Internships for High School Students: 2027 Guide to Paid and STEM Programs

Last updated: October 28, 2026

Internships for high school students fall into three groups: paid research internships at government and national labs, paid local jobs and youth employment programs, and unpaid internships you arrange yourself with a professor, nonprofit or small company. The national programs are free, usually pay a stipend and fill early, often with deadlines between November and March. This guide lists the main programs for summer 2027, checked on each official site in October 2026, with age rules, deadlines and what to do if none of them take students where you live.

Want a research project with a PhD mentor, from anywhere? See if you qualify for the STEM Research Program →

What counts as an internship in high school?

Search for "internships for high school students" and you will find three different things under one name:

Research internships place you in a lab with a scientist or engineer as your mentor. You work on part of a real project for six to ten weeks and usually finish with a poster or a talk.
Work internships and youth jobs put you inside a company, a city agency or a nonprofit. You learn how a workplace runs and you are usually paid by the hour.
Self-arranged internships are ones you set up yourself by emailing a professor, a local business or a nonprofit. They are often unpaid and flexible, and they are the only option in many towns.

All three are worth doing. For a student who wants to study science or engineering, a research internship gives you the most to talk about later: a question, what you did about it and a mentor who saw you do it. A job shows responsibility. Both belong on a college application.

Paid STEM internships at government labs

These are the best-known internships for high school students in the U.S. They are free, they pay a stipend and they place you with a working scientist or engineer. Almost all of them require U.S. citizenship and a minimum age of 16, and most place you at a lab you can commute to.

Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP, U.S. Navy): eight weeks of research in a Department of the Navy lab, with a possible extension of up to two weeks, and a stipend paid every two weeks. It is open to high school students who have finished at least 9th grade, including graduating seniors, who are 16 by the start date and are U.S. citizens. Some labs make exceptions on age, grade and citizenship. SEAP has about 300 placements across 38 labs. Applications for summer 2027 opened September 15, 2026 and close November 30, 2026. Award letters go out between January and March.
AEOP High School Internships (U.S. Army): paid research internships for students in grades 9 to 12, in summer and year-round. You work one-on-one with a mentor at a university or a Department of Defense lab. Each internship is open only to students in certain states, so check the eligibility filter on the AEOP site.
AFRL Scholars Program (U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory): stipend-paid internships with Air Force scientists and engineers. Most places go to college students, but select locations also take upper-level high school students.
NASA internships: NASA's Office of STEM Engagement internships are mainly for college students, but high school seniors can apply for the summer session right after they graduate. You must be 18 by the start date and have at least a 3.0 GPA. Most interns receive a stipend, and the summer session lasts ten weeks. Letters of recommendation are not part of the application. The summer 2027 deadline is March 1, 2027.

Internships at national labs and research institutes

Department of Energy national labs and private research institutes also take high school students, mostly from the area around each campus.

Sandia National Laboratories (New Mexico and California): paid internships for high school students who are at least 16 and U.S. citizens. High school interns can work up to 25 hours a week during the school year and up to 40 hours a week in the summer, at an hourly rate.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Biotech Summer Experience (California): a free, two-week program in which high school students do a real molecular biology and bioinformatics project. Students' DNA sequences are submitted to GenBank, the international DNA database, with each student acknowledged by name. In 2026 it took students who were 16 or older, entering 11th or 12th grade, with at least a 3.3 overall GPA and a 3.5 science GPA. The 2026 deadline was February 26.
Argonne National Laboratory (Illinois): research programs for AP and honors students, including the Exemplary Student Research Program during the school year and College Bound Research in the summer.
The Jackson Laboratory (Maine, Connecticut and New York): academic-year research fellowships for high school students. Its well-known summer program no longer accepts high school seniors.

Most lab internships take students from one area. Ours is online, so location doesn't matter. See if you qualify for the STEM Research Program →

Museum, library and nonprofit internships

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History High School Internship Program (Washington, D.C.): for students in grades 9 to 12 who are 15 to 18 at the start. Interns work with museum staff from June to August. The Smithsonian's YES! (Youth Engagement through Science) program is a separate science internship for teens from communities underrepresented in STEM careers.
Library of Congress High School Work Study Program (Washington, D.C.): a career development employment program for local high school students.
Local nonprofits: food banks, hospitals, museums, environmental groups and city offices often take high school volunteers or interns. The U.S. Department of Labor says unpaid internships at public-sector and nonprofit charitable organizations, where the intern volunteers without expecting pay, are generally allowed.

For hospital and medical research programs, see our separate guide to medical research internships for high school students. It covers St. Jude, Fred Hutch, Stanford SIMR, the NIH and more.

Paid internships and youth jobs

If you need to earn money, these are the most common routes:

City summer youth employment programs. New York City's Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), which the city calls the nation's largest youth employment program, takes NYC residents aged 14 to 24 who are legally allowed to work in the U.S. Students aged 14 and 15 do paid project-based learning; students 16 and older get paid summer jobs. The 2026 deadline was March 13. Many other cities run similar programs, so search for your city's name with "summer youth employment program."
Company programs. Most large company internships are for college students. A few take high school seniors. Microsoft's High School Discovery Program, for example, is a paid four-week internship in July and August for graduating seniors who live within 50 miles of Redmond, Washington, or around Atlanta, Georgia. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and interviews start in March.
Local businesses. Engineering firms, labs, clinics, software startups and local newspapers sometimes take a high school intern if you ask. These rarely appear on job boards.

A note on unpaid internships at companies. The Department of Labor uses a "primary beneficiary test" to decide whether an intern at a for-profit employer must be paid. The test asks, among other things, whether the internship gives training similar to school, whether it fits your academic calendar and whether your work adds to, rather than replaces, the work of paid staff. If you are doing a regular employee's job, you should be paid.

How to find an internship if no program takes students near you

Most students do not get a place in a national program on their first try, and many live too far from a lab. These steps work in any town:

Decide what you want to learn. "Any internship" is hard to find. "Help with data analysis in an environmental science lab" is much easier.
Make a list of 20 to 30 people or places. Professors and graduate students at nearby universities, local engineering and software firms, hospitals, museums and nonprofits.
Write short, specific emails. Say who you are, what you have read about their work and what you could help with. Our guide on how to email a professor for research has a template and explains who to write to.
Ask your school. Counselors and science teachers often know local employers and alumni who take students.
Follow up once after a week. Most replies come after a second email.

If your goal is research experience rather than a job, also see our guides to summer research programs for high schoolers and online research programs for high school students.

Admitted students in our program set their own research question with a PhD mentor by week four. Learn how the program works →

Application calendar for summer 2027

November 30, 2026: SEAP deadline.
November to January: most lab and hospital programs open applications. Check the AEOP, Sandia and Argonne sites monthly.
January to February 2027: many university and lab programs close. In 2026, the LLNL Biotech Summer Experience deadline was February 26.
March 1, 2027: NASA summer internship deadline.
March 2027: city youth employment programs and company programs such as Microsoft's start interviews or close. NYC SYEP closed on March 13 in 2026.

How to stand out on an internship application

The official sites are direct about what they look for:

Grades and interest both count. SEAP selects interns on academic achievement, personal statements, recommendations, and career and research interests.
Recommendations matter. Ask teachers who know your work, and give them at least three weeks.
Name what you want to work on. Programs like SEAP ask you to research and choose labs. A specific reason for each choice reads better than a list.
Show something you have already done. A science fair project, a coding project, a club you built or a research paper shows that you can work on your own.

A finished research project is one of the strongest things to bring to an internship interview. See if you qualify for the STEM Research Program →

Do internships help with college admissions?

Yes, when you can explain what you did and what you learned. Admissions readers care less about the name of the organization than about your role: what problem you worked on, what you did yourself and what changed because of it. An internship where you answered emails is a fine summer job. An internship where you ran an experiment, built a tool or analyzed data shows the kind of work you want to do in college. For more, see does research help college admissions and what colleges look for.

Frequently asked questions

Can a 14- or 15-year-old get an internship? Yes, but there are fewer options. City youth employment programs such as NYC's SYEP start at 14, and the Smithsonian's natural history museum internship starts at 15. Most lab internships, including SEAP and Sandia, require you to be 16.

Are internships for high school students paid? Many are. SEAP, AEOP, AFRL, Sandia, Microsoft's High School Discovery Program and NYC's SYEP all pay, and most NASA interns receive a stipend. Internships you arrange yourself with a professor or nonprofit are often unpaid.

Can international students apply? Rarely. SEAP, NASA and Sandia require U.S. citizenship, and most other U.S. government and lab internships have the same rule. Students outside the U.S. usually do better by emailing researchers directly or doing research online with a mentor.

When should I apply for a summer internship? In the fall or winter before the summer. SEAP closes November 30, and most lab programs close between January and March.

What if I don't get an internship? Do a project of your own. Research with a mentor, a coding project or a community science project gives you the same thing an internship would: something you built and can explain. Our list of passion project ideas for high school students and our research topics for high school students are good places to start.

Sources

About the STEM Research Program

We look for students who are curious, self-motivated and ready for independent work. Prior research experience is not required. Each admitted student works one-on-one with a PhD mentor from a top-20 university, online, for 12 weeks, and sets a research question with their mentor by week four. Students finish with a completed research paper, a written evaluation from their mentor and a one-on-one college counseling session, and they get help finding internships afterwards.

Start your application to the STEM Research Program → · Questions about eligibility? Contact us →