Summer programs for high school students have many benefits, and one of them is developing an advanced skill set. Pre-college programs, summer intensives, internships, and research programs all offer you the chance to explore subjects at a higher level and expand your knowledge. Not only do you grow academically but your enhanced skills set the stage for future success as well.
California, home to top universities and innovative industries, has many such programs for high schoolers. In this article, we highlight 14 summer programs that allow high schoolers to enhance their expertise, explore potential career paths, and experience hands-on learning. Read on to find the program that best fits your needs!
Subject area: Multiple fields available
Application deadline: Varies according to cohort. November 10, 2024 for the upcoming Winter cohort, February 9, 2025 for the Spring cohort
Eligibility: High school students with good academic standing (>3.67/4.0 GPA) can apply. Most accepted students are 10th/11th graders! Only a few tracks require formal prerequisites, more details of which can be found here
Program dates:
- Winter seminar: December 2, 2024 onwards
- Spring seminar: March 3, 2025 onwards
- Lab dates are flexible, but you must apply 4 weeks in advance
Location: Virtual
The Horizon program offers the opportunity to conduct research on a specific topic and learn about it in-depth. Through the program, you will work with a professor/PhD scholar mentor and develop a university-level research paper under specialized guidance. You can choose from a number of courses like environmental health, behavioral economics, theoretical mathematics, cybersecurity, machine learning, neuroscience, and more. By the end of the program, you can expect to have an advanced level of knowledge in the subject you choose.
2. Veritas AI
Subject area: Artificial Intelligence
Application deadline: Varies according to cohort. October 20, 2024 for the upcoming Winter cohort
Eligibility: High school students. For the AI Fellowship program, applicants will either need to complete the AI Scholars program or have experience with AI concepts or Python
Program dates: Multiple, year-round cohorts. December 16, 2024 onwards for the Winter cohort
Location: Online
Fee:
- $2,290 for the 10-week AI Scholars program
- $5,400 for the 15-week AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase
- $6,900 for both
- Need-based financial aid is available for AI Scholars. You can apply here.
If you’re interested in artificial intelligence and are looking for hands-on experience in the field, Veritas AI’s programs could be the right choice. The program has both collaborative learning programs and individual mentorship pathways, and it involves projects including coding and AI models. Alongside the practical experience, you will learn about complex topics like neural networks, sentiment analysis, deep learning, language processing, and image classification.
Subject area: Multiple fields available
Application deadline: Varies according to cohort. November 24, 2024 for the upcoming Winter cohort. You can apply here.
Eligibility: All high school students
Program dates: There are four cohorts throughout the year in spring, summer, fall, and winter
Location: Online
Fee: $2,990 (Individual Research Program), $5,900 (Premium Research & Publication Program), $8,900 (Research Fellowship), $8,900 (Professor Premium Publication Program). Need-based financial aid available. You can also check out the Lumiere Foundation, a non-profit research program, which offers assistance to low-income students
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program aims to provide high school students with a university-level research experience. As a participant, you will develop an individual research project under the mentorship of a PhD student. You can choose from several STEM and humanities options such as gene editing, data science, neural networks, international relations, and economics.
Application deadline: February 22, 2025
Eligibility: Current juniors or seniors who are at least 16 years of age, live and attend high school in the U.S., and are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
Program dates: June 9 – July 31, 2025 (8 weeks)
Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Stipend: $500–$1,500
The SIMR is a prestigious research program for high schoolers interested in the medical sciences who would like to work on a research project. The available research areas are immunology, neurobiology, cancer biology, genetics, bioengineering, regenerative medicine, cardiovascular biology, and bioinformatics. You will learn basic research under one-on-one mentorship, engage in lab work, attend seminars, and learn how to present your findings at a poster session.
Subject area: Mathematical biology
Application deadline: April 14, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Eligibility: Current high school students except seniors graduating in the spring
Program dates: June 17 – July 25, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Location: University of California, Irvine, CA
Fee: Free. Students are responsible for their own transportation, housing, and meals
During this summer program, you will work in teams on a computational biology research project. Aside from learning research methods, you will also learn about Matlab programming, mathematical modeling, and scientific writing. The 2024 projects include topics like neurological diseases, pattern formation, gene expression, and even cancer research. By the end of the program, you will have a deeper understanding of computational biology and university studies.
Subject area: Media and journalism
Application deadline: Applications for 2025 will open at the start of the year
Eligibility: Students who reside and attend high school in Los Angeles County
Program dates: June 17 – July 19, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Location: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Fee: Free
Accepting only about 26 students per cohort, the Annenberg Youth Academy is a highly prestigious program for students interested in media communications and journalism. The focus of the program is learning about the role of media and journalism in the fields of civic engagement, leadership, and innovation. Through the four-week summer academy, you will hone various skills, including writing, critical thinking, debating, public speech, multimedia production, interviewing, and ethnography. You will also attend talks given by professional journalists and media personnel.
Subject area: Biology
Application deadline: March 5, 2025
Eligibility: High school students who:
- Are at least 16 years of age
- Reside and attend school in San Diego County
- Have a minimum GPA of 2.75
- Have successfully completed at least one year of high school chemistry and biology
Program dates: June 16 – August 8, 2025
Location: Salk Institute, San Diego, CA
Stipend: A stipend is paid, but the amount is not specified
The Salk Institute is a non-profit research institute that focuses on biological studies, and the Heithoff-Brody program is meant for high schoolers to get research experience in the field. As a scholar, you will work on a research project under the guidance of a scientist mentor and present it at the symposium at the end of the program. You will also visit biotech sites and learn about wet lab techniques, bioinformatics, data analysis, science communication, and research tools.
Subject: Biomedicine
Application deadline: March 13, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Eligibility: Students who are at least 16 years of age and are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
Program dates: June 3 – August 9, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Location: City of Hope, Duarte, CA
Stipend: $4,000
This prestigious summer program at City of Hope, a cancer treatment and research center, offers the opportunity to engage in hands-on biomedical research while being part of a team of professionals. Aside from the lab work, you will attend seminars to learn about topics like plant signaling pathways, DNA repair, neural stem cells, and more. You will also enhance your communication skills and learn about manuscript publishing and grant writing. This is a highly competitive program that accepts less than 5% of all applicants.
Ladder Internships is a selective start-up internship program for high school students. 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. In the program, interns work closely with their managers and a Ladder Coach on real-world projects and present their work to the company. Interns are offered one-on-one training in communication, time management, and other such valuable skills.
Subject areas: Multiple
Cost: $2,490 (Financial Aid Available)
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world
Application deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort. November 24, 2024 for the upcoming Winter cohort
Program dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year. December 16, 2024 onwards for the Winter cohort
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students
Subject area: Technology and Social Media Operations
Application deadline: Applications for 2025 will open in Decmeber 2024
Eligibility: Current high school sophomores who have a minimum 2.0 GPA and reside in East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, North Fair Oaks, or Redwood City
Program dates: June 17 – July 26, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Location: Meta Headquarters, Menlo Park, CA
Stipend: A stipend is provided but the amount is not specified
The Meta Summer Academy aims to encourage young students to explore careers in tech at an early age. As an intern, you will work 30 hours per week and learn about the day-to-day functions of Meta. You will learn about the various career pathways in the industry, network and make valuable connections, and attend coding classes that cover topics like app coding and VR coding. Through the program, you will be enhancing skills that are crucial to fields like software development, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and more.
Subject area: STEM
Application deadline: February 7, 2025
Eligibility: Students finishing grades 8-12 who are residents of California
Program dates: July 7 – August 3, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Location: University of California (options available in six of the university’s campuses—Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, San Diego, and Santa Cruz), CA
Fee: $5,007 + a nonrefundable $42 application fee. Need-based financial aid is available
If you’re interested in advancing your knowledge in STEM, COSMOS could be the right option for you. With five campuses and many more course clusters available, you can choose from a wide range of subjects like quantum mechanics, robotics, biochemistry, machine learning, aquaculture, sustainability, aerospace engineering, music and technology, photonics, and more. You can expect to learn about these fields in depth through lectures, lab sessions, research projects, and a poster session at the end of the program.
Subject area: Healthcare
Application deadline: March 8, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Eligibility: High school students who are at least 15 years old
Program dates: TBA for 2025. Four 5-day sessions were available between early July and early August in 2024
Location: MISA Ofice, Oakland, CA
Fee: $1,400 + a $50 nonrefundable application fee
MISA is a healthcare program that provides students with hands-on clinical training, preparing them for a future career in medicine. Through the program’s workshops, you will learn various skills like suturing, splinting, reading EKGs, and checking patient vitals. You will also receive certificates in first aid, CPR, and more. You will also have the chance to learn from health professionals and attend career development workshops.
The Young Founder’s Lab is a real-world start-up boot camp founded and run by Harvard entrepreneurs. In this program, you will work towards building a revenue-generating start-up that addresses a real-world problem. You will also have the opportunity to be mentored by entrepreneurs and professionals from Google, Microsoft, and X. You will participate in interactive classes on business fundamentals and business ideations, workshops and skill-building sessions, case studies, panel discussions, and more. You can access the application link here!
Cost: The total cost to attend the 3-week program is $2,900. There is need-based financial aid
Location: This program is 100% virtual, with live, interactive workshops
Eligibility: The program is currently open to all high school students
Program Dates: Multiple, year-round cohorts. December 21, 2024 – January 5, 2025 for the upcoming Winter cohort
Application Deadline: Varies according to cohort. November 24, 2024 for the Winter cohort
Subject area: Biomedicine
Application deadline: TBA for 2025
Eligibility: High school students from one of the five REACH partner schools who are at least 16 years of age, have a minimum GPA of 3.0, and have completed one year of high school-level chemistry and biology
Program dates: June 24 – August 9, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Location: Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA
Stipend: $4,760
The Scripps Research Summer High School Internship Program focuses on hands-on research in the field of biomedical sciences. The program includes a 3-day training boot camp, followed by a 7-week internship during which you will work in a research lab under the guidance of a graduate student. Through the internship, you will study complex topics in biology and chemistry while also learning about experimental design, research techniques, data interpretation, and more.
David Wilkinson is a freelance writer for Horizon and currently resides in the United States.