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Tech Internships for High School Students: The Real Programs
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Tech Internships for High School Students: The Real Programs
Tyler Brooks · Jul 12, 2026
14 min read
High schoolers can work in tech. Some programs pay $33 an hour. Others cover housing, meals, and travel during research internships.
A few are free to attend but fully funded, with MIT, Stanford, and NASA picking up the tab. Here are all the real ones, sorted by pay and accessibility.
Application season runs November through March. If you are reading this in January, you are in the window for most programs below. Each entry lists pay, eligibility, and deadline so you can figure out your best shots this week.
Paid Tech Programs That Hire High Schoolers
Ten US programs currently pay high school students for tech work. Three run nationwide. Seven are regional, tied to specific metro areas or school districts. Paid work, real supervisors, defined roles.
| Program | Pay | Length | Who qualifies | Deadline | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Summer Academy | Paid hourly | 6 weeks | HS students, underrepresented groups priority | Late winter | Multiple Meta offices |
| Microsoft Discovery Program | Paid, full-time | 4 weeks | Graduating seniors in Redmond WA or Atlanta GA school zones | Late February | 2 metros only |
| Raytheon Technologies HS Internship | $33/hr for software | Summer | HS students near Raytheon sites | Spring | Multiple Raytheon offices |
| GM Student Corps | Paid hourly | Summer | HS students in metro-Detroit, Flint, or Pontiac | Spring | Detroit metro only |
| Navy SEAP | $4,000 stipend | 8 weeks | HS students, US citizens | November | Navy research labs nationwide |
| NSA High School Work Study | Paid part-time | School year + summer | HS juniors near NSA facilities | Rolling | Near NSA sites |
| Sandia National Labs HS | Paid hourly | Summer | HS students in NM or CA near labs | Spring | Albuquerque or Livermore |
| CISA Cyber Internships | Paid | Varies | HS through grad, US citizens | Rolling | Government, some remote |
| GTRI Summer Internship | Paid hourly | 5 weeks | Georgia residents, 16+, class of 2026-2028 | Mid-January | Atlanta, Cobb, Warner Robins |
| NIH Summer Internship Program | Stipend | 8-10 weeks | HS students, varies by institute | February 18 | NIH campuses + remote |
Meta Summer Academy
The biggest brand name on the paid list. Meta Summer Academy replaced Facebook Summer Academy after the company rebranded. It is a 6-week paid program, 30 hours a week, running from June 15 to July 24 in 2026.
Students work on real projects with Meta engineers and designers. Coding, product work, media technology.
The program targets high schoolers from groups historically underrepresented in tech, which in practice means Black, Latino, Native American, first-generation college, and low-income students get priority in selection.
Deadline: late winter. Check the official Meta Summer Academy page for the current year's application window.
Honest take: Meta is the most accessible FAANG company for paid HS tech work. FAANG means Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google.
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Of those five, only Meta, Microsoft, and Google run HS-specific paid or free programs. The Meta name on your resume is real. The mentorship is real.
Microsoft Discovery Program
Paid, 4 weeks, Redmond WA or Atlanta GA only. You must live in the specific school districts near either campus. Graduating seniors heading to college in the fall. The work is real engineering and business projects with Microsoft teams.
Geography gates most applicants out. If you qualify, apply. If you do not, do not waste the essay. Full eligibility and application details are in our business internships guide.
Raytheon Technologies High School Internship
Software engineering interns at Raytheon make $33.65 an hour. That is the highest entry on this list by a clear margin. The work is engineering, high-tech manufacturing, and in some cases software development alongside full-time engineers.
Benefits include medical, dental, vision, and paid time off, which is unusual for a high school job. Flexible work schedules available.
Eligibility: HS students near Raytheon office locations. Not all offices run the HS program, so check your local site directly.
Deadline: spring, varies by office.
Honest take: at $33 an hour for a summer, you can make $10,000 to $13,000. That is serious money for a high schooler. If you are anywhere near a Raytheon office (Waltham MA, Tucson AZ, El Segundo CA, McKinney TX, and others), this belongs at the top of your list.
GM Student Corps
GM runs a paid summer internship for high school students in metro-Detroit, Flint, and Pontiac. The program mixes community service, leadership work, and real project exposure inside GM offices. Tech tracks include software development for vehicle systems and data work.
Eligibility: HS students in the three Michigan metro areas listed above. Regional only.
Honest take: If you live in southeast Michigan, apply. The brand value on your resume is real, and GM is genuinely invested in the program as a pipeline into its engineering and business functions.
Navy SEAP
SEAP stands for Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program. The Department of the Navy runs 8-week paid summer internships at Navy research laboratories across the country. The stipend is $4,000 for new interns and $4,500 for returning interns.
Work spans robotics, aerospace, cybersecurity, computer science, and ocean engineering, depending on which Navy lab you match with. Placements are at sites like Naval Research Laboratory (DC), NAVSEA Dahlgren (VA), and NAWCWD China Lake (CA).
Eligibility: US citizens, HS students (typically rising seniors). Application runs through the Navy careers portal.
Deadline: November for the following summer. The Summer 2026 cycle is closed; Summer 2027 applications open November 2026.
Honest take: $4,000 for 8 weeks is solid pay, and the Navy research lab experience reads well on college applications. The early deadline (November) catches a lot of students off guard, so mark your calendar the summer before you plan to apply.
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NSA High School Work Study Program
The National Security Agency runs a paid part-time program for HS juniors who live near NSA facilities. It runs during the school year and continues into summer. Roles cover cybersecurity, IT, computer science, and math.
Eligibility: HS juniors, US citizens, must live within commuting distance of an NSA facility (mainly Fort Meade MD, Georgia, Texas, Colorado, or Hawaii).
Honest take: this is one of the few HS programs where the clearance process starts early. If you live near NSA and plan a career in cybersecurity or intelligence, apply. The clearance alone opens doors a decade later.
Sandia National Labs HS Internship
Sandia is a Department of Energy national lab with sites in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California.
The HS internship program gives high schoolers paid summer work in cybersecurity, software engineering, secure systems, and research on things like encryption, cyber-physical systems, and network security.
Eligibility: HS students near Albuquerque or Livermore. Regional program.
Honest take: if cybersecurity is the goal, this plus NSA plus CISA form the serious government cyber triad for HS students. Sandia's work is closest to real research.
CISA Cyber Internships
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is the federal agency that defends US critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. They hire high schoolers and college students for paid cyber and IT work. Some roles are fully remote, which is rare on this list.
Eligibility: US citizens, currently enrolled students (HS through grad).
Honest take: if geography cuts you out of NSA and Sandia, CISA is your government cyber option. Remote-friendly roles open the door for students in any state.
GTRI Summer Internship (Georgia)
Georgia Tech Research Institute runs a 5-week paid summer program for Georgia high schoolers. The 2026 program runs June 8 to July 17, up to 24 hours a week. Work happens at GTRI Atlanta, the Cobb County Research Facility, or the Warner Robins field office.
Eligibility: Georgia residents, 16+ by March 29 2026, attending a Georgia high school (public, private, charter, or home school), class of 2026, 2027, or 2028.
Deadline: mid-January. The 2026 pre-application closed January 18. The 2027 cycle opens November 2026.
Honest take: GTRI is the single best paid tech option for Georgia high schoolers. The Georgia Tech brand plus real research lab work is a strong combo.
NIH Summer Internship Program
The National Institutes of Health runs a stipend-paying summer research program that now includes high schoolers (the old HS-SIP merged into the main Summer Internship Program).
Work is biomedical research at the main NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and at regional NIH sites.
Not every NIH internship is tech, but many are. Bioinformatics, health data science, medical AI, and computational biology all run through NIH labs. If health tech is the angle, this is the program.
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