8 Summer Internships for High School Students in Georgia
If you’re a high school student in Georgia interested in pursuing a summer internship, this blog is for you! Embarking on an internship will help you explore concepts beyond the classroom and apply critical thinking and analytical skills to real-world situations.
An internship will allow you to work with seasoned professionals and gain hands-on experience in your chosen field. Gaining early professional experience will also positively impact your college applications as it will demonstrate your skills, talent, and diligence compared to other applicants, and help you in your future academic and professional pursuits. An added benefit is that most of these internships provide stipends that you can save, invest, or add to your college fund to be used later on!
Here’s our curated list of 8 summer internships tailored for high school students in the State of Georgia spanning various fields including internships in STEM, law, medicine, technology, and art.
The Botanical Garden internship is a competitive internship for students interested in science and plant careers. You’ll work with a small cohort of fellow interns and directly with expert Garden staff. Intern experiences vary depending on the needs of the Garden, but you’ll likely work in the plant cultivation research lab, cultivate rare plants, and help maintain valuable outdoor spaces.
You will gain valuable college and career readiness skills from community leaders while connecting with their intern cohort. You’ll also be expected to keep a professional journal documenting your experience and present on a personal project at the end of the program! The position is paid, and snacks and lunch are provided, as are bus and parking passes as necessary.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; Students are paid an hourly wage of $11/hour, paid in bi-weekly installments.
Location: Atlanta, GA
Application Deadline: Applications typically close in March.
Program Dates: June 4 - July 18, 2024
Eligibility: Must be 16 years or older by the start of the program and a rising sophomore, junior, or senior in a metro Atlanta Title 1 school. Students must be able to commit to 18 hours per week, Tuesdays through Thursdays, and work outside even in inclement weather.
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. 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.
Interns are offered one-on-one training in communication, time management, and other such valuable skills and will also have the opportunity to attend group training sessions with other interns in their cohort. The virtual internship is usually 8 weeks long.
Cost: $1990 (Financial Aid Available)
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Application Deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort. The upcoming summer cohort deadline is June 26, 2024.
Program Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year.
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 Young Scholars Program (YSP) is a paid five-week summer internship program for high school students interested in agricultural, food, and environmental sciences. You’ll be expected to work 30 hours per week actively engaged in research under the guidance of a faculty mentor on the UGA Athens, Griffin or Tifton campus. During the program, you’ll also attend workshops and visit agricultural operations to gain exposure to the various fields of study and careers in agriculture.
Upon completion of the program, you will get to present your research during the poster session at the Young Scholars Pre-Collegiate Research Conference held the final three days of the program on the UGA Athens campus.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; Stipend is provided to the interns.
Location: University of Georgia (Athens, Griffin, or Tifton) campus, GA
Application Deadline: Applications typically close in February.
Program Dates: 5 weeks between June and July. The 2024 program will run from May 29 to July 12.
Eligibility: Applicants must have completed their sophomore year of high school and must be 16 years old by the program start date.
This internship is designed to help underrepresented-in-medicine high school students achieve access to and experience in the STEM and medical fields. Students attend lectures but also are paired with mentors who provide them with hands-on experience in the lab and clinical setting. You are also connected to medical and STEM businesses and professionals in the greater Atlanta area to learn more about the career opportunities in those fields.
The program also offers continuing activities and opportunities throughout the school year for students. During the summer, students work from 9:00 am-5:00 pm daily, Monday-Friday. The program generally lasts 5 weeks.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; a $2,500 stipend is provided by the program.
Location: Atlanta, GA
Application Deadline: Applications typically close in February.
Program Dates: June 3 - July 10, 2024
Eligibility: Must be a rising junior or senior in high school, 16 years old by June 3, 2024, and must demonstrate an interest in advancing STEM education to groups that have been underrepresented in STEM or medicine.
The Microsoft High School Discovery Program is a highly prestigious internship that gives high school students with a keen interest in technology a chance to work with one of the world’s leading tech companies. During your four weeks as an intern, you will get a good understanding of careers in the computer science and technology fields by learning and working with programming fundamentals.
With a strong emphasis on career readiness, the Discovery Program allows you to experience the design phase of the product development cycle and develop your community-building skills as you will be mentored by Microsoft employees who guide you through various aspects of working in engineering and tech.
The Microsoft Discovery program is a great opportunity for young tech enthusiasts to learn core computer concepts as well as develop professionally!
Cost/Stipend: No cost; Stipend paid is $18 per hour but varies based on the location.
Location: Atlanta, GA
Application Deadline: Varies by year, but it usually opens in March.
Program Dates: The program lasts 4 weeks and usually runs from the second week of July through the first week of August. The 2024 program will run from July 8 to August 2.
Eligibility: Graduating high school seniors who live in Atlanta, GA. Students must be at least 16 years old and have a legal right to work in the U.S. for the duration of the program and must have completed pre-calculus or an equivalent course by the start of the program.
The TAG-Ed High School Summer Internship Program offers exceptional high school students with a technology career path, the opportunity to learn in a real-world environment, and get hands-on experience in a field of study relating to Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM).
Students are matched with companies based on related interests and qualifications. The internship is for a minimum of five consecutive weeks. You work in pairs or small groups on a provided project with clear goals given by the company. Cohorts are small in this program, with only 2-6 interns assigned to each location. Feedback and mentorship are major goals of this program and interns receive an end-of-internship evaluation.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; A $1,500 stipend is provided for 5 weeks/100 hours of work.
Location: Various locations in Georgia based on the company where interns are placed.
Application Deadline: Applications typically close in March.
Program Dates: Varies by internship, but interns must be available from the beginning of June through the end of July.
Eligibility: Must be at least 16 years old to apply and available to work between the dates of June 1 and July 31.
The Atlanta Bar Association offers summer internship opportunities to Atlanta area high school students who are interested in the legal profession. The program is designed to do four things: provide interns with valuable and tangible work experience, further students' understanding of the law, promote mentor relationships within the Atlanta legal community, and increase diversity in the legal field.
This internship is highly competitive and prestigious. Interns are not allowed to have any second jobs, band practices, sports practices, or other conflicting engagements. You’ll be assigned a legal organization or firm to work with for the summer. There are also mandatory weekly meetings for all interns where progress tests are conducted. You’ll get to study topical legal issues and write an “Enrichment” each week. You’ll also be required to write an essay on a United States Supreme Court decision.
You should expect to act as if you are a member of the legal profession already, including preparing in advance for all meetings and assignments, dressing professionally, and conducting yourself as professionally as possible.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; A $2,000 stipend is provided to the interns.
Location: Various legal offices around Atlanta, GA
Application Deadline: Generally, applications are available from mid-February to mid-March.
Program Dates: The end of May to the middle of July. The 2024 program will run from May 29 to July 19.
Eligibility: Must be a rising high school junior or senior and must be available from the end of May to the middle of July.
The Foundation for Hospital Art is a non-profit organization that offers a summer internship every year. This internship runs for 8 weeks, Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm. Interns work in the studio throughout their internship doing touch-ups, drawing, assisting with volunteers, packaging, and working on the computer.
This internship is a great fit for students who want experience working directly in an art studio. It’s also a great fit for art students who are interested in public service and connection. As an intern, you’ll get to connect with the public regularly when you work with volunteers.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; Hourly compensation agreed upon at the time of acceptance is provided to the interns.
Location: FFHA Studio, Woodstock, GA
Application Deadline: The application opens in December and closes in the spring.
Program Dates: The internship lasts for 8 weeks but the start date depends on the intern’s schedule.
Eligibility: The applicants must have finished their junior year before the start of the internship.
One other option - Lumiere Research Scholar Program
If you would like to participate in a rigorous research program open to high schoolers, you should also consider applying to the Lumiere Research Scholar Program, a selective online high school program 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.
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: Atlanta Botanical Garden logo