12 Lab Internships for High School Students
If you're a high schooler thinking about pursuing STEM and you want to get some practical experience before college, considering an internship that exposes you to real laboratory work is a good place to start.
Interning at a lab will allow you to work with professionals in a laboratory setting, engage in diverse research projects, and gain firsthand experience with scientific inquiry.
Lab internships can provide exposure to various scientific disciplines and cultivate a deeper understanding of scientific methods and processes. From conducting experiments to analyzing data under the guidance of experienced researchers, lab internships will teach you to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios.
Lab internships for high school students can be in a wide range of fields and specialties, including biomedical research, environmental science, chemistry, material science, engineering, physics, biotechnology, and more. Here's our curated list of 12 lab internships for high school students. In addition to enhancing your resumes and college applications, most of these internships are fully funded and also provide stipends!
1. MIT Lincoln Laboratory High School Internship Program
Subject Areas: STEM fields
Location: Lexington, MA
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Have U.S. citizenship.
- Be local high school rising seniors.
- Be 16 years old before the start date.
Application Deadline: March 22, 2024
Dates: July 10, 2024 - August 15, 2024
Cost/Stipend: No cost; a stipend is provided.
The Summer High School Internship Program at MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a unique opportunity for rising seniors who live and attend high school in the New England area to experience and explore STEM careers before committing to an area of study in college. During the program, you will be paired with laboratory staff mentors to complete projects, solve problems, and learn and apply technical and interpersonal skills in a hands-on, professional environment.
You will also have access to many of the Laboratory’s technical and professional resources and will also have an opportunity to present your project work after the internship. This opportunity is a paid learning experience.
2. Introductory College Level Experience in Microbiology (iCLEM) by JBEI
Subject Areas: Microbiology, biotechnology, energy, and biofuels.
Location: JBEI Laboratories, Emeryville, CA
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Be 15 years old by December 31, 2023.
- Be currently enrolled as a sophomore or junior at a high school in Alameda, Contra Costa, or San Francisco County.
- Be a US citizen, permanent resident, or DACA recipient.
- Have a GPA of at least 2.5 and passed Algebra 1 and Biology.
Application Deadline: March 17, 2024
Dates: June 10, 2024 - July 26, 2024
Cost/Stipend: No cost; the interns receive a stipend of $3,000
Hosted by the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) of the U.S. Department of Energy, iCLEM is a 7-week, paid high-school internship program for rising juniors and seniors from underrepresented, low-income backgrounds in Alameda, Contra Costa, or San Francisco Counties. iCLEM will give you a chance to connect with high-school teachers, undergraduate students majoring in science at UC institutions, and research advisors at JBEI, and will allow you to explore the industry field of microbiology.
The program will allow you to broaden your understanding of biotechnology, microbiology, and biofuels. In addition to completing a research project, you’ll gain exposure to career exploration and preparation for the college application process.
3. Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR)
Subject Areas: Medicine, Immunology, Neurobiology, Cancer Biology, Bioengineering, Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Cardiovascular Biology, Bioinformatics, Genetics, and Genomics.
Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Be juniors or seniors at the time of application (as of the spring of 2024). Students must be in the graduating class of 2024 or 2025.
- Be 16 years old or older by the start of the program.
- Be living in and attending school in the U.S. and must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents with a green card to apply.
Dates: June 10, 2024 - August 1, 2024
Application Deadline: February 24, 2024.
Cost/Stipend: There is a $40 application fee, which can be waived; students earn a stipend of $500 - $2,500. Housing and transportation are not provided.
Note: Stipends of $2500 and above are given on a needs-based system from special grants.
The Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR) is an eight-week program in which high school students with a broad range of experiences, interests, and backgrounds are invited to perform basic research with Stanford faculty, postdoctoral fellows, students, and researchers on a medically-oriented project. The goals of the program include increasing interest in biological sciences and medicine among high school students and helping students understand how scientific research is performed in a professional laboratory setting.
You’ll need to select one study field from Immunology, Neurobiology, Cancer Biology, Bioengineering, Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Cardiovascular Biology, Bioinformatics, and Genetics and Genomics. Once selected, you will be assigned a particular field of study (branch) based on your preference, and spend two months as a mentee. You will be mentored by top scholars, researchers, and PhD fellows in the field of medicine. This is a fairly competitive program with a cohort size of about 50 students – at an acceptance rate of less than 3% (approximately).
4. SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station (BFS) Internships
Subject Areas: Biology, chemistry, environmental science, and natural sciences.
Location: SUNY Oneonta campus, Buffalo, NY
Eligibility:
- Open to all high school students.
- Must have a solid academic background in environmental or natural sciences.
Application Deadline: April 12, 2024
Dates: Late May-August (9 weeks).
Cost/Stipend: No cost; Upon successful completion of the internship, interns receive $3,000.
SUNY Oneonta offers 9-week summer research internships for New York State residents. SUNY Oneonta internships are highly selective, with only 1-3 positions available for high school students (with one place awarded to a resident of Otsego County, NY).
During the internship, you will assist faculty and staff at the BFS central lab with their research projects or work on your own research projects. Through the summer, you will engage in a mix of fieldwork, laboratory analyses, data analysis, and writing. You can view previous publications here! Past fieldwork and laboratory analysis experiences have included fisheries and plant surveys, water sampling, water chemistry, zooplankton ID, and fish dissection. At the end of the program, you will produce a poster to display your research findings to your mentor, BSF faculty, and other interns!
5. Boyce Thompson Institute Internships
Subject Areas: Biology, bioinformatics, botany, and biological engineering.
Location: Cornell University Campus, Ithaca, NY
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Be a current high school student, who is regional to Ithaca, NY year-round.
- Be 16 years of age before the first day of the program.
- Not be graduated by the first day of the program, June 25, 2024.
Application Deadline: March 31, 2024
Dates: June 25 - August 9, 2024. (Tentative dates)
Cost/Stipend: No cost; high school researchers receive a stipend, paid bi-weekly, totaling $4,000 for 7-weeks.
Internships at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BSI) are done alongside Cornell University and the USDA. This 7-week internship offers both lab experimentations and fieldwork in a variety of projects spanning plant science, plant molecular biology, plant biotic interactions, bioinformatics, and biological engineering of plant systems.
As an intern, you will be paired with a research mentor (typically a graduate student or a postdoctoral researcher) and a faculty mentor. You will work alongside your mentors on a predetermined project. Apart from conducting research, you can join undergraduate researchers for professional development lectures and discussions. Moreover, Boyce Institute organizes local field trips and training sessions as well!
6. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) High School Internships
Subject Areas: Computer science, materials science, immunology, physics, mechanical engineering, chemistry, neuroscience, programming, biology, and biomedical engineering.
Location: There are AEOP locations in almost every state. Students may select their preferred location. The program is intended for commuters and transportation, meals, and housing are not provided.
Eligibility: Those applying must be current high school students who are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents. Additional eligibility requirements vary by location. Check details here.
Application deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Check AEOP’s Summer 2024 opportunities here for the application dates.
Dates: This is a summer internship program, specific dates vary from location to location.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; stipend is provided but varies from location to location.
This program is a chance to work one-on-one with a university researcher or Department of Defense (DoD) scientist mentor on research projects. As an intern, you will be exposed to high-tech equipment and cutting-edge techniques in state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, and have access to professional scientists and engineers.
Additionally, you will learn from other STEM practitioners during the internship. The Army-sponsored research that you will be a part of addresses the USA’s biggest challenges. The program aims to hone critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills to prepare you for a career in STEM. You can check AEOP’s Summer 2024 opportunities here.
7. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Scholars Program
Subject Areas: Aerospace engineering, AI, coding, computer science, and physics.
Location: AFRL Scholar internship opportunities are offered at several locations across the United States depending on the program.
Eligibility: Applicants:
- Must be a US citizen.
- Must be enrolled or accepted at an educational institution taking at least a half-time academic course load leading to a degree or certificate for the semester immediately preceding the internship session.
- Must have a grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
- Must be at least 16 years of age (by session application deadline) and have a valid Government ID.
- Must be available full-time (40 hours a week) and work in their physical offices over the summer.
Application Deadline: The applications typically close in January.
Dates: The dates vary for different programs.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; weekly stipends are provided based on the education level of the students and the GS pay scale.
The AFRL Scholars Program is a paid internship opportunity for motivated high school students who are interested in aerospace engineering. Post-selection, you will receive guidance from full-time AFRL scientists and engineers, touring AFRL laboratories and working on cutting-edge research and technology. Each mentor in the program is an expert in their field, you can find a list of mentors here.
The AFRL Scholars Program offers summer internships, with a very limited number of positions also available during the fall and spring semesters. The internship dates and number of weeks are based on scholar availability and funding available from year to year. You can apply to up to 3 topics per AFRL site. These topics may be within any technical area provided on the topic list.
8. Department of Navy’s Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP)
Subject Areas: STEM
Location: There are several lab locations to choose from across the country.
Eligibility: Applicants must be:
- High school students who have completed at least Grade 9
- Currently enrolled in high school (but maybe taking college-level classes for college credit)
- Graduating seniors are eligible to apply
- Must be 16 years of age or older by the internship start date to participate
- Solely U.S. citizens
(Students are recommended to check whether their preferred lab choice has any other particular requirements or exceptions).
Application Deadline: Summer internship applications open on August 1st and close on November 1st every year.
Dates: The internship lasts eight weeks during the summer (with the possibility of extending up to two additional weeks).
Cost/Stipend: No cost; stipend is provided (New participant: $4,000 | Returning participant: $4,500).
This program places high school students in Department of Navy (DoN) laboratories where they take part in real Naval research for eight weeks during the summer. This apprenticeship is a solid, research-focused opportunity.
SEAP is prestigious and competitive, with around 300 placements across about 38 laboratories around the country. Interns will be selected based on academic achievement, personal statements, recommendations, and career and research interests. Your lab choice is based on your subject of interest. You can select a maximum of three labs. SEAP allows academically talented sophomores, juniors, and seniors interested in STEM to learn about Naval research and technology while receiving first-class mentoring by top scientists and engineers and working on actual naval research. If you’ve been thinking about pursuing science and engineering, you should consider this program.
9. Sandia National Laboratories Internships
Subject Areas: Cyber security, energy surety, engineering design, and software development.
Location: Varies depending on the project.
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Have a U.S. citizenship
- Be at least 16 years of age
- Have a full-time enrollment status at a high school
- Year-round/co-op intern: Must be a full-time student during the academic school year (spring, fall, and winter)
- Summer intern: Must be a full-time student during the spring term immediately preceding the internship
- Have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0/4.0 (for high school students applying for Research and Development (R&D), Technical, or Business positions).
Application Deadline: Varies from project to project.
Dates: Varies from project to project.
- Summer internships typically run 10-12 weeks, generally from May to the last Thursday in August.
- Co-op internships typically run 3-8 months during the academic term and may include an adjacent summer term.
- Year-round internships run during the academic terms, and students can work up to 25 hours a week.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; stipend is provided. You can check the intern pay rate here.
Each year, Sandia welcomes students from around the country to work in a variety of technical and business positions. As an intern, you get to work on real-world, challenging projects to contribute to critical national goals. Many of Sandia’s research internships can be done through technical institutes that encompass a range of disciplines, including cyber security, energy surety, engineering design, and software development. Each institute provides a team to guide and mentor interns in projects aligned with their major or area of particular technical interest.
You can search all the internship opportunities for high school students offered by Sandia National Laboratories here.
10. Project SEED by American Chemical Society
Subject Areas: Chemistry
Location: Varies based on lab choice. Check here.
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Be current high school sophomores, juniors, or seniors (and recent graduates).
- Have completed one course in high school chemistry.
Preference is given to students whose maximum family income does not exceed 300% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines based on family size.
Note: Project SEED has multiple methods of documenting eligibility that you can access here!
Application Deadline: Applications typically close in April.
Dates: 8-10 weeks, June to August
Cost/Stipend: No cost; $4000 is awarded to the interns.
Project SEED is a paid, summer fellowship program for high school students. Once accepted, students commute daily to a research lab (typically about 8 hours per weekday, Monday through Friday) for anywhere from 8 to 10 weeks. This program offers an opportunity for students keen on working in laboratories and conducting work in the field of chemistry. Students will get to work in real laboratories at universities and other sites, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture lab.
In particular, Project SEED focuses on supporting over 350 students from underrepresented communities, providing both internships and summer camps to help students with university applications. As an intern, you will work on an independent project at a research lab located in the nearest Project SEED location. You get to choose the type of project you’re interested in – from a wide range of choices. Depending on your project site, you might have the chance to go on field trips and campus tours, attend career panels, and more! Also, your coordinator can choose to register you for the American Chemical Society National Meeting – where you can present your work.
11. St. Louis’s Young Scientist Summer Focus Program
Subject Areas: Chemistry, ecology, earth and planetary sciences, developmental biology, and more.
Location: Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Eligibility: Students from any high school in the Greater St. Louis area (Missouri and Illinois) may apply to Summer Focus when they are in the 11th grade (i.e. their junior year).
Application Deadline: The applications typically close in February.
Dates: June 3, 2024 - July 26, 2024
Cost/Stipend: No cost; scholars receive a $4,000 stipend for the summer.
Conducted by Washington University in St. Louis, the YSP Summer Focus Program provides high school students in the Greater St. Louis area with funded, 8-week summer research internships. During the program, you will be paired with a mentor and a tutor. You will work with your mentor one-on-one on your project, while your tutor will support you through your research experience. The mentors and tutors are Washington University graduate students, postdoctoral associates, laboratory staff, and principal investigators.
Research is conducted in chemistry, ecology, earth and planetary sciences, developmental biology, and more. In addition to your laboratory research work, you will also take 2 courses on strengthening your science communication skills and preparing to apply to college.
12. Idaho National Laboratory Internship
Subject Areas: Nuclear energy, cybersecurity, environmental science, and more.
Location: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Be high school students who are at least 16 years old and are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
- Be rising juniors, rising seniors, and recently graduated students.
- Possess a minimum overall 3.0 GPA.
Application Deadline: Applications typically close in March/April.
Dates: The program typically begins in mid-June and lasts for 6 weeks.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; The exact amount is not mentioned, but the INL pays a competitive wage while also offering a housing stipend and transportation reimbursements.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory offers very few internship opportunities to high school students, making this a highly selective program. Throughout the six-week paid summer internship, students actively contribute to solving authentic real-world challenges under the mentorship of top INL researchers and professionals. You get to work alongside top-tier scientists and researchers on real-world projects as well as explore diverse projects spanning nuclear energy, cybersecurity, environmental science, and more.
You can check out all the internship categories here. Interns spend 80% of their time in labs with their mentors and the remaining 20% in enrichment activities. You can take a look at the various job postings here.
Bonus!
Here are a few more lab internship opportunities for you to consider:
Looking for an immersive internship experience?
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Stephen is one of the founders of Ladder Internships and a Harvard College graduate.