Internships let high schoolers test-drive a field, build professional skills, and earn references long before college. Even a few weeks of real work experience helps clarify your interests and strengthens an application narrative. Tenth grade is when you begin to narrow. Take on more responsibility in one or two activities, attempt a first summer program, and start developing a 'spike' — a focused area of strength.

Opportunities range from NIH and NASA programs to local startups, hospitals, law offices, and research labs; many are summer-based, and a growing number are remote.

Hands-on experience signals maturity and direction, and an internship often becomes the seed of an essay, a recommendation letter, or a long-term mentor relationship.

How to get started with internships

1. Get concrete about the field and the kind of work you want — 'help a bio lab run assays' beats 'an internship somewhere.'
2. Map your network first: teachers, family friends, alumni, and local businesses are the most reachable entry points.
3. Apply early to structured summer programs (NIH, NASA, university labs) as your backbone while you email locally.
4. Send a short, tailored pitch: who you are, one specific reason you want their work, and exactly how you'd help.
5. Say yes to small, unglamorous tasks — reliability early turns a two-week trial into a real reference and mentor.

Featured programs

Browse 21+ curated programs for high school students:

• Girls Who Invest Summer Intensive Program — Girls Who Invest: Highly selective free 4-week summer program placing high school girls and nonbinary students at top investment management firms for training in financ
• Science Internship Program (SIP) at UC Santa Cruz — UC Santa Cruz: 8-week summer research internship. Students work in UCSC research labs. Competitive admission.
• NIH Summer Internship Program in Biomedical Research — National Institutes of Health: Paid 8-week research internship at NIH. Work with leading scientists.
• Mikva Challenge Summer Fellows — Mikva Challenge: Gain hands-on experience in government and civic leadership with this paid summer internship for grades 10-12. Build skills and strengthen your colleg
• NASA Internships - High School — NASA: Gain hands-on STEM experience through a paid NASA internship. Perfect for high school students in grades 10-12 to boost college applications and build
• CodeDay Labs Internship Program — CodeDay: Build real open-source software in this free virtual internship for high schoolers. Gain hands-on coding experience, boost college apps, and learn fro
• BioBuilder Apprenticeship Challenge — BioBuilder Educational Foundation: Selective biotech internship and training for high school students in grades 10-12. Build real-world synthetic biology skills and boost college applic
• TurnUp Pre-College Program — TurnUp: Pre-college program at TurnUp for high school students focusing on youth activism remote internship.
• Ladder Internships — Ladder Internships: Virtual internship program connecting high school students with startup and organizational work experiences.
• Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Internship — The Ronald Reagan Foundation: Internship at the Reagan Presidential Library focused on leadership, communication, and civic engagement.
• Youthcast Media Group Journalism Boot Camps and Workshops — Youthcast Media Group: Virtual journalism boot camps and reporting workshops where high schoolers nationwide cover health and safety issues with veteran-journalist mentors;
• Youth Journalism International — Youth Journalism International: Free global online newsroom (since 1994) where students 19 and under report real stories with coaching from experienced editors, publish international
• Cardiothoracic Surgical Skills and Education Summer Internship — Stanford Medicine Cardiothoracic Surgical Skills and Education Center: Stanford Medicine's two-week virtual surgical internship for high schoolers: morning lectures plus live-coached suturing, knot tying, and simulated ca
• AIMI Summer Research Internship — Stanford Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Imaging: Two-week fully virtual Stanford AIMI internship where high schoolers do mentored, small-team AI-in-healthcare research with lectures from Stanford exp
• Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Internships — Smithsonian Institution: Smithsonian internships in folklife research, the Folklife Festival, Folkways Recordings, archives, and education - explicitly open to high school stu
• Sandia National Laboratories High School Internships — Sandia National Laboratories: Paid year-round internships at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM for students 16+, working up to 25 hours/week during the school year in
• Student Historian Internship Program — The New York Historical: School-year history internship at The New York Historical for students entering grades 10-12 in the NYC metro area; interns research museum collection
• STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) Summer Intern Program — University of Texas at Austin Center for Space Research / NASA: NASA-sponsored UT Austin summer internship where rising juniors and seniors analyze real NASA Earth-science data with scientist mentors. Free virtual
• Michigan Science Center Explainers — Michigan Science Center: Paid year-long program hiring Detroit-area 10th-12th graders (about $13/hour, ~7 hours/week) to learn science-center operations and lead exhibit, stag
• MediaWise Teen Fact-Checking Network — The Poynter Institute: Poynter MediaWise's virtual newsroom where US middle and high schoolers debunk viral misinformation, publishing fact-checks and 'Is This Legit?' media
• Naval Research Enterprise SEAP — U.S. Department of the Navy & ASEE: Gain hands-on STEM experience in a paid summer program at Navy labs. Perfect for high schoolers in grades 10-12 to boost research skills and college a

Frequently asked questions