15 Free Summer Programs for High School Students in Colorado
Summer programs give you a chance to step outside the regular school year and spend time doing something with real substance. Whether you're trying to get a feel for a potential career, develop technical skills, or build connections with professionals and researchers in a field you care about, a dedicated program offers a level of focus and immersion that's hard to replicate on your own. Cost is often the biggest obstacle for students who want to participate in these experiences. Several universities, federal agencies, hospitals, and research institutions across the country run free programs for high school students, allowing them to work without the financial pressure of tuition-based programs.
Why should you attend a program in Colorado?
Colorado's universities and research institutions offer a wide range of free summer opportunities for high school students, spanning fields from biomedical research and cybersecurity to mathematics, engineering, and classical music performance. Depending on what you're drawn to, you could spend your summer doing lab work alongside pediatric researchers at a major medical campus, learning penetration testing fundamentals from cybersecurity professionals, working through college-level mathematics, or gaining hands-on experience inside a hospital department. If you're a Colorado student looking to build your profile and explore academic interests close to home, or an out-of-state student open to spending part of your summer in a new environment, the state has options worth looking at.
With that in mind, we've pulled together 15 free summer programs for high school students in Colorado.
If you’re looking for programs in Colorado, check out our blog here.
Key takeaways
These 15 programs span research internships, clinical healthcare, mathematics, cybersecurity, computer science, music performance, and business, so students across a wide range of interests can find a relevant free option.
Several programs offer stipends or wages in addition to being free, including the Child Health Research Internship ($4,400 stipend), Medical Career Collaborative (Colorado minimum wage), and NIST SHIP, making them closer to paid workforce experiences.
Many programs are open to out-of-state or fully remote participants, including MITES Semester, NASA GL4HS, Girls Who Code Pathways, Columbia SEM, Veritas AI, and the Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation.
Some programs provide tangible academic benefits beyond the summer, including college credit (CSU BIF, CSU NEF, CSU Business Summit), scholarship eligibility (CSU Business Summit up to $2,500), and conference travel funding (Child Health Research Internship, NASA GL4HS top teams).
Application deadlines range from January to June, with several programs, such as GoGetMath, Sphinx Performance Academy, and Denver Museum of Nature and Science Teen Science Scholars, posting deadlines on a rolling basis without fixed dates.
1. NIST Summer High School Internship Program (SHIP)
Location: NIST Boulder Campus, Boulder, CO
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Not specified
Dates: June 22 – August 7
Application deadline: January 26
Eligibility: U.S. citizens who are current high school juniors and seniors with a minimum 3.0 GPA, and living within 50 miles of the Boulder, CO NIST campus
The National Institute of Standards and Technology houses six working research laboratories covering topics such as AI, quantum physics, cybersecurity, materials science, and forensic science, and SHIP places students in one of them for seven weeks alongside career scientists and engineers. Your specific research problem and mentor depend on which laboratory accepts you, and projects vary significantly in the technical skills they draw on, ranging from computer programming and data analysis to chemistry and electronics. Past participants have published findings in scientific journals alongside their mentors, worked on deep learning approaches to crystal structure classification, and explored spectroscopy in space-related applications. A background in Python, physics, or computer programming is useful, though students with different starting points come through the program and get matched to projects accordingly.
2. Veritas AI’s AI Fellowship
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies depending on program type; full financial aid available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: Vary by cohort: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
Application Deadline: Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September), and Winter (November). You can apply to the program here.
Eligibility: High school students who have completed the AI Scholars program or have some experience with AI or Python
Veritas AI offers high school students passionate about AI a suitable environment to explore their interests. The programs combine collaborative learning, project development, and 1-on-1 mentorship. In the AI Fellowship program, you will learn about core AI concepts and pursue independent AI research projects focused on the use of AI. You will work on research projects over 15 weeks under the guidance of a mentor. A highlight of this program is the support of its in-house publication team to help you publish your work in high school research journals. You can find a few examples of previous projects here and read about a student’s experience in the program here.
3. Child Health Research Internship
Location: Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO
Cost: No cost, interns earn a $4,400 stipend
Acceptance rate: Not specified
Dates: June 1 – July 31
Application deadline: February 1
Eligibility: High school seniors aged 18+ who are Colorado residents
Pediatric faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado take on high school seniors as active contributors in their labs over nine weeks at the Anschutz Medical Campus. You'll select preferred research mentors from a faculty list spanning areas such as developmental biology, oncology, infectious diseases, endocrinology, and pulmonary science, and be paired with an expert mentor in that field. Weekly seminars feature program faculty presenting their own ongoing work, giving participants a wider view of where pediatric biomedical research is heading beyond their individual projects. At the close of the nine weeks, every intern presents their findings in written form and as an oral or poster presentation, and participants whose work is accepted to a scientific conference receive travel and registration funding from the program.
4. Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation
Location: Remote — you can participate in this program from anywhere in the world!
Cost: The program is fully funded!
Acceptance rate: Highly selective
Dates: Vary based on yearly cohort. Multiple 12-week cohorts throughout the year, including Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
Application deadline: Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September) and Winter (November).
Eligibility: You must be enrolled in high school or plan to enroll as a freshman in college in the fall and must demonstrate a high level of academic achievement.
The Lumiere Breakthrough Scholar Program is the equivalent of the Individual Research Scholar Program at Lumiere Education. In the flagship program, talented high-school students are paired with world-class Ph.D. mentors to work 1-on-1 on an independent research project. At the end of the 12-week program, you’ll develop an independent research paper. You can choose topics from subjects such as psychology, physics, economics, data science, computer science, engineering, chemistry, international relations, and more. This program is a solid option if you are interested in interdisciplinary research and want to create an individual research paper. You can apply here!
5. Denver Museum of Nature & Science Teen Science Scholars
Location: Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, CO
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Incredibly selective, each track accepts only 2–4 interns
Dates: June 2 – 26 or July 7 – 31, depending on track
Application deadline: Keep an eye on the program website for details
Eligibility: High school sophomores or juniors aged 14–17
Working inside the Denver Museum of Nature & Science as a research intern, you'll join museum scientists on the same projects they run year-round, with previous tracks covering vertebrate paleontology, zoology, botany, health sciences, ornithology, and archival conservation. Daily work can involve field collection and specimen preparation at fossil sites across the Denver Basin, DNA analysis, and cataloging specimens into the museum's research database. Professional development runs throughout, covering public speaking, college planning, and what museum and STEM careers actually look like in practice. The program ends with a public Showcase where participants present their summer's work.
6. Medical Career Collaborative (MC²)
Location: Children's Hospital Colorado and Denver Health, Denver, CO
Cost: Free, interns earn Colorado minimum wage
Acceptance rate: Highly selective, only ~75 students chosen from over 650 applicants
Dates: Either a 6-week summer internship or a 12-week winter internship during junior year
Application deadline: March 4
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors attending school in the Denver metro or Colorado Springs areas
MC² spans your junior and senior years of high school, which makes it fundamentally different from a single-summer experience. During junior year, the core is a 100- to 120-hour paid internship embedded in a specific department at either Children's Hospital Colorado or Denver Health, where you work alongside nurses, physicians, and allied health staff who handle that department's actual caseload. Senior year shifts toward college preparation and professional development, with monthly field trips, workshops, and mini-certifications in health-related topics running throughout both years. More than 164 MC² alumni have since returned to Children's Colorado and Denver Health as working healthcare professionals, which is a concrete indication of where the training leads.
7. CSU Black Issues Forum (BIF)
Location: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Not specified
Dates: June 9 – 13
Application deadline: April 19
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors
Rising seniors spend five days on the CSU campus engaging with a curriculum that examines issues facing Black communities at the national, state, and local levels, through a mix of faculty sessions, small-group discussions, and a research component that every participant prepares and presents by week's end. CSU faculty, current undergraduates, and staff frequently interact with participants through both formal and informal sessions, keeping the experience grounded in the actual campus community. Completing BIF earns you one free CSU credit hour, and participants who later enroll at CSU and meet the GPA threshold may be eligible for the multi-year Partnership Scholarship Award.
8. CSU Native Education Forum (NEF)
Location: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Not specified
Dates: June 1 – 5
Application deadline: April 17
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors, as well as graduating seniors
NEF lets participants investigate contemporary issues affecting tribal and Indigenous communities through small-group research projects and faculty-led sessions, culminating in a formal research presentation at the week's close, while CSU admissions professionals work through the college application process with students in parallel. The combination gives NEF practical usefulness by letting you leave with both academic output and a clearer sense of next steps. Completing NEF earns you one free CSU credit hour, and participants who later enroll at CSU with a qualifying GPA may become eligible for the Partnership Scholarship Award.
9. Sphinx Performance Academy at CU Boulder
Location: CU Boulder College of Music, Boulder, CO
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Not specified
Dates: July 20 – July 31
Application deadline: Keep an eye on the program website for details
Eligibility: String musicians (violin, viola, cello, or bass) ages 11–17. Must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents
The Sphinx Performance Academy provides the rare opportunity to take private lessons at CU Boulder's College of Music, attend masterclasses led by faculty with active professional careers, perform in recitals, and work through career enrichment sessions that address what professional life as a classical musician realistically involves. The program covers violin, viola, cello, and bass, and develops participants in both solo repertoire and chamber ensemble work, so you're training as an individual player and as a collaborator simultaneously. Full scholarships cover tuition, room, and board for all accepted students.
10. CSU First Generation Business Summit
Location: CSU College of Business, Fort Collins, CO
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Not specified
Dates: July 20 – 25
Application deadline: April 21
Eligibility: First-generation rising high school sophomores through graduating seniors
This week-long residential program at the CSU College of Business puts participants on teams from day one and assigns each team a business case study to develop, present, and defend before a panel of judges on the final day, with top teams competing for CSU scholarships of up to $2,500. The week also takes groups off campus for tours of local Colorado businesses, including companies like New Belgium and OtterBox, and each attendee is paired with a first-generation CSU student mentor. You earn one free college credit in financial literacy as part of completing the program. The Summit is exclusively open to students who will be the first in their families to attend college, making this one of the few targeted introductory programs on this list.
11. GoGetMath@CSU
Location: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Not specified
Dates: June 8 – 12
Application deadline: Keep an eye on the program website for details
Eligibility: Rising high school sophomores through seniors
GoGetMath covers areas of mathematics that most high school courses do not: cryptography, data science, image processing, fractals, and geometry, each explored through computer labs and hands-on activities over five days at the CSU Department of Mathematics. CSU mathematics faculty run the sessions, with graduate and undergraduate students present as teaching assistants and mentors throughout. It also connects you with people actively working in math-adjacent careers, so you leave with a concrete sense of where the subject leads after graduation. The week ends with a reception where participants share what they worked on with families and program staff.
12. MITES Semester
Location: Remote
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Dates: June – December
Application Deadline: February 1
Eligibility: High school juniors who are U.S. Citizens/Permanent Residents
MITES Semester is a six-month program run by MIT, divided into two distinct phases. The summer portion runs June through early August and consists of two live, synchronous online courses taken in the evenings: one intensive project-based STEM course and one core course in Calculus, Physics, Computer Science, or Science Writing and Communication. Past project courses have covered topics like Machine Learning, Computational Biology, Astrophysics, Robotics, and Thermodynamics and Climate Change, so what you study depends on the cohort year. You work in teams to develop a final project presented at the end of the summer phase. Throughout, you meet weekly in small groups with current MIT undergrads who serve as mentors. When the fall semester starts, the program shifts into a college-preparation phase that runs through December, which includes weekly webinars with STEM professionals, mock interviews, essay reviews, and a college fair featuring admissions counselors from selective universities. At the end of the summer phase, every participant receives a written instructor evaluation that you can include as supplemental material in your college applications.
13. NASA GeneLab for High Schools (GL4HS)
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: June 1 – August 28
Application Deadline: March 15
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents with a minimum 3.0 GPA
GL4HS is hosted by NASA's Ames Research Center and focuses on space biology, the field that examines how living systems respond to spaceflight conditions. The 12-week asynchronous course introduces you to omics-based research, which covers genomics, proteomics, and related methodologies used by NASA scientists to study biological changes in space. You'll also develop practical bioinformatics and computational biology skills, working through JupyterLab notebooks to process and interpret large-scale biological datasets. The bulk of the coursework is self-paced with optional weekly office hours available for live instruction and questions. Students who complete the basic course can apply for the optional Capstone Project, where self-formed teams of four analyze datasets from NASA's Open Science Data Repository, develop an original hypothesis, and present their findings at a full-day competitive symposium. The top three teams are awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to present at the annual American Society for Gravitational and Space Research conference.
14. Girls Who Code Pathways
Location: Online
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate / Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: June 29 – August 14
Application Deadline: April 10
Eligibility: Girls and non-binary students in grades 9 through 12, including rising 9th graders and graduating seniors
Pathways is Girls Who Code's self-paced summer program, offering curriculum tracks in game design, data science and AI, cybersecurity, and web development. You pick the track or tracks you want to explore and work through course projects at your own pace over six to seven weeks, using languages including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python. The program also connects you with corporate partners through optional live career panels, advisor-led workshops, and events focused on emerging technologies. Community-building happens through Discord, where participants interact with peers and mentors throughout the summer.
15. Columbia HICCC Scientific Enrichment Month (SEM)
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Open enrollment, but limited capacity
Dates: July 1 – 29
Application deadline: June 19
Eligibility: Open to all high school students
SEM is run by the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University and covers cancer research, public health, and professional development over four weeks of live Zoom sessions. The academic content spans a broad range: you'll hear from researchers working in oncology and explore topics such as cancer health equity, environmental health disparities, genetics, cancer prevention, and how to develop a scientific hypothesis. Professional development sessions cover resume writing, personal statements, interviewing, and public speaking. One of the more hands-on elements is the public health working groups, where participants collaborate on peer-to-peer education projects on topics such as HPV prevention, anti-tobacco, sun safety, and physical activity, and this work also counts toward community service hours. Students who attend a specified number of sessions receive an HICCC Certificate, and past SEM participants have gone on to gain priority consideration for Columbia's competitive YES in THE HEIGHTS paid summer internship program the following year.
Frequently asked questions
1. What free summer programs are available for high school students in Colorado?
Options include research internships (NIST SHIP, Child Health Research Internship, Denver Museum of Nature and Science Teen Science Scholars), healthcare programs (Medical Career Collaborative), mathematics and STEM enrichment (GoGetMath, MITES Semester), identity-focused programs (CSU BIF, CSU NEF, CSU Business Summit), music performance (Sphinx Performance Academy), and remote programs open to Colorado students (NASA GL4HS, Girls Who Code Pathways, Veritas AI, Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation).
2. Are there paid or stipend-based free summer programs for high schoolers in Colorado?
Yes, several programs provide financial compensation in addition to being free to attend. The Child Health Research Internship offers a $4,400 stipend, the Medical Career Collaborative pays Colorado's minimum wage, and NIST SHIP provides pay through the federal internship structure.
3. Which free Colorado summer programs are open to out-of-state students?
Remote programs, including MITES Semester, NASA GL4HS, Girls Who Code Pathways, Columbia SEM, Veritas AI AI Fellowship, and the Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation, are open to students regardless of location. Some in-person programs, such as the Sphinx Performance Academy, also accept students from outside Colorado.
4. What is the most competitive free summer program for high school students in Colorado?
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science Teen Science Scholars accepts only 2 to 4 students per research track, making it among the most selective on this list. The Medical Career Collaborative is also highly competitive, with roughly 75 spots available from over 650 applicants each year.
5. Are there free summer programs in Colorado that offer college credit?
Yes, CSU Black Issues Forum, CSU Native Education Forum, and CSU First Generation Business Summit each award one free CSU credit hour upon completion. Participants who later enroll at CSU and meet GPA requirements may also qualify for the Partnership Scholarship Award.
6. When should I apply to free summer programs in Colorado?
Several programs have early deadlines, including NIST SHIP (January 26), Child Health Research Internship (February 1), and MITES Semester (February 1). Others fall in spring, including Medical Career Collaborative (March 4) and NASA GL4HS (March 15). Students should monitor program websites from fall onward, as some programs, such as GoGetMath and Sphinx Performance Academy, post deadlines without fixed dates.