20 Internships for High School Students in 2026

If you want to test whether a field is right for you before committing to a college major, an internship is one of the most practical ways to find out. Internships place you inside working labs, offices, and research teams where you pick up technical skills, observe how professionals operate day to day, and start building a network of mentors and peers in your area of interest. The range of subjects open to high school interns is fairly wide, covering medicine, cancer biology, neuroscience, genetics, engineering, computer science, environmental conservation, museum science, public health, business technology, and more. 

What are the benefits of an internship?

An internship allows you to make real contributions to professional organizations, such as formulating hypotheses and running experiments in a cancer biology lab, writing exhibition content for a national museum, building machine learning models for neural network reconstruction, or georeferencing plant specimens for conservation assessments. You also get practice communicating your results, whether that means presenting a poster at a university symposium, delivering a formal research talk to oncologists, or producing quad charts for a defense lab. The professional relationships you form during these placements often carry forward into college recommendations and future research positions. 

To help you get started, we have narrowed the available opportunities down to 20 internships for high school students in 2026.

If you’re looking for STEM research programs, check out our blog here.

Key takeaways

• These 20 internships for 2026 span cancer biology, neuroscience, genetics, engineering, and museum science, with many pairing students directly with faculty mentors or research scientists on active projects.

• Stipends vary widely, from $750 (Anson L. Clark Scholars) to $7,500 (Jackson Laboratory Summer Student Program), and programs like NIH SIP and NIST SHIP offer free tuition with no stipend.

• Remote and virtual options, including the Ladder Internship Program, let students work with startups or research teams from anywhere in the world, while most lab-based internships require in-person residency near the host institution.

• Several programs, including SEAP, Project SEED, and Emory Winship, restrict eligibility to U.S. citizens or permanent residents, while a few, like Emory's virtual track, remain open to international students.

1. Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP)

Location: U.S. Department of the Navy laboratories (multiple locations nationwide)

Stipend: New participants get $4,000 | Returning participants earn $4,500

Acceptance rate: Selective; ~300 placements across 38+ labs nationwide

Dates: Eight weeks in the summer

Application deadline: November 1; applications open on August 1.

Eligibility: Rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors, ages 16 and up, who are U.S. citizens; some labs accept permanent residents and dual citizens. Check individual lab pages for eligibility here.

SEAP places you inside a Department of the Navy laboratory for eight full weeks to assist scientist-mentors on guided research in fields like engineering, radar systems, cyberwarfare, technology, materials science, energetic materials, and robotics. Past apprentices at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapon Division have built C# network-testing tools to probe denial-of-service and SSL-stripping vulnerabilities, modeled bistatic-to-monostatic radar angle equivalence, and identified PFAS thermal-destruction products through pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The participating labs are scattered across the country, each running its own project pipeline, so the day-to-day work depends on which facility extends an offer and what its researchers need. Your schedule may include job and project shadowing, networking with professional researchers, lab tours, and sessions with other interns and STEM staff at the site. At the close of the apprenticeship, you will produce quad charts summarizing your work and present them during your lab's closing activities.

2. Ladder Internship Program

Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.

Cost: Varies by program type; full financial assistance available

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective

Dates: Multiple cohorts every year, including Fall, Summer, Spring, and Winter

Application deadline: Varies by cohort; Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September), and Winter (November) 

Eligibility: Students who can work for 10 to 20 hours a week for 8 to 12 weeks; open to high school, undergraduate, and gap year students!

Ladder Internships is a selective startup internship program for ambitious high school students! Through the program, you will work with a high-growth startup on an internship. Startups that offer internships range across a variety of industries, from AI/ML and tech/deep tech to journalism, health tech, marketing, consulting, and more. Ladder’s startups are high-growth companies that, on average, raise more than $1 million. You will work closely with a manager on real-world projects and present your work to the company. The virtual internship is usually eight weeks long. Apply now!

3. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Summer Student Program

Location: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Stipend: $1,200

Acceptance rate/cohort size: 2% acceptance rate; 20 interns/year

Dates: June 29 – August 21

Application deadline: February 6

Eligibility: High school juniors who are 14 or older by June, are authorized to work in the U.S., live within 25 miles of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in either New Jersey, New York, or Connecticut, and hold a 3.5 GPA or higher in science subjects

The Summer Student Program lets you engage in translational cancer research within a lab setting. You will work with a principal investigator in a biomedical or computational lab, where you will take on research tasks and contribute to an ongoing project. Over eight weeks, you will do lab work and attend sessions covering fundamentals such as research methods, lab techniques, and data analysis. The program will also include facility tours and discussions that show how different areas of cancer research intersect. In addition, you will attend group sessions focused on standard practices used in oncology research. You will present your work as a poster at the end of eight weeks.

4. AMNH Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP)

Location: American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY

Stipend: $2,500

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Competitive

Dates: Academic year internship; August – June

Application deadline: Typically spring; applications open in winter

Eligibility: NYC high school students in grades 10 or 11 who have either completed/are taking a course in one of the museum programs, or are attending one of SRMP’s partner schools or programs

As an SRMP participant, you will work in a small group of two or three students alongside an American Museum of Natural History research scientist, meeting twice a week after school during the academic year to carry out a novel research project. The placements typically span areas like astrophysics, earth and planetary sciences, vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, anthropology, conservation biology, and genetics. The technical skills you build depend on the project; for instance, past participants have sequenced DNA to map evolutionary relationships in catfish, analyzed coyote telemetry data with machine learning algorithms, studied the genomic evolution of tropical tent-web spiders, and reconstructed ancient Maya diets. A four-week summer institute at the start of the program will include fieldwork at Black Rock Forest, grounding the laboratory work in outdoor research methods. Throughout the year, you will learn to code in Python and R, read primary scientific literature, and prepare scientific communication in multiple formats. The program will culminate in poster and oral presentations at the annual SRMP Symposium, along with a final research video documenting the project.

5. Stony Brook University Simons Summer Research Program

Location: Stony Brook University campus, Stony Brook, NY

Cost/Stipend: No tuition; stipend available

Acceptance rate: ~5%

Dates: June 29 – August 7

Application deadline: February 5

Eligibility: U.S. citizens/permanent residents currently in 11th grade and at least 16 years old by the start of the program; application requires a school nomination (each school may nominate up to two students).

At the Simons Summer Research Program, you will work with a Stony Brook University faculty mentor and assume full responsibility for a research project, producing a written abstract and poster summarizing your contributions to the lab's output. Placement areas include chemistry, biochemistry and cell biology, computer science, physics and astronomy, marine sciences, ecology and evolution, medicine, and biomedical engineering. In recent years, multiple fellows have advanced as Regeneron Science Talent Search scholars and finalists based on research begun during their time at Stony Brook. Weekly faculty research talks will introduce you to research and departments across the university. Workshops, tours, and campus events will run alongside the research.

6. Emory Winship Summer Scholars Research Program

Location: Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University campus, Atlanta, GA (remote track available)

Cost/Stipend: Free; $2,400 program completion stipend

Acceptance rate: Selective; ~10–12 students/year

Dates: June 8 – July 17

Application deadline: Typically early February (check the program website in fall for the specific deadline)

Eligibility: Rising or graduating high school seniors who are at least 16 by program start and are U.S. citizens or permanent residents if choosing the in-person track (virtual track is open to international students)

This program lets you work one-on-one with a Winship principal investigator engaging in research in areas such as hematology and medical oncology, pathology and laboratory medicine, or radiation oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute. Past projects have focused on questions within breast cancer, glioma, lung cancer, melanoma, and multiple myeloma. Didactic lectures from Winship faculty will cover cancer biology topics, and additional sessions will focus on career pathways in oncology-related fields. Panel discussions with cancer survivors and clinical fellows will highlight the patient and clinical dimensions of the disease alongside the lab work. Field trips to the CDC, the Emory Proton Therapy Center, and Georgia Tech will help connect the research to public health infrastructure, treatment technology, and the wider STEM landscape. You will present both a formal research talk and a scientific poster to Winship physicians, researchers, and graduate students at the end of the program.

7. NIH Summer Internship Program (SIP)

Location: NIH campus in Bethesda, MD, or NIH sites in MD, NC, MT, MA, AZ, MI

Cost: Free; a monthly stipend is offered based on academic level (check updated details here)

Acceptance rate: Selective

Dates: May 11 – August 31

Application deadline: February 18

Eligibility: Graduating high school seniors, ages 18 and up, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and living within 40 miles of an NIH campus, and who will have graduated from high school before the internship begins

SIP, run by the National Institutes of Health, places you in a working Intramural Research Program lab under a Principal Investigator whose active research will become your daily work. Available placement areas span biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, epidemiology, psychology, bioinformatics, pharmaceutical sciences, and computer science, offering opportunities in basic, translational, or clinical research. Professional development programming will run in parallel, covering core competencies for careers in research and healthcare; a separate well-being and resilience curriculum will be available throughout. A Graduate and Professional School Fair will connect you with programs across the country. At the end of the program on the Summer Poster Day, you will present your findings to the broader NIH research community.

8. Anson L. Clark Scholars Program @ Texas Tech University

Location: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX

Cost/Stipend: $25 application fee; $750 stipend.

Acceptance rate: Extremely selective; 12 students/year

Dates: June 21 – August 6

Application deadline: February 16

Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors, ages 17+, who are U.S. citizens/U.S. permanent residents

This program invites 12 high school students to the Texas Tech University campus every year to work on STEM research. The research areas include biology and cellular microbiology, cancer biology, chemistry, computer science, economics, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering with a cancer bioimaging focus, and physics. You will be paired one-on-one with a faculty mentor, engage in lab and research work, and produce a written project report as the primary deliverable. Weekly seminars will bring the full cohort together to hear from researchers offering insights into various STEM fields, and field trips and social programming will provide opportunities to connect with peers outside the lab. 

9. Janelia Research Campus High School Internship

Location: HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA

Cost/Stipend: Free; stipend offered

Acceptance rate: Selective

Dates: June 22 – August 7

Application Deadline: December 2 – January 14 (application window for independent applicants); Loudoun County Public School students need to apply through their local high school by January 21

Eligibility: High school students, ages 16 and up, residing in Loudoun County 

This program lets you join a Janelia lab and work on a project focused on a real question in biology or computational science, with the results feeding into the lab's ongoing output. Most projects are computational and require you to use Python or MATLAB. Your work might involve building machine learning algorithms, annotating data for neural network reconstruction, analyzing animal behavior from recorded sessions, or modeling biological systems at the cellular level. Scientists and engineers will mentor you, offering insights into research in neuroscience, computational biology, computer vision, and 4D cellular physiology. Seminars by Janelia researchers and journal clubs will give exposure to ongoing work beyond your individual placement.

10. American Chemical Society’s Project SEED

Location: Labs at universities, government labs, and other facilities across the U.S.

Stipend: $4,000

Acceptance rate/cohort size: 350+ placements/year

Dates: 8 – 10 weeks in the summer

Application deadline: April 6

Eligibility: High school sophomores, juniors, seniors, or recent graduates, with one completed high school chemistry course; students’ family income should not exceed 300% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines based on the family size.

Project SEED places students in a chemistry-focused research setting, such as a laboratory or university, to contribute to scientific work under the guidance of a mentor. You will spend the summer taking on lab work, learning research techniques, assisting with experiments, and observing how researchers work with real data. In addition to the lab-based tasks, you may have access to events and sessions that introduce you to college pathways, careers, and science communication. You may conclude the program with a report or presentation of your contributions. You can also continue engaging with the program next year.

11. Rockefeller University Summer Science Research Program (SSRP)

Location: The Rockefeller University, New York, NY

Cost/Stipend: Free; need-based stipends available

Cohort size: 32 students/cohort

Dates: June 22 – August 6

Application deadline: January 2; applications open on October 13

Eligibility: Current high school juniors and seniors, ages 16 and up

SSRP places high schoolers in four research teams of eight to ten scholars each, working in dedicated RockEDU teaching laboratories. You will explore the full research process led by scientific trainees drawn from the Tri-Institutional community of Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Weill Cornell Medicine. You can choose a research question within the team's broader subject area and pursue it under the guidance of mentors, using lab techniques shaped by the project's needs. Rockefeller's research portfolio spans genetics, genomics, immunology, neurobiology, cancer biology, and computational biology, and past teams have explored topics like gut microbiome dynamics in mucosal immunology. Elective courses, guest lectures, workshops, and networking events with researchers from across the three institutions will supplement the bench time.

12. Salk Institute Heithoff-Brody High School Summer Scholars

Location: Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla/San Diego, CA

Stipend: Paid

Acceptance rate: Selective

Dates: June 15 – August 7

Application deadline: March 1

Eligibility: High school students, ages 16 and up, who live in San Diego County and have completed one year or more of high school-level chemistry and biology

You will join a Salk lab and an active research group and take on a project that requires formulating hypotheses, designing experiments, and drawing conclusions from the data you produce. Salk's labs work across neuroscience and stem cell biology, nuclear biology and aging, circadian biology and metabolic disease, and plant genomics, so your placement might put you in a cancer-adjacent context, a neurodegenerative disease lab, or a plant hormone signaling group depending on the match. Lab notebooks, regular lab meetings, and group discussions will be part of the daily rhythm of the placement. Seminars, career workshops, and site visits to biotech companies will give you professional exposure beyond the bench.

13. Jackson Laboratory Summer Student Program (SSP)

Location: The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME

Stipend: $7,500

Acceptance rate: Selective

Dates: May 30 – August 7

Application deadline: January 26

Eligibility: Graduating high school seniors, ages 18 and up, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents

As an SSP participant at the Jackson Laboratory, you will get to explore research focused on mammalian genetics and genomics, with active programs in cancer genomics and precision oncology, computational biology, immunology, neurobiology, and aging. You will gain increasing independence over the course of the placement, starting with guided tasks and moving toward self-directed investigation, working on projects in genetics and genomics. Your work may focus on one of the available range of areas, from mouse genetics to single-cell genomic analysis to computational modeling of gene networks, depending on which lab takes you on. Training sessions in genetic testing, data visualization, science communication, and peer review will run alongside the research. You will also connect with STEM professionals in various fields to learn about potential pathways.

14. NIST Summer High School Internship Program (SHIP)

Location: NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) campuses in Boulder, CO, or Gaithersburg, MD

Cost/Stipend: Free; no stipend

Acceptance rate: 4% for Boulder, CO applicants | 10.6% for Gaithersburg, MD applicants

Dates: June 22 – August 7

Application deadline: January 26

Eligibility: Current high school juniors or seniors with a GPA of 3.0+; students must be U.S. citizens who live within 50 miles of either of the NIST campuses.

NIST, a federal measurement and standards agency, runs SHIP to let high school students explore research rooted in precision, focusing on how to characterize a material, calibrate an instrument, or quantify a physical phenomenon to a standard that industry and government can rely on. You will work on your own research project under a NIST scientist or engineer in one of six NIST laboratories. Your work may focus on STEM areas such as materials science, condensed matter science, biomaterials, chemical engineering, nuclear engineering, and computational science, including battery materials, hydrogen-storage compounds, superconductors, nanoscale materials, organic solar cells, or biological membranes. Seminars, lab tours, and meetings with researchers across the campus will give you a wider view of NIST's measurement work beyond your individual project. The program will wrap up with a poster presentation and closing ceremony.

15. Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR)

Location: Stanford University campus, Stanford, CA

Cost: Free apart from a $50 application fee

Acceptance rate: Selective; ~50 students chosen per cohort

Dates: June 8 – July 30

Application deadline: February 21

Eligibility: U.S. citizens/permanent residents who are juniors and seniors currently attending high school in the U.S. and are at least 16 by the program start date; Bay Area applicants are preferred. 

At SIMR, you will join one of eight research institutes within the Stanford School of Medicine and work full-time in a faculty lab under the daily guidance of a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. Placement areas span immunology, cancer biology, stem cell biology, neuroscience, cardiovascular science, genetics, bioinformatics, and bioengineering. Past interns have investigated how donor gender affects mesenchymal stem cell transplantation outcomes and what role endogenous peptides play in T cell activation. Institute-specific seminars and joint core SIMR lectures will run throughout the summer alongside sessions on career pathways in science and medicine. The program will conclude with a poster session where you will present your findings to family, teachers, and the broader Stanford community.

16. Broad Summer Scholars Program (BSSP)

Location: Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA

Stipend: $3,600 stipend

Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Highly selective

Dates: June 29 – August 7

Application deadline: January 21

Eligibility: Rising high school seniors in the greater Boston area within commuting distance to the Broad Institute who have earned a B or better in science and math classes; applicants must be U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or non-U.S. citizens who have employment authorization (including DACA).

BSSP lets you engage in research within genomics, cancer biology, infectious disease, immunology, psychiatric disease, chemical biology, AI and machine learning, and medical and population genetics. You will work with scientists at the Broad Institute, a joint MIT and Harvard center, on a biomedical research project over the course of six weeks. You will explore computational or experimental techniques, wet-lab benchwork, large-scale genomic data analysis, or a combination of multiple methodologies and procedures depending on the lab. An on-staff tutor will work with you on the scientific concepts that surface during the research, and separate sessions will cover poster design and scientific presentation. Talks by Broad researchers will give you some insight into ongoing work across the institute's other labs.

17. Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP)

Location: Virtual, hybrid, or at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA + other sites in VA

Cost: $1,299 + $25 application fee; financial aid offered

Acceptance Rate: Not publicly disclosed

Dates: June 18 – August 12

Application deadline: December 8 – February 15

Eligibility: High school students, ages 15 and up (or 16+ for wet lab/in-person placements) and current undergraduate students

ASSIP lets you work one-on-one with a George Mason University faculty researcher on a hypothesis-driven question, using the same instrumentation the lab relies on for its published work. Recent interns have cultured endometriosis cell lines and exposed them to autophagy-inhibiting drugs, then analyzed the results with a robotic arrayer, while others have worked in applied proteomics and molecular medicine on high-throughput platforms. Placements span STEM areas, including physics, data science, statistics, engineering, biology, and neuroscience.  The project topics shift each year based on which faculty sign up to mentor, but the emphasis will be on hypothesis-driven questions and research skill-building across projects. Upon completing the program, you will earn three George Mason college credits. A capstone presentation at the symposium will conclude your summer research work.

18. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Summer High School Internship (SHIP)

Location: Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Seattle, WA

Stipend: Paid

Acceptance rate: Selective

Dates: June 22 – August 14

Application deadline: Spring; applications open in November

Eligibility: High school students entering senior year, ages 16 and up, currently residing in Greater Seattle or surrounding area

At the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, you will explore research focused on basic science, human biology, clinical research, public health sciences, and vaccine and infectious disease, with particular depth in bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, epidemiology, and biostatistics. You will work with a peer and a mentor, undergoing hands-on training in laboratory techniques and safety in a designated training lab for minors, building the technical foundation before you move into a faculty member's active research lab. Your work may involve anything from cell culture and molecular assays to epidemiological data analysis depending on the division. The paired, mentored structure lets you learn how to collaborate on a project. Behind-the-scenes tours, field trips, and workshops will offer exposure to the center's broader operations.

19. J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) Summer Internship Program

Location: J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD

Stipend: $18/hour

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not publicly specified

Dates: May – August (10 – 15 weeks); academic-year internships may also be available

Application deadline: Rolling admissions

Eligibility: Full-time high school students, ages 16 and up, with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, who reside in the U.S. and are eligible to work in the country

The JCVI Summer Internship Program places you alongside undergrad and graduate researchers to participate in research. You will work closely with a faculty or senior scientist mentor on a research project tailored to your academic background. You will learn how to use advanced equipment and tech, collaborate with scientists, and become familiar with research methods. Throughout the summer, you will also participate in career development sessions, journal clubs, and multidisciplinary scientific seminars. The program will culminate in a judged poster presentation where you will share your research findings. 

20. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Summer High School Internship

Location: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Washington, D.C.

Stipend: $5,600 ($700/week)

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; small cohort

Dates: June 23 – August 14

Application deadline: March 20

Eligibility: Current high school students, ages 15 – 18, who live in the DMV area and can fluently write and converse in English

This paid internship gives you the chance to work directly within a Smithsonian museum department, exploring both scientific and non-scientific museum work depending on your project placement. You will spend eight weeks developing exhibit and blog content about the natural world, mapping botanical specimens for conservation research, restoring painted details on a historic Tlingit house screen, or analyzing microfossils to help date rock layers at Big Bend National Park. You will work on the assigned project with a supervisor two to three days a week and take part in enrichment activities, like field trips and behind-the-scenes tours, for the remaining one to two days. Throughout the internship, you will refine your public engagement and professional communication skills while connecting with other high schoolers.

Frequently asked questions

1. What are the best internships for high school students in 2026?

Strong options depend on interests. Students interested in cancer research might consider Memorial Sloan Kettering's Summer Student Program or Emory Winship; those interested in startups and tech might look at the Ladder Internship Program; and students interested in museum work might consider the Smithsonian NMNH internship.

2. Are there paid internships for high school students in 2026?

Yes, most internships on this list offer a stipend, ranging from $750 at Anson L. Clark Scholars to $7,500 at the Jackson Laboratory. Some, like NIST SHIP, are unpaid but free to attend.

3. Can high school students do a remote internship in 2026?

Yes, the Ladder Internship Program is fully remote and open to students worldwide, and Emory Winship offers a virtual research track for international applicants who cannot join the in-person cohort.

4. Which internships are open to students outside the host state or region?

Programs like SEAP, Project SEED, and NIH SIP accept applicants from across the country, while others, such as Memorial Sloan Kettering, Fred Hutch, and the Smithsonian NMNH internship, require residency within a specific state or metro area.

If you are looking to build a project/research paper in the field of AI & ML, consider applying to Veritas AI!

With Veritas AI, which was founded by Harvard graduate students, you can work one-on-one with mentors from universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford,  and more to create unique, personalized projects. In the past year, over 1,000 students chose to learn AI & ML with us. You can apply here and check out a past student’s experience in the program here!