A lot of high school students want professional experience early, but location, travel, and school schedules can make traditional internships difficult to manage. Virtual internships solve part of that problem by allowing students to work remotely while still getting exposure to real projects and professional environments.
Virtual internships for high school students are usually built around project-based work instead of observation alone. Depending on the internship, you might help with research, spreadsheets, presentations, coding tasks, content writing, social media planning, or data-related work. Some internships focus on STEM and technology, while others are connected to business, media, nonprofits, or humanities-related fields.
What do virtual internships for high schoolers include?
Virtual internships for high school students usually expose students to actual workflows used inside companies and organizations. You may work with spreadsheets, communication platforms, project management tools, coding environments, or research documents, depending on the field and internship structure.
These internships also help students understand how remote professional environments function. You learn how to manage deadlines independently, communicate clearly online, attend meetings, and contribute to projects without working in the same physical space. The learning tends to feel much more practical because students are applying skills directly instead of only studying theory.
With that, here are 15 virtual internships for high school students! While this list is a fairly broad compilation of virtual internships across various sectors, we also have some specialized lists, such as this list of media internships or this article for software development internships.
15 Virtual Internships for High School Students
1. NASA/UT Austin STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) — Virtual Track
Location: Remote
Stipend: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: Virtual internships vary by project, though they are generally between June and July 21
Application Deadline: February 22
Eligibility: Current high school sophomores and juniors who are US citizens aged 16+
SEES places you on a NASA Earth science research team where you work with mission data used by scientists. Your project may involve processing InSAR radar imagery to measure land movement from satellite passes, analyzing GRACE satellite data to study groundwater loss and ice mass change, sorting galaxies and pulsars through astronomy datasets, or studying ISS astronaut photography to track surface change over time. You use Python for satellite data processing, mapping, statistical analysis, and image classification. You also learn how remote sensing systems collect data, how geospatial datasets are cleaned, and how Earth observation missions are used in climate and space research.
2. Stanford AIMI Summer Research Internship
Location: Online
Cost: $2,400. Full or partial need-based financial aid is available.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective, around 50 students per session
Dates: June 15 – 26 or July 6 – 17
Application Deadline: February 20
Eligibility: U.S. high school students entering grades 9–12, aged 14+
Stanford’s AIMI internship explores how machine learning is applied in clinical medicine and healthcare research. Throughout the program, you study topics like medical imaging pipelines, clinical datasets, model evaluation, and responsible AI through lectures and technical labs led by Stanford researchers. You also work in small groups on a real health-AI research problem, moving from early question framing into data analysis and final presentation work. Guest speakers from medicine, government, and industry explain how healthcare AI systems are developed and deployed outside research environments as well.
3. Johns Hopkins Internship in Brain Sciences (JHIBS)
Location: Virtual
Stipend: Virtual interns typically receive a $500 scholarship upon completion.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: 5 weeks, July – August
Application Deadline: March 1
Eligibility: Current high school juniors and seniors with a strong academic record in STEM courses and an interest in behavioral health-related sciences.
JHIBS introduces you to neuroscience research through direct mentorship with a Johns Hopkins faculty researcher over five weeks. Past projects have explored areas like ALS research, psychiatric genetics, ADHD cognition, HIV neuroprotection, and myelin formation, depending on the mentor and lab assignment. Instead of rotating through different instructors, you stay connected to one researcher throughout the internship, which allows discussions and project work to become much deeper over time. The structure revolves around sustained research conversations, scientific reading, and understanding how neuroscience studies are designed and interpreted. Virtual interns also receive a completion scholarship after finishing the program.
4. UNC Nutrition Research Institute Virtual Internship Program (VIP)
Location: Virtual
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: June 2 – 25
Application Deadline: March 23
Eligibility: Rising 9th graders through graduating seniors
This internship is built entirely around nutrition science research and how diet interacts with genetics, metabolism, and disease. Throughout the four weeks, you attend live sessions and mentoring discussions with UNC researchers while studying topics like obesity, cancer, diabetes, and nutrient metabolism. A major part of the internship involves learning how scientific findings are communicated visually and professionally through research posters. By the end of the program, you will present your own scientific poster directly to NRI researchers and faculty. The structure stays closely tied to research communication and nutritional science rather than general wellness education.
5. UT Southwestern Department of Psychiatry — Inspiring Careers in Mental Health Internship
Location: Virtual
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: 2 weeks in June
Application Deadline: Early February
Eligibility: Rising 10th, 11th, and 12th graders
This two-week internship introduces you to multiple areas inside mental health and psychiatry through sessions led by different specialists each day. Across the program, you interact with psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, physician assistants, social workers, and community mental health professionals while exploring how each field approaches patient care and research differently. Topics move through psychotherapy, neuroscience, neuropsychological testing, interventional psychiatry, and behavioral health systems. Before sessions, you complete assigned journal readings so the discussions can go deeper than basic career introductions. The program is designed more around understanding the breadth of mental health work than specializing in one narrow topic.
6. EnergyMag Research Internship
Location: Virtual
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; 20–40 interns
Dates: Rolling. Half-time internships of 2-8 weeks in the summer, quarter-time internships of 1-9 months in the academic year
Application Deadline: Rolling basis
Eligibility: High school sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have completed at least one honors science or honors English class and have a GPA of 3.25
EnergyMag is a publication covering renewable energy and energy storage, and its internship puts you to work as an analyst on a real assignment. You are given a specific company, technology, or market segment to investigate and are expected to produce a publishable analysis report. This work familiarizes you with sourcing across academic literature, trade publications, and industry data, then reaching out directly to subject-matter experts to gather what isn’t publicly available. A mentor reviews your drafts throughout, and finished reports go on EnergyMag’s website under your name. The skills you build, namely professional research methodology, expert cold outreach, and analytical writing for a technically informed readership, are ones most high school programs don’t come close to touching.
7. Seaside Sustainability Virtual Internship
Location: Virtual and in‑person options in Gloucester, MA
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Competitive; over 250 interns annually across all seasons
Dates: 5-month contract periods
Application Deadline: Rolling basis
Eligibility: All high school students
Seaside is a working environmental nonprofit, and its internship puts you inside its actual operations. You contribute to active projects across departments, including Climate Action and Advocacy, Marine Science and Education, Grant Writing, Marketing, and Website and Technology, with most interns working on two teams at once. That means you might be researching climate adaptation policy for one team while writing marine ecosystem educational content or building out the organization’s web presence for another. The outputs you create, whether they be grant applications, educational materials, or social media campaigns, are ones the organization actually uses.
8. Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) Research Internship
Location: Virtual
Cost: None. Few paid positions are available.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective, high school students are only considered on a case-by-case basis
Dates: Summer, Spring, and Fall sessions available
Application Deadline: March–April for summer
Eligibility: Students enrolled in an accredited institution who are authorized to work in the U.S. High school applicants are accepted on a case-by-case basis.
FPRI is a nonpartisan think tank producing foreign policy analysis for policymakers, defense communities, and international affairs professionals, and research interns work inside that process. You are assigned to a regional program covering Eurasia, Asia, the Middle East, or Africa, contributing through literature reviews, data compilation, and drafting background materials under FPRI scholars. Summer interns also attend weekly foreign policy seminars with guest speakers and can submit work for publication on FPRI’s Intern Corner, putting their analysis in front of the institute’s readership directly. High school applicants are considered case-by-case basis, so strong writing and research skills are essential.
9. Project Write Now (PWN) Teen Internship — Editorial Assistant Track
Location: Virtual
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Extremely selective, limited to 10 participants
Dates: Summer
Application Deadline: First-come, first-served basis
Eligibility: Students aged 15–18
Project Write Now offers a virtual track for high school writers, which results in real published work. The Editorial Assistant role puts you inside Bridge Ink’s actual operations, producing website content, writing blog posts and book recommendations, and sitting in on editorial meetings where programming decisions get made. The published byline is what separates this from most high school writing programs, where the work stops at submission. Unlike several internship programs, PWN offers training days for its interns to help get them started in the right direction.
10. Medicine Encompassed Virtual Internship
Location: Virtual
Stipend: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Moderately selective
Dates: Year-round
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9–12
Medicine Encompassed is a student-led nonprofit producing health literacy and medical career content for a public audience, and interns do the actual production work. You join a working committee in writing, editing, graphic design, marketing, or resource creation, and contribute content that goes out to real readers on real deadlines. The medical subject matter is accessible rather than clinical, but the professional context is genuine: you are taking direction, meeting deadlines, and building a portfolio of published work rather than completing assignments in a contained program environment.
11. Building-U High School Internship
Location: Virtual
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Moderately selective
Dates: Year-round, with 3-month internship periods
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Students currently enrolled in grades 9–12
Building-U runs a nonprofit focused on postsecondary resources for high school students, and its internship puts you in charge of keeping that operation running. Over three months, you work within teams spanning coding, marketing, blog writing, multimedia, animation, or business development. The coding team works in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, progressing toward React and Node.js, building products that go live on the Building-U website. What distinguishes this from a personal project is the organizational structure, where you report to managers, your work has to meet the standards of a functioning nonprofit, and the outputs are used publicly.
12. American Psychological Association (APA) Internal Internship Program
Location: Virtual
Stipend: Stipend provided, amount varies by internship position
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective, high school students are considered on a case-by-case basis
Dates: Year-round opportunities, summer positions typically run June–August
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: High school students under 18 must obtain a D.C. work permit and reside in a state where APA is registered as an employer
The APA is the largest professional organization of psychologists in the United States, influencing research standards, policy, publishing, and education at a national level, and its internship places you inside that work. Research interns assist with literature reviews and data synthesis on active APA projects. Communications interns contribute to content across APA platforms. Policy and education interns support work that shapes how psychology is practiced and taught. No clinical work is involved. Positions are posted on a rolling basis, and high school students are considered on a case-by-case basis, making even entry into this program a mark of prestige on your resume.
13. MobilizeGreen Virtual Youth Conservation Program
Location: Remote
Stipend: $250/week
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: 3 weeks, summer (cohorts in June and July)
Application Deadline: Rolling basis
Eligibility: High school students aged 15–18 enrolled in high school or recent graduates
MobilizeGreen runs this program in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, placing you on a virtual crew alongside peers from across the country to work on real conservation projects. Over three weeks, your daily schedule combines live virtual curriculum, project planning sessions, and career exploration covering topics like fire-dependent ecology, wildfire mapping, Leave No Trace practices, the history of public lands, and environmental organizing. Crew leaders facilitate all sessions and guide your work toward tangible conservation outputs rather than passive learning. The program also provides equipment scholarships and technical support for students who need them, and you build a set of Green and STEM career skills that most other virtual internships in this category don’t systematically develop.
14. ACLU Virtual Internship Program
Location: Remote (hybrid options available)
Stipend: Provided (amount varies by position and session length)
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; high school students considered on a case-by-case basis
Dates: Year-round; summer positions typically run 10 weeks full-time or 12 weeks part-time
Application Deadline: Rolling; check website for current openings
Eligibility: Students enrolled in an accredited institution authorized to work in the U.S.; high school applicants considered on a case-by-case basis
The ACLU is one of the oldest and most consequential civil liberties organizations in the United States, and its internship puts you inside the departments doing that work. Positions span legal support, communications, digital and technology, policy advocacy, development, and operations, with the specific work depending on which department you are placed in. You engage with the issues at the center of active civil liberties fights, receive direct mentorship from ACLU staff, and build substantive professional skills across a session that runs long enough to produce real output. High school students are considered case-by-case basis, meaning a compelling application with strong writing and demonstrated interest in civil rights work is essential to entry.
15. CS@Mines High School/Community College Internships (Colorado School of Mines)
Location: Hybrid, in-person in Golden, CO, and remote options available
Cost: Free for CS@Mines internships; C4G has a $100 fee, with scholarships available
Program Dates: 6 weeks during the Summer
Application Deadline: April 18
Eligibility: Open to high school students and community college students with an interest in computer science (no prior training required)
The CS@Mines summer internships connect high school and community college students with faculty-led research projects in computer science, offering 2–4 placements in research, 30–50 opportunities in Computing for the Good, and additional DECtech internships. Over six weeks, you’ll work in small teams led by Mines undergraduates, contributing 5–20 hours per week on projects that merge computing with real-world applications. The program is designed to be accessible even if you don’t have prior CS training, focusing instead on your curiosity and commitment to learning.
One more option – Horizon Academic Research Program
If you’re looking for a competitive mentored research program in subjects like data science, machine learning, political theory, biology, and chemistry, consider applying to Horizon’s Research Seminars and Labs! This is a selective virtual research program that lets you engage in advanced research and develop a research paper on a subject of your choosing. Horizon has worked with 1000+ high school students so far and offers 600+ research specializations for you to choose from. You can find the application link here!
Image Source: American Psychological Association