10 Chemistry Internships for High School Students
If you are a high school student interested in chemistry, an internship is a great way to deepen your knowledge of this subject. Besides helping you develop practical skills, internships can show admissions officers that you can apply theoretical concepts in practical situations.
Additionally, a career in chemistry has multiple options - from biochemistry to chemical engineering. You can explore career prospects through an internship to determine your preferred field! Moreover, interacting with mentors or peers in your internships will help you in the long run with future job prospects or letters of recommendation. Lastly, participating in an internship outside school hours signals your dedication to the subject!
In this list, we have curated a list of 10 chemistry internships that you can consider. We have covered multiple areas, from biochemical research to material science and even environmental chemistry!
You could also check out chemistry competitions, chemistry programs, chemistry internships, chemistry research topics, chemistry pre-college programs, and chemistry project ideas for high school students!
1. Ladder Internships—Chemistry track
Ladder Internships is a selective start-up internship program for ambitious high school students! In the program, you work with a high-growth start-up on an internship. Start-ups that offer internships range across a variety of industries, from tech/deep tech and AI/ML to health tech, marketing, journalism, consulting, and more. You can explore all the options here on their application form. Ladder’s start-ups are high-growth companies on average raising over a million dollars. In the program, interns work closely with their managers and a Ladder Coach on real-world projects and present their work to the company. Here is the application form. The virtual internship is usually 8 weeks long.
Cost: Starting at $2,490 (financial aid available)
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Application Deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort. Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September) and Winter (November).
Program Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year, including Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
The Summer High School Intern Program by NIST is a program for students who have finished their junior or senior year of high school and demonstrate an interest in scientific research. In this program, you will work closely with NIST staff scientists and engineers on a specific research topic. 6 NIST laboratories participate in the SHIP program. Students interested in chemistry are encouraged to apply for the Material Measurements Lab. Your focus areas will be new vaccines and biological drugs, characterizing the performance of alternative fuels and refrigerants with less greenhouse gas potential, and assessing pollutants, including ocean plastics, just to name a few!
Cost: No participation cost (but students must cover housing and transportation costs)
Location: Varies from lab to lab.
Application Deadline: February 13th
Program Dates: June 18th to August 9th
Selection Rate: Highly Selective
Eligibility: Rising senior or recent graduate who is eligible to work in the U.S. and has a minimum GPA of 3.0.
UC Berkeley's SYIP program, hosted by its College of Chemistry, is for talented high schoolers interested in pursuing a career in chemistry. You will be encouraged to pursue research in related fields such as chemistry, biochemical chemistry, material science, etc. This can help you decide which subfield to pursue after studying chemistry. The program accepts about 30 students and offers an extensive 4-week internship. The internship involves data analysis, non-hazardous laboratory procedures, and seminars and group meetings. You can find presentations by previous SYIP participants here.
Location: UC Berkeley Campus, Berkeley, CA
Cost: $14,750 + $75 application fees
Application deadline: Rolling admissions until October
Program dates:
9-Month Remote Coaching: October through June
4-week On-Site Internship: July 9 to August 5
Eligibility: Open to any high school students (including rising freshmen!) who are in the top 10% of their class and have already taken general or AP chemistry.
Project SEED is an 8-10 week paid internship where students have the opportunity to work in real laboratories, from universities to even the U.S. Department of Agriculture lab! Project SEED focuses on supporting over 350+ students from underrepresented communities, providing internships and summer camps to help students with university applications. You will work on an independent project at a research lab in the nearest Project SEED location. Your coordinator may register you for the American Chemical Society National Meeting, where you can present your work!
Cost: No cost; stipend provided.
Location: Varies based on lab choice.
Application Deadline: April
Program Dates: 8-10 weeks in the months of June to August
Eligibility: A current high school sophomore, junior, or senior (recent graduates are also welcome) who has completed one course of high school chemistry and whose family annual income does not exceed 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.
The EM OPALS provides high school students with experience in STEM through 20 hours/week at a UC San Diego research laboratory. If you are interested in biochemistry, we encourage you to apply to the EM OPALS program! As an intern, you will interact with researchers and graduate and undergraduate students working in engineering and medical sciences. You can expect to participate in college-level projects on Huntington’s disease and glaucoma. Apart from conducting research, you will attend weekly career talks and small group discussions on ongoing research. Guest lectures include professors, graduate students, and even previous interns.
Cost: $1,000 + $40 application fee (Note: there are financial aid options)
Location: University of California, San Diego, CA
Application Deadline: March 10th
Program Dates: June 26th - August 4th
Eligibility: Current 8-11th graders, local residents preferred (no housing and transportation provided).
This program allows high school students to work one-on-one with faculty researchers at George Mason University to develop their own research projects. In the 8-week internship, you will gain experience using sophisticated equipment and technologies. You will develop and exercise scientific writing and communication skills. You will also explore STEM career choices through discussion forums and meetings with role models. Previous projects in chemistry include research in antibiotic development, measuring Volatile Organic Carbon (VOC), and diagnosis of tuberculosis through qPCR. You can look at previous research here!
Cost: $25 application fee (Note: transport and housing are not covered)
Location: George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Application Deadline: Typically around January or February.
Program Dates: June 20th - August 10th
Eligibility:
Remote internships and in-person/hybrid computer lab internships:
Must be 15 years or older by June 20th
‘Wet-lab’ in-person or hybrid internships:
Must be 16 or older by June 20th
Note. While the program accepts international applications, specific research labs may be unavailable for non-US citizens.
This program, which began in 1996, invites applications from San Francisco students from underrepresented communities in the field of STEM to learn about science and sustainability. Past sessions covered topics such as Python for scientific programming, astronomy, science communication, biomimicry, environmental justice, and California conservation. You will receive mentorship and build professional skills. Interns are encouraged throughout the program to participate in seminars and conferences and interact with faculty, mentors, and peers. As for specific subject tracks such as chemistry, we reached out to the CiS team, who said students are allocated to roles and departments in a museum setting based on their interests.
Cost: No cost; stipend provided
Location: California Academy of Sciences
Application Deadline: April 3rd
Program Dates: Multi-year, year-round participation
Eligibility: All high schoolers residing in San Francisco can apply
Conducted by Washington University in St.Louis, the YSP Summer Focus Program provides high school students in the Greater St.Louis area with 8-week summer research internships. In the program, you will be paired with a Mentor and Tutor. The Mentor works one-on-one with you 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! You will also take 2 courses on strengthening your science communication skills and preparing to apply to college.
Cost: No cost; stipend provided
Location: Washington University in St.Louis Campus
Application Deadline: February 13th
Program Dates: June 5th - July 8th
Eligibility: Open to rising seniors who are residents of Missouri and Illinois.
The Scripps Research Translational Institute offers a program for high school students to conduct research in biomedical and biochemical sciences. The program aims to increase the number of students pursuing a career in biological and chemical sciences, especially from under-represented backgrounds. The program is split into three components - the ‘boot camp,’ the interview process, and the 7-week laboratory internship. After the boot camp, students are interviewed by principal investigators and matched to a research laboratory. In the 7-week laboratory internship, you will conduct research guided by a graduate student mentor. Your graduate student mentor can also help you with the college application process!
Cost: No cost; stipend provided ($4,760 for full program)
Location: Scripps Research’s La Jolla California Campus
Application Deadline: 3rd April
Program Dates: June 19th - August 11th
Eligibility: Must be a San Diego County resident currently enrolled in a high school in San Diego County, be at least 16 years of age before June 19th, have successfully completed at least 1 year of high school-level chemistry and biology, and have a minimum GPA of 3.0.
10. ASE Internships
ASE Internships match students with partner organizations to conduct research in Chemistry, Biology, Health or Medicine, Earth or Environmental science, and more. As an intern, you will contribute to the ongoing projects at the mentor’s organization. Your role will vary depending on your organization. A few past roles include assisting in a lab that tests various Parkinson’s disease treatments with mice models, generating and analyzing motor proteins using biochemical and biophysical processes, and learning about synthetic chemistry and how to use fluorescent chemical compounds for medical imaging.
Cost: $35 application fee; stipend provided ($1,100 for the complete program)
Location: Varies based on location
Application Deadline: 3rd March
Program Dates: June to August. The exact schedule differs based on the organization; however, every ASE intern must complete 296 hours of work with their partner organization.
Eligibility: Be a rising sophomore, junior, or senior, and live near the internship locations (usually in the Portland-Metro area and the Albany/Corvallis/Eugene areas) or have adult family or friends you can live with during the summer.
One other option—the Lumiere Research Scholar Program
If you’re interested in pursuing independent research, consider applying to one of the Lumiere Research Scholar Programs, selective online high school programs for students founded with researchers at Harvard and Oxford. Last year, we had over 4,000 students apply for 500 spots in the program! You can find the application form here.
Also check out the Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation, a non-profit research program for talented, low-income students. Last year, we had 150 students on full need-based financial aid!
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.
Image Source: American Chemical Society