11 Internships for High School Students in San Jose
If you are a high school student in San Jose looking for an internship, you're in luck!
High school internships offer solid opportunities to explore possible future pathways, improve professional abilities, cultivate leadership traits, and help expand your network. An internship done in high school can significantly impact college admissions, especially for universities with competitive applications that look for students with advanced academic and professional skill sets in a subject of their choice.
Cost: $2,490
Application Deadline: October 20, 2024
Internship Date: The start date for the cohort is November 11, 2024
Eligibility: Open to high school students who have prior experience with AI/ML or have completed a Veritas AI program
The AI Internship Program by Veritas AI is founded and run by Harvard graduate students. Through the 8-week internship, students have the opportunity to work with VC-backed startups on real-world AI/ML projects. Students work directly with mentors from Harvard, Wharton, Google, Microsoft, McKinsey & Company, and more. This program is a great opportunity for students who have prior experience with AI/ML and are looking to gain real-world exposure to a career in the field. Students get a chance to network with industry professionals, work closely with company leadership, and receive a letter of completion from the company at the end of the internship. You can learn more about the program here and apply here.
Application deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort
Duration: Multiple cohorts throughout the year
Location: Remote
Cost: $1990 (Financial Aid Available)
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks. Open to high-school students, undergraduates and gap year students!
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, 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. Past founders have included YCombinator alums, founders raising over 30 million dollars, or founders who previously worked at Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. 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.
Application deadline: February 24th, 2024
Duration: June 10 - August 1, 2024
Location: Stanford University
Cost: Free, Stipend available
Eligibility: Open to high school students interested in careers in the biological sciences and medicine
This internship consists of hands-on research under the direct guidance of a one-on-one mentor at a top-class lab within the Institutes of Medicine at Stanford University as well as select departments. Students applying to the program can choose from eight areas of research (institutes) such as immunology, neurology, cancer biology, bioengineering, etc. After being accepted, they are then assigned to a specific institute based on their choices.
Another option students in SIMR have is participating in the bioengineering bootcamp. This is a hands-on learning experience in bioengineering that does not involve a lab research component.
Application deadline: February 26th,2024. 2025 applications to start soon.
Duration: June 17 - July 26, 2024
Location: Stanford University
Cost: Free, Stipend available (based on need)
Eligibility: High school students interested in science, medicine and research
PIPS aims to teach students how scientific research is performed and how to conduct research projects through their interactive workshops. PIPS helps students explore a number of career options in the field of science and medicine. Their hands-on workshops teach interns to prepare for college applications and the financial aid process.
In this program, every student is matched with a faculty mentor and research lab to finish a research project in the subject area of material and child health. The program culminates in a poster symposium where students present their research projects. Additionally, under the Near Peer Mentor (NPM) program of PIPS, all students will be assigned 2-3 NPMs, who meet with these students for 1 hour every week to discuss their progress at PIPS and their interests. These NPMs are Stanford undergraduate, graduate, medical students and residents.
Application deadline: Open all year round
Duration: Varies
Location: San Jose Stage Company
Cost: Free, Stipend available (hourly rate of minimum wage)
Eligibility: All high school students are eligible to apply
The San Jose Stage Company offers internships to high school students who are passionate about theater. These internships provide hands-on experience in various aspects of theatrical production, such as stage management, technical production, marketing, and administration.
The Stage Company internship program offers the chance to work with some of the best theater artists in the Bay Area in a professional setting. Interns can also either enroll in the Equity Membership Candidates (EMC) or the Program of the Actors Equity Association (AEA). These are training programs for both actors and stage to learn how to credit theatrical work in Equity theatres! San Jose Stage Company is one of the few professional theater companies in the San Francisco Bay Area offering the EMC Program.
Application deadline: Open all year round
Duration: Varies
Location: Different departments across the county
Cost: Free, Stipend available. Look here for more information.
Eligibility: High school students enrolled in an accredited institution, or a school licensed by a state agency, or have graduated from such an institution or school within the last six months. They should have an overall grade point average of at least 2.5 on a four-point scale.
Students selected for this internship assist employees in carrying out their tasks under supervision. The student intern’s specific tasks vary depending on the Agency/Department to which they are assigned. Some of the departments include the Office of the District Attorney, Behavioral Health Internship Program, Public Health Department and County of Santa Clara Parks.
Application deadline: Applications closed for 2024. 2025 applications to start soon.
Duration: June 17 - August 2, 2024
Location: Kaiser Permanente, San Jose
Cost: Free, Stipend available (minimum wage)
Eligibility: High school students aged 16-19 by June 1st, 2024, for the 2024 program. Juniors and senior-level students are given priority. They should also have a permanent residence in a Northern California Kaiser Permanente designated service area.
In order to expose high school and college students to a variety of occupations in the healthcare business, Kaiser Permanente offers a prestigious internship program called LAUNCH (Learning About Unlimited New Occupations in Healthcare). In its 55th year, the program has long been known for giving young individuals from a variety of backgrounds practical experience and mentoring. Exposure to several domains, including safety operations, patient care, hospital administration, finance, and accounting helps interns form a valuable professional network.
Application deadline: currently closed for 2024. Applications for 2025 begin in fall 2024
Duration: Eight weeks
Location: San Jose
Cost: Free, Stipend available
Eligibility: High school students who reside in eligible communities and legally authorized to work in United States without sponsorship
Juniors and seniors in high school can connect with local charitable groups for an 8-week paid internship through the Bank of America Student Leaders program. Interns are made to work with nonprofits within their communities such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Habitat for Humanity. Professionals in the field mentor the participants while they work 35 hours a week. Interns are also given the chance to attend the Student Leaders Summit where they learn how nonprofits, governments and business work together. They also go to a week-long, fully funded Student Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C., where they network with other students and gain knowledge about the influence of charity organizations on the community.
Application deadline: Available all year round
Duration: Minimum six weeks
Location: Guadalupe river park
Cost: Free
Eligibility: Must be at least 16 years old and be available for 6 months.
A variety of education internships are available from the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, encouraging students to participate in experiential learning and volunteer work. These internships are customized to meet the interests and objectives of each intern, guaranteeing both the company and the intern gain from the experience. The tasks available to interns include Animal Care, Special Projects, and educational activities that highlight San Jose's natural and cultural heritage. Animal care includes working with animals such as snakes, turtles, crayfish, toads and lizards. Interns would be expected to carry out tasks such as changing their water, keeping their living areas clean, providing exercise, etc. daily.
Interns are offered with chances to collaborate directly with seasoned professionals, gain useful skills, and support the organization's environmental awareness and protection efforts in the Guadalupe Watershed. Interns may also get a chance to complete a special project at the GRPC.
Application deadline: 2025 applications to open soon
Duration: June 17 - August 8, 2024
Location: Stanford University
Cost: Free
Eligibility: Must be 16 years old or older when the internship begins and should have an unweighted GPA of at least 3.0 with prior knowledge of biology, chemistry, or computer programming. Students must be residing in one of the following countries: Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, or Santa Cruz counties.
The Genomics Research Internship Program at Stanford (GRIPS) is a prestigious summer internship program that offers high school students from the Bay Area the opportunity to conduct research in computational genetics and genomics. Participants are placed in research laboratories for eight weeks, where they work under the supervision of lab mentors to conduct genomics research. There are weekly journal clubs, check in meetings with their mentors and panels and seminars conducted on various career options in biomedical research. The program is highly competitive, with only 20 positions available each year. The program is free and provides a small number of need-based scholarships to help make it more accessible.
Application deadline: November 3, 2024. You can apply here.
Duration: June 17 - August 2, 2024
Location: Stanford University
Cost: Free
Eligibility: Students 16 years of age and older with an interest in biomedical science and healthcare careers. Those from low-income families or under-resourced environments who will be first-generation college students or from underrepresented minority groups are particularly encouraged to apply.
A group of students interested in healthcare and research are selected for this internship. These students get to alongside experienced clinicians and scientists in Stanford’s labs. A large number of mentors for the STaRS internship program have attained leadership roles themselves due to early mentoring.
Application deadlines for the year 2024 have passed; however, applications for 2025 will start this September 2024. The application process firstly includes a written application and a letter of recommendation. Post this, the applicants will be informed on whether they qualified for the interview round. You should know that if you're below the age of 18 will have to submit signed parental consent forms to work in the laboratories.
One other option - Lumiere Research Scholar Program
If you’re interested in pursuing independent research, you could also 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 4000 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 PhD 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: Stanford logo