15 Paid Internships for High Schoolers in 2025
What’s Covered:
Internships are a great opportunity for high schoolers to network, explore different fields, and gain real-world experience. Internships also look great on college applications—they demonstrate determination, motivation, and an active pursuit of areas of interest. In addition, many internships pay, which is important for students looking for ways to cover the cost of college.
15 Paid Internships for High School Students
1. KP LAUNCH Program
Application Deadline: N/A
Duration: 7 weeks (June 16 – August 1)
Kaiser Permanente’s KP LAUNCH program, which is designed to bring underrepresented and low-income high school and undergraduate students into health careers, offers paid internships in Oakland and across Northern California. Interns will learn professional and community leadership skills as well as the hands-on expertise necessary for employment in healthcare fields. Students will make minimum wage depending on their city.
2. John Hopkins CARES Summer Program
Application Deadline: Varies
Duration: Varies
The Johns Hopkins University offers several summer programs for underrepresented high school students to encourage them to pursue careers in science, public health, and medicine, targeting several STEM and health-related disciplines. This internship enables students to visit university departments and interact with professionals in their respective fields, and is perfect for students interested in medicine. Applications, timelines, and compensation vary depending on the program, but all are held over the summer. Johns Hopkins offers in-person opportunities for Baltimore-area high school students as well as virtual research opportunities nationwide.
3. Bank of America Student Leaders
Application Deadline: January 15
Duration: 8 weeks (June – July)
The Bank of America Student Leaders program prepares a diverse group of community-minded young people for success in the workforce through leadership training. While employed in these eight-week paid internships, more than 300 high school juniors and seniors from roughly 100 communities gain first-hand experience working with nonprofits such as the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Habitat for Humanity.
Participants leave the program with a firsthand look at how non-profits, governments, and businesses collaborate to meet local needs and the skills needed to bring about positive change. The program includes a one-week in-person summit in Washington, D.C., where students will congregate and continue to develop their skills. The internship is about 35 hours a week.
4. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Scholars Program
Application Deadline: January 10
Duration: 12 weeks
The AFRL Scholars program offers stipend-paid opportunities to upper-level high school students (as well as undergraduate and graduate students). Available at a variety of locations across the U.S., this STEM-focused program provides students with the chance to gain hands-on experience working with cutting-edge research and technology under the supervision of AFRL scientists and engineers.
5. The Met High School Internship Program
Application Deadline: March 7
Duration: 7 weeks (June 21 – August 8)
This fantastic opportunity for rising juniors and seniors who attend school in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut allows students to observe, assist, and be mentored by a staff member at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, connecting them to the arts and creative professionals while gaining work experience and building a professional network. Students are placed in a department based on their interests and experience and are paid a stipend in line with New York State minimum wage law, with the internship primarily being about 10-20 hours a week.
6. MITRE Early Summer High School R&D Internships
Application Deadline: N/A
Duration: 10 – 12 weeks (June – August)
MITRE’s federally funded R&D centers offer paid, 40-hour-a-week internships to high school students interested in the STEM fields. Students will collaborate on projects including research, development, engineering, and analysis while learning how to discover, create, and lead in the science, engineering, technology, and mathematics fields. Interns must be able to work in person at MITRE’s facilities in McLean, Virginia.
Students can choose from positions such as serving as a Technical Aide on projects across topics from artificial intelligence, biotechnology, health sciences, telecommunications, and many more.
7. Hutton Junior Fisheries Biology Program
Application Deadline: N/A
Duration: 8 weeks
The Hutton Program is a paid summer internship and mentoring program for high school juniors and seniors interested in pursuing natural resource and environmental management. Sponsored by the American Fisheries Society (AFS), this internship aims to foster interest in fisheries science and management among groups underrepresented in the field. Participating students receive a $3,000 stipend and hands-on experience with fisheries professionals.
This paid internship program also provides mentoring and has paired more than 700 high schoolers with mentors since 2001. Nearly seventy percent of Hutton alumni have gone on to study fisheries or other biological sciences.
8. Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP)
Application Deadline: November 1
Duration: 8 weeks
This eight-week internship researching for the Department of the Navy (DoN) pays a bi-weekly stipend and offers the chance to participate in research and receive mentoring from laboratory personnel. Three hundred high school students with an interest in pursuing a career in science and engineering participate in this program annually at 35 DoN laboratories.
9. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Teen Arts Council
Application Deadline: Rolling
Duration: 12 months
The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Teen Arts Council allows high schoolers to learn about museum professionals and build valuable leadership skills, all while earning a respectable hourly wage. Teen Arts Council students assist museum staff and visitors, participate in a variety of art classes and workshops, and provide teen-focused events for their Boston-area peers to engage with and enjoy the Museum’s collections.
10. Smithsonian High School Internships
Application Deadline: May 9
Duration: 7 weeks (July 1 – August 16)
The Smithsonian offers a wide variety of internship opportunities, ranging from centrally funded opportunities that place interns throughout the Smithsonian to specific opportunities available at each of the Smithsonian’s various museums, research centers, and other units. Participants can find roles in art history, business and administration, museum conservation, and much more, for which they will receive a competitive stipend.
11. Adler Planetarium Summer High School Internship
Application Deadline: N/A
Duration: 7 weeks
This eye-opening internship allows Chicago high schoolers to engage with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) fields while preparing for a variety of careers. Participants are given space for personal growth and scientific experimentation while connecting with peers from around the city. Students will work in various museum roles and help develop research and engineering projects in this paid, in-person opportunity.
12. Fred Hutch Summer High School Internship Program (SHIP)
Application Deadline: N/A
Duration: 8 weeks (June 23 – August 15)
Aimed at students from underrepresented groups in biomedical science, the SHIP is an eight-week, full-time, paid internship for rising twelfth graders. Students will receive an orientation covering laboratory safety, technique, and skills, then proceed to participate in immersive mentored activities in a Fred Hutch research group in Seattle. Additional activities for interns include social events, workshops, and presentations. Interns are expected to work 40 hours a week and be in person.
13. Texas Tech Anson L. Clark Scholars Program
Application Deadline: February 24
Duration: 7 weeks (June 22 – August 7)
The Clark Scholars Program delivers an incredible variety of paid internships for high school students in fields ranging from Accounting to Theatre Arts. This prestigious and intensive seven-week program is extremely competitive; just 12 exceptional high school juniors/seniors are chosen from a global pool of applicants to undertake hands-on, faculty-supervised research. Upon completion of a successful project report, participants receive a tax-free stipend.
14. Indiana University Cancer Center Summer Research Program
Application Deadline: N/A
Duration: 8 weeks
This awesome internship opportunity offers exposure in biomedicine and behavioral science to students from underrepresented populations. Participants in the program will undertake projects with a mentor, such as laboratory-based research, computer-based database research, or clinical research.
On Indiana University’s campus, students will learn from faculty, fellow students, and researchers to gain experience and knowledge in biomedicine and behavioral science and begin their path toward a career in these fields. The internship is 40 hours a week, and students will receive a paid stipend for their work.
15. Washington Performing Arts Internship
Application Deadline: Varies
Duration: 12 weeks (February 3 – April 25)
This internship for students with an interest or background in the performing arts helps participants build professional skills and gain an understanding of arts management. Interns will receive a small stipend for their time, working about 15 hours over 12 weeks, and interns are also invited to attend many Washington Performing Arts performances for free.
How Do Internships Impact Your College Chances?
Participating in internships can influence your chances at college admission, but this depends on many factors, including the scope of the internship, its prestige, your role and performance, the institution’s connections to or sponsorships by certain colleges, and even how much weight a college places on extracurricular activities in general.
There are four tiers of extracurricular activities that colleges think about when reviewing applicants’ activities. Selective, competitive, and prestigious activities are often found in the top tiers, Tier 1 and Tier 2. Tier 1 includes things such as being a highly recruited basketball player or an award-winning national science fair competitor. Tier 2 is similar, but is usually reserved for activities that are more common than those in Tier 1. Tiers 3 and 4 are reserved for more common extracurricular achievements, such as holding school leadership positions or being a member of a debate team.
Do you want to get a sense of how the internship you participated in might change your admissions chances at your dream college? CollegeVine has created a free chancing calculator to estimate your odds of getting into hundreds of different colleges and universities! It uses a multitude of factors such as your high school grades, standardized test scores, and extracurricular activities, while also providing feedback on how you can improve your odds.
