How to Find (and Land) a High School Internship

Author: ExtracurricularHub Editorial Team (Editorial Team) · Reviewed by Parker, Founder — editorial policy

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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:

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):

  1. One line: who you are (grade, school).
  2. Two lines: why their specific work interests you — reference an actual project or paper. Generic emails get deleted.
  3. One line: what you could concretely help with (data entry, literature search, testing, social media — offer to be useful, not just to "learn").
  4. 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.

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 — Eight-week paid research internship at National Institutes of Health. Work alongside NIH scientists on biomedical
  • Virginia House of Delegates Page Program — Full-session paid page service in the Virginia House of Delegates for 13- and 14-year-olds: capitol duties in Richmond
  • Mass General Brigham Youth Program — Multi-year healthcare pipeline for 75 sophomores a year from Boston, Revere, and Chelsea: paid hospital internships
  • Genesys Works — Free program that trains high school juniors for eight weeks in the summer, then places them in a paid year-long
  • Forage Virtual Job Simulations — Free, self-paced virtual job simulations built with 125+ real employers - JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BCG, Pfizer, KPMG

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