actually come from, and it's a skill worth learning early.
Where to look: university labs near you (faculty pages list exactly what each lab studies), local startups and small businesses, nonprofits, your town or city offices, and any adult in your network doing work you find interesting. Proximity beats prestige — a local lab that answers is worth more than a famous one that doesn't.
The cold email that works (keep it under ~150 words):
- One line: who you are (grade, school).
- Two lines: why their specific work interests you — reference an actual project or paper. Generic emails get deleted.
- One line: what you could concretely help with (data entry, literature search, testing, social media — offer to be useful, not just to "learn").
- A low-friction ask: a 15-minute call, not "will you give me an internship."
Attach a one-page resume. Send 10–20, not 2 — this is a numbers game. Follow up once, politely, after a week.
Turn a "no" into a "later." Ask anyone who declines whether they know someone who might say yes, and whether you can check back in a few months. Referrals and reopenings are how most of these actually close.
Make it count
Whatever you land, aim for one checkable result — data you collected, a tool you built, a project you can name. Pair the internship with a career-exploration path, and if no one's hiring, start your own project instead: self-created work is evidence of exactly the initiative that gets you the next internship.
Sources
- Naval STEM Interns: Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) (checked )
- AEOP Internships and Fellowships (checked )
- NASA SEES High School Summer Intern Program, UT Austin Center for Space Research (checked )
- Memorial Sloan Kettering: Summer Student Program (checked )
Facts in this article were last reviewed against these sources on . Programs change their dates and prices; confirm on the official page before you apply.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do high school students find internships?
Two ways: apply to structured programs that accept high schoolers (like [SEAP](/extracurriculars/naval-research-enterprise-seap) or the [AEOP apprenticeship](/extracurriculars/aeop-high-school-apprenticeship-program-hsap)), and create your own by cold-emailing local labs, startups, and offices. Most teen internships come from the second path.
Can a 15-year-old get an internship?
Yes. Many research and government programs start at 15 or 16, and small businesses and university labs can often take a motivated younger student informally. Labor rules vary by state and by paid-versus-unpaid, so confirm eligibility on each listing.
How do I write a cold email for an internship?
Keep it under 150 words: one line on who you are, two lines on why *their* specific work interests you, one concrete offer of what you'd help with, and a low-friction ask (a 15-minute call). Attach a short resume, be specific, and follow up once after a week.
Do internships help with college applications?
Yes — especially self-created ones, which double as evidence of initiative. A named position with real responsibilities and a result (data you collected, a project you shipped) is a strong, verifiable line that most applicants don't have.
Featured Programs
- NIH Summer Internship Program (SIP) — High School Senior Eligibility — Paid NIH research internship. The earlier Summer 2027 guidance limits high-school applicants to graduating seniors
- STEM@GTRI High School Summer Internship — A five-week paid summer research internship in Georgia Tech Research Institute labs for Georgia high school students 16
- Marine Teens Internship — A paid museum internship for ten high school juniors and seniors from Boyle Heights, who build an interpretive marine
- LA County Bloomberg Arts Internship — Paid arts and culture internships for rising public-high-school seniors in Los Angeles County. Summer 2027 runs June
- KP LAUNCH High School Program — A seven-week paid summer internship at Kaiser Permanente sites across Northern California for high school students ages
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