Summer Programs for High School Students with July deadlines
EC Finder currently lists 471 summer programs with application deadlines in July for high school students. Of these, 111 are free to participate in and 82 offer virtual participation. Examples include "Gateway to Cyber" Summer Camp – Assumption University, 826 Valencia Young Authors' Workshop, and Academy of Art University Pre-College Art & Design Experience (PCADE).
- 471
- listed
- 111
- free
- 82
- virtual
- 444
- with a listed deadline
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are summer programs for high school students with july deadlines?
- Summer Programs for High School Students with July deadlines are curated extracurricular listings for high school students. Each listing includes eligibility, cost, and deadline details where known, so you can compare options and find the right fit for your college application profile.
- When do applications for these summer programs need to be submitted?
- These opportunities have application deadlines in July. Exact dates vary by program, so check each listing for specifics.
- Are any of these summer programs free?
- Yes — 111 of the 471 summer programs listed here are free to participate in.
- Can I participate virtually?
- Yes — 82 of the 471 summer programs listed here offer virtual or online participation.
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"Gateway to Cyber" Summer Camp – Assumption University
A four-day cybersecurity day camp at Assumption University in Worcester, MA for Massachusetts high schoolers entering grades 10-12, covering multi-factor authentication, cryptography, drone hacking, and password cracking through hands-on activities led by faculty and undergraduates.
826 Valencia Young Authors' Workshop
Free, intensive summer writing camp in San Francisco where high schoolers learn craft techniques from professional teaching artists.
Academy of Art University Pre-College Art & Design Experience (PCADE)
Free, college-level pre-college program in San Francisco where high schoolers study animation, game design, fashion, fine art, photography, and filmmaking.
ACLU National Advocacy Institute – High School Program
The ACLU's National Advocacy Institute high school program brings students ages 15-18 to Washington, D.C. for a week of direct training in civil liberties advocacy, campaign strategy, and grassroots organizing led by ACLU attorneys and organizers.
Actuarial Boot Camp (Connecticut Insurance & Financial Services)
A multi-day boot camp in Hartford, CT for high school seniors and college freshmen interested in actuarial careers, featuring math and statistics instruction, exam-prep resources, networking with practicing actuaries, and an optional job shadow.
Actuarial Science Camp (Lebanon Valley College)
A weeklong residential summer camp at Lebanon Valley College for rising high school seniors with strong math skills, featuring instruction in actuarial software and concepts, sessions with practicing actuaries, and student presentations to help students decide if actuarial work fits their interests.
Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program
An online mentorship pairing high school writers with established authors for individualized feedback on poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction over several weeks each summer, run by the editors of The Adroit Journal.
Advanced Space Academy (U.S. Space & Rocket Center)
A six-day immersive residential astronaut-training and engineering program for ages 15-18 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, including rocket design and launch, an underwater astronaut trainer, engineering challenges, and a simulated space mission.
Adventist Health Central Valley Healthcare Pathway Program
A selective 4-week healthcare exposure program run by Adventist Health Central Valley in which a physician personally selects two small cohorts of high school students for hands-on exploration of healthcare careers and clinical environments.
AFA CyberCamps
Summer cybersecurity camps run by the Air & Space Forces Association at sites nationwide. Standard and Advanced camps introduce networking, operating-system security, and hands-on defense skills, often used as an on-ramp to CyberPatriot.
AFRL Scholars Program
A paid eight-week summer research internship that places upper-level high schoolers directly with Air Force Research Laboratory scientists and engineers at sites across the U.S. to work on real research and technology projects.
AFS-USA Intercultural Programs
Nonprofit exchange organization offering U.S. high schoolers ages 15-18 semester, summer, and year-long homestay programs in over 50 countries to build language skills and intercultural competence.
AIM: Business (Boston University)
A three-week Academic Immersion program at Boston University run in partnership with the Questrom School of Business, in which rising high school juniors and seniors combine lectures, case studies, and local field trips to design and pitch a New Product Development business plan to Questrom faculty.
Air Force Association CyberCamp
A free week-long residential summer camp for high schoolers hosted by the Air Force Association at partner universities nationwide (including the University of Pittsburgh), covering cyber hygiene and systems administration and culminating in a hands-on vulnerability-finding competition; a feeder program into CyberPatriot.
ALA California Girls State
ALA California Girls State, run by the American Legion Auxiliary, is a weeklong residential program for rising senior young women to learn the operation of government by campaigning for and holding mock city, county, and state offices. The 83rd session runs June 22-27, 2026.
ALA Girls Nation
American Legion Auxiliary program in which two graduating-senior delegates ("senators") from each state's Girls State program travel to Washington, D.C. for a seven-day mock legislature, writing and debating bills, campaigning for office, and visiting Capitol Hill and national landmarks; the 2026 session runs July 18-25.
ALA Girls State
A week-long leadership and civics program run by the American Legion Auxiliary in which rising senior girls build and operate a simulated city and state government.
Alliance Française de Seattle Teen Summer Program
A half-day French immersion summer camp for teens ages 13-17 that combines language classes with cultural activities, run by the Seattle chapter of the international Alliance Française network.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet Summer Program
Ballet/contemporary dancers train intensively in technique and improvisation under company faculty and guest choreographers, culminating in a public showcase.
AlphaStar Summer Math Camp
Selective Olympiad-style math camp with in-person site in Cupertino and online live/self-paced options, focusing on advanced problem-solving and competition preparation.
Alvin Ailey School Summer Intensive
Summer dance training at the Ailey School in New York City, with a Junior Division for ages 12-15 and a Professional Division for ages 16-25 covering ballet, Horton, Graham, jazz, and contemporary technique.
American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive
ABT's flagship summer ballet training program held in New York, California, and Florida, offering advanced dancers instruction in ABT's National Training Curriculum with merit-based scholarships available.
American Cancer Society High School Cancer Research Program
A two-week virtual summer program (part of ACS's CICRT initiative) in which rising sophomores through seniors interested in cancer research or health professions complete case studies with the eCLOSE Institute, receive career-development support, and earn a $500 stipend.
American Dance Festival Pre-Professional Dance Intensive
A two-week summer dance intensive at Duke University for dancers ages 13-17, offering training across multiple contemporary and modern dance forms with master classes from renowned touring companies.
American Legion Boys Nation
One of the most selective civic-education programs in the country: two delegates chosen from each state's American Legion Boys State program (about 100 nationally from a pool of 20,000+ Boys State participants) travel to Washington, D.C. to serve a week as mock U.S. senators, drafting bills, holding committee hearings, and meeting elected officials.
American Legion Boys State
A week-long, sponsor-funded citizenship and government simulation where rising senior boys elect officials and run a mock state government to learn how democracy functions in practice.
American Legion CA Boys & Girls State (coed)
Coed week-long simulation of CA state government at Sacramento State; students campaign, legislate, and run mock judicial/executive branches.
American Legion California Boys & Girls State
American Legion California Boys & Girls State is a weeklong, coeducational hands-on civics program where rising seniors build and run mock city, county, and state governments, campaign for office, and pass legislation. The 87th session runs June 20-27, 2026 at California State University, Sacramento.
American Red Cross Leadership Development Center (LDC) Summer Camp
A four-day overnight summer leadership camp at a Bay Area location where more than 130 teen delegates train in team-building, CPR and first aid, disaster and emergency response, and leadership roles alongside Red Cross staff.
Amigos de las Américas (AMIGOS) Summer Programs
A nonprofit that sends teens abroad for two-to-six-week summer service and cultural immersion trips across Latin America, where participants live with host families and lead community-driven service projects alongside local youth.
Aquarium of the Pacific VolunTEEN Program
Selective teen volunteer program training in marine science/public speaking, Long Beach.
Archaeology Summer Scholars (Notre Dame)
Selective 1-week course doing fieldwork/lab analysis on Notre Dame's own archaeological sites.
Arete: An Introduction to the Classics (University of Dallas)
A two-week residential summer program on the University of Dallas campus for rising juniors, seniors, and recent grads to explore the Classics through readings, museum visits, and cultural excursions such as Shakespeare in the Park, earning 3 college credit hours.
ARI Teen Immersion: Exploring History (Ages 13-18)
A four-day summer archaeology immersion camp for teens ages 13-18 at the Archaeological Research Institute's base camp, combining excavation at the Guard Archaeological Preserve with lab work, pottery-making, and lessons on ancient techniques integrating STEM and anthropology.
ArtCenter Extension Teen Summer Courses (ACX Teens)
Hands-on art and design intensives for high schoolers at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, covering character design, illustration, and design/technology.
Arthur M. Blank School Summer Program (Babson College)
A pre-college summer program at Babson College, the top-ranked school for entrepreneurship education, offering high schoolers residential, commuter, and online options to take hands-on courses across business, entrepreneurship, technology, and finance taught by Babson faculty and practitioners.
Aspen Music Festival and School - High School Division
One of the most selective summer classical music programs in the country, giving roughly 40-50 accepted high schoolers five weeks of private lessons, chamber coaching, and orchestral performance in Aspen, Colorado.
Astronomy Camp (University of Arizona, Mount Lemmon)
Week-long overnight camp operating research-grade telescopes; Beginning/Advanced tracks.
ASU Underwater Robotics Camp
A weeklong summer camp at Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus in which rising 11th and 12th graders design and enhance an underwater robot to complete a simulated mission recovering objects and removing hazardous materials, competing in the National Underwater Robotics Competition format.
Bar Association of San Francisco Law Academy
Yearlong legal curriculum leading into a paid six-week summer internship at law firms/public interest orgs.
BAVC Media Youth & Emerging Media Makers (Climate Warriors)
San Francisco Bay Area filmmaking/media-arts intensive where high schoolers create social-impact media projects, including a climate-justice documentary program.
Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) Young Writers Camp
UC Berkeley-based summer writing camps for 9th-12th graders, offering journalism, creative writing, and dramatic writing tracks.
Baylor College of Medicine Premedical Summer Institute
A four-week on-campus program at Baylor College of Medicine blending classroom instruction, clinical exposure, and laboratory work to give students a realistic introduction to the pre-med path.
Baylor College of Medicine SMS Summer Research Program
An eight-week Houston-based lab internship for students who completed Baylor's Saturday Morning Science program, giving them full-time mentored research experience in an active BCM laboratory plus weekly professional-development sessions.
Berkeley Ballet Theater Summer Intensive
A pre-professional ballet training program with Junior/Senior Summer Intensive tracks for ages 11-18, requiring a placement class before enrollment, offered alongside youth division classes and tuition-waived boys' classes at this Berkeley dance school.
Berkeley Business Academy for Youth (B-BAY)
A UC Berkeley Haas School of Business initiative offering pre-college entrepreneurship tracks for middle and high schoolers, including a residential summer program in which students research and develop a full business plan under Haas faculty, PhD candidates, and undergraduates, plus newer startup-accelerator and incubator options.
Berkeley M.E.T. Innovation Academy
A selective residential summer program at UC Berkeley for rising high school juniors and seniors interested in technology and entrepreneurship, combining hands-on engineering projects with business and innovation training led by Berkeley's College of Engineering and Haas School of Business.
Berklee Aspire: Five-Week Music Performance Intensive
A five-week pre-college summer performance program at Berklee College of Music in Boston for musicians 15 and older, with private lessons, ensemble playing, and elective tracks in production, songwriting, and music business.
BioBuilder Summer Research Program
Two-week immersive synthetic biology lab program in Boston where rising 10th-12th graders design and engineer bacteria-based systems to solve real-world problems.
Boston Leadership Institute – Electronics & Robotics
A three-week summer program at Bentley University/Gann Academy in Waltham, MA combining mechanical engineering, electronics, and Arduino programming as students design, solder, and code robotic vehicles, with field trips to MIT's Edgerton Center and WPI's Robotics Lab.
Boston Leadership Institute: Real Estate Investing
A one-week program in Boston where high schoolers appraise an actual home on the market, complete a mock loan application, build an amortization table, and explore REITs, house-flipping, and real estate careers through field trips to local properties.
Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI)
An elite summer classical music training program in Lenox, Massachusetts, offering two-week workshops and longer sessions for instrumentalists, singers, and composers ages 14-20 near the Tanglewood Music Festival.
Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival
Brave New Voices is an annual international youth poetry slam festival founded and produced by Youth Speaks, a San Francisco spoken-word organization. Teen poetry teams from across the world compete in spoken-word slam rounds alongside workshops and community events; the 2026 festival (its 29th year) will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area in July.
Bread Loaf Young Writers' Conference (Middlebury)
A week-long residential creative writing conference on Middlebury College's Bread Loaf campus in Vermont for students in grades 10-12, featuring small workshops, craft lectures, and readings led by professional writers.
Brevard Music Center High School Programs
Residential summer training at Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, with multi-week tracks for high schoolers in orchestral studies, musical theater, and classical voice alongside guest artists from major orchestras.
Brown Pre-College: Brain Basics – From Biology to Behavior
A Brown University pre-college course where students dissect preserved human brains and study topics like visual perception, mental illness, and addiction while building research and presentation skills.
Build SF Summer Design Institute (AFSF)
A virtual summer design institute from the Architectural Foundation of San Francisco where high schoolers learn architectural sketching, design process, and digital design tools while meeting twice weekly with a professional architect mentor and presenting an original project.
Business & Entrepreneurship Academy (University of Miami Herbert Business School)
A two-week summer program on the University of Miami's Coral Gables campus in which high schoolers take part in hands-on entrepreneurship sessions, develop and test business ideas, and work alongside students from across the country.
Cal Poly Summer Springboard: Nutrition & Food Science
A two-week Cal Poly SLO pre-college course led by a registered dietitian where students examine food labels, macronutrient science, and the cultural and business factors shaping diet and wellness choices.
Cal Shakes Summer Shakespeare Conservatory
A multi-week teen Shakespeare training conservatory (named Best Teen Camp by Alameda Magazine) held at Saint Mary's College and partner high school campuses in Lafayette and Oakland, offering morning classes in acting, voice, movement, and stage combat that culminate in a fully-produced public Shakespeare performance.
CalArts Community Arts Partnership Summer Arts (CAPSA)
A free four-week summer arts program in Los Angeles County run by CalArts faculty, alumni, and students, offering high schoolers tuition-free instruction across the disciplines taught at CalArts.
California National Debate Institute (CNDI)
The premier West Coast summer debate camp near UC Berkeley.
California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) - Animation
CSSSA's Animation program is a distinct discipline track (separate department and faculty from the CSSSA Film program) within California's official state summer arts school. High school students explore traditional, cutout, and digital animation techniques, producing multiple animated projects over a residential summer session with guest artists, field trips to animation studios, and figure drawing training.
California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) - Theater
A highly selective four-week residential summer conservatory for high school students serious about acting, with training in scene study, voice, movement, and on-camera acting from working industry professionals.
California Youth Leadership Forum (YLF)
A free, week-long residential leadership program in Sacramento for California high schoolers with disabilities. Delegates take part in workshops, mock legislative sessions, and guest speakers covering self-advocacy, postsecondary education, career readiness, and public policy.
Californians for Justice - Oakland Youth Organizing
A grassroots youth-power organization training Oakland high schoolers (with focus on LGBTQ, foster, low-income, and immigrant youth) as community organizers, through weekly meetings, a five-week Summer Youth Leadership Academy, a fall Leadership Bootcamp, and a statewide spring retreat.
Caltech Earthquake Fellows
A selective Caltech Seismological Laboratory program pairing Pasadena/Alhambra-area 10th and 11th graders with earthquake scientists for roughly 130 hours across spring Saturdays and a summer weekday block. Fellows build their own Raspberry Shake seismometer, analyze real earthquake data, take field trips, and present findings at a culminating event.
Caltech Summer Research Connection (ZTF track)
6-week research placement for Pasadena USD students analyzing real Caltech telescope survey data.
Camp BizSmart: Innovate This!
An in-person weekend Maker's Lab competition on the Monterey Central Coast (with an optional Santa Clara University residential option) where teams of teens ages 13-18 assume C-level executive roles to design a water-filtration product for the Monterey Bay Aquarium and pitch it to investors for a cash prize.
Camp Business (Drexel LeBow College of Business)
A one-week daytime summer program at Drexel's LeBow College of Business in Philadelphia for rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors, introducing accounting, marketing, finance, and management fundamentals alongside professionalism, etiquette, and team-building skills, with residential and commuter options.
Camp Kala Teen Studio: Digital Photography
Kala Art Institute in Berkeley runs Camp Kala, a summer arts program with week-long small-group sessions; its Teen Studio: Digital Photography session teaches teens ages 11-17 digital photography fundamentals and techniques in a hands-on studio setting. The 2026 camp runs weekly sessions from June through early August, with reduced tuition and financial assistance available.
Camp SOAR (Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering)
A six-day residential Texas A&M summer camp for rising juniors and seniors exploring aircraft, rotorcraft, space mission design, and space robotics tracks through technical lectures, hands-on design projects, and facility tours, with need-based scholarships available.
Case Western Reserve Pre-College: Neuroscience and Medicine
A fully online CWRU pre-college course on brain structure, neurotransmitters, and neurological disorders, with flexible 2- or 4-week sessions, mentor support, and a CWRU certificate on completion.
Catholic University of America Ancient Languages Online Summer Program
Live, synchronous online summer courses in Greek or Latin (plus Hebrew and other ancient languages) offered by Catholic University's Department of Ancient and Medieval Languages and Cultures. High school students are explicitly welcomed alongside undergraduates and adult learners, with courses offering up to four semesters of college-level study.
CCA Pre-College Summer Program
A four-week residential (or five-week online) summer program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco for students who have just completed sophomore, junior, or senior year, offering 17 studio courses -- including Animation and Game Design -- and 3 college credits toward a portfolio.
Center for American Archaeology High School Field School
A hands-on residential archaeological field school in Kampsville, Illinois, where students ages 13-17 join real excavation, laboratory analysis, and artifact identification alongside professional archaeologists across one-to-four-week sessions; no prior experience is required.
CFI Education Young Curators Program (Mill Valley Film Festival)
A free, four-week online program for grades 9-12 held on Fridays in July, where students watch short films from around the world, engage in critical discussion, and collaborate as a jury to curate the youth-produced shorts program presented at the Mill Valley Film Festival.
Chapman University Backhausdance Summer Intensive
In-person 1-3 week dance intensive at Chapman University where high schoolers train daily in contemporary, modern, ballet, improvisation, and composition.
Chapman University Henley Lab Social Science Summer Pre-College Research Experience
A pre-college research fellowship at Chapman University's Henley Social Science Research Lab where high schoolers with a 3.5+ GPA conduct real social science research projects, developing skills in data analysis (including SPSS), academic writing, research poster design, and public presentation.
Chapman University Pharmacy Summer Research Program
Hybrid summer research program where small cohorts of high schoolers work with pharmacy faculty advisors on health-science/chemistry research projects.
Chapman University Social Science Summer Pre-College Research Experience
3.5-week research program with sociology/poli-sci faculty on real survey projects.
CHOP Neurology High School Scholars Program
A paid five-week internship at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia pairing sophomores through seniors with a neurologist or neuroscientist mentor for a research project, clinical shadowing, and a final poster presentation. Program is paused for 2026, set to resume July 2027.
CIEE High School Study Abroad
Language & Culture summer (3-4 week) and semester/year immersion programs for U.S. high schoolers in 40+ destinations worldwide, combining daily language classes with homestays for full cultural immersion.
Circle in the Square Theatre School Summer Intensive
A rigorous two-week summer acting or musical theater workshop at the only theater school housed inside a Broadway theater, condensing the conservatory's professional training curriculum for students 15 and up.
Colorado Youth Corps Association Conservation Crews
Statewide coalition of eight accredited youth conservation corps that hire and train Colorado teens (ages 14+) for paid summer and year-round crews doing trail building, habitat restoration, and wildfire mitigation work.
Columbia Climate School in the Green Mountains
Two-week campus-based pre-college program in Vermont where high schoolers study climate science and design real-world climate action projects under Columbia Climate School instructors.
Columbia Pre-College: Data Science and Machine Learning 1
Foundational data science/ML course, Python, ethical analysis; in-person NYC or online.
Columbia University Creative Writing Workshop (Pre-College)
A summer pre-college workshop where high schoolers develop a portfolio of free-verse poetry, short prose, and creative nonfiction through daily craft exercises and peer critique on Columbia's campus.
Columbia University Pre-College – Exploring Topics in Linguistics
An in-person Columbia Pre-College summer course introducing high schoolers to phonology, morphology, semantics, and syntax alongside topics like dialects, language and the brain, and the internet's impact on English.
Columbia Zuckerman Institute BRAINYAC
Places NYC high schoolers in Columbia neuroscience labs to work one-on-one with scientist mentors on ongoing research, entered via partner-organization nomination.
Concordia Language Villages
Residential summer immersion camps in Bemidji, Minnesota teaching 18 languages through cultural activities, camp life conducted entirely in the target language, and optional high school course credit.
Contra Costa Ballet Summer Intensive
A 2-4 week ballet summer intensive for dancers ages 8-18 at Contra Costa Ballet Centre in Walnut Creek, requiring in-person or video audition for ages 9+, with daily technique, pointe, jazz, character, and repertoire training for intermediate/advanced levels.
Cornell AAP Urban Studies Summer Programs
Fully online, credit-bearing Cornell courses for high schoolers such as "The Just and Sustainable City" and "Maps, Mapping, and GIS," taught by City and Regional Planning PhD candidates, exploring urban equity, sustainability, and geographic analysis tools.
Cornell CICER Summer High School Program
A two-week pre-college program at Cornell's SC Johnson College of Business offering interactive courses in economics, big data and business analytics, and engineering economics, with academic seminars and hands-on business simulations led by Cornell faculty and students.
Cornell Precollege Studies: Introduction to Sociology (SOC 1101)
A credit-bearing online Cornell University course for high school juniors and seniors providing a broad introduction to sociological perspectives, theories, and research methods, offered in multiple summer sessions through Cornell's Precollege Studies Online program.
COSMOS UC Davis - Cluster: Future Mobility on Ground and Air
A residential four-week COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science) cluster at UC Davis where students work with aerospace and mechanical engineering faculty on how ground and air vehicles are designed, including analyzing aerodynamic performance and designing quadcopters for Earth, Moon, Mars, and Titan.
COSMOS UC Davis - Cluster: Introduction to Engineering Mechanics
A residential four-week COSMOS cluster at UC Davis (5:1 student-to-faculty ratio) that introduces students to engineering mechanics through hands-on labs, field activities, and lectures taught by UC faculty researchers.
COSMOS UC Davis - Cluster: Sustainable Transportation
A residential four-week COSMOS cluster at UC Davis focused on sustainable transportation engineering, giving students hands-on labs and field activities exploring civil and environmental engineering approaches to transportation systems, taught by UC Davis faculty researchers.
CreaTV San Jose Summer Documentary Institute
A five-week documentary filmmaking and leadership program at CreaTV San Jose, run in partnership with San Jose Works, where teens ages 13-18 research community topics in small groups and produce 5-7 minute mini-documentaries screened publicly at CreaTV.
Criminal & Forensic Science at UCLA (Summer Springboard)
A two-week residential pre-college course on the UCLA campus teaching forensic investigation techniques - fingerprint, fiber, blood-spatter, and DNA analysis - through crime scene simulations and team case studies, taught by a 36-year veteran Forensic Identification Specialist from the LA County Sheriff's Department. The program includes a field visit to a real police department crime lab and ends in a moot court presentation.
CSSSA Dance (California State Summer School for the Arts)
Four-week residential pre-professional dance intensive for California high schoolers, offering ballet, contemporary, and modern technique training with professional guest artists.
Cyber Camp (Messiah University)
A day camp for students entering grades 9-12 at Messiah University covering cryptography, ethical hacking, social engineering, digital forensics, and IoT security, taught by cybersecurity faculty and industry experts with a visit to the university's Security Operations Center.
Cyber Immersion Camp (Norwich University)
A weeklong residential summer camp at Norwich University for students in grades 10-12 of all skill levels, teaching command line, Python, Linux, Metasploit, Nmap, and Wireshark through labs covering digital forensics, ethical hacking, and information warfare.
Dakota State University Cyber Camp for High Schoolers
A low-cost, residential summer cybersecurity camp at Dakota State University for students entering grades 10-12, covering digital forensics, cryptography, and C/Python programming with morning core sessions and afternoon electives.
Debate & Leadership Institute (Founding Forward)
A five-day student debate and leadership program hosted on Founding Forward's (formerly Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge) 75-acre campus in Valley Forge, PA, combining competitive debate training with civic leadership workshops.
Diablo Ballet Summer Intensive
Intermediate/advanced ballet students train daily in technique, pointe, variations, and contemporary styles over a 4-week audition-based intensive.
DigiPen Academy Pre-College Game Design
A four-week, beginner-friendly online summer program for rising juniors/seniors (16+) covering game design principles, applied computer science for games, narrative design, and collaborative game development; graduates who later enroll at DigiPen Institute of Technology within three years receive a tuition credit equal to the program's cost.
Dinosaur Academy (Wyoming Dinosaur Center)
Dinosaur Academy is a 5-day, in-depth course at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center for students in grades 9-12 focused on vertebrate fossils of the Morrison Formation. Students get classroom instruction plus hands-on field excavation and laboratory work covering fossil preparation, mapping, specimen identification, and museum display techniques.
Dow Jones News Fund Multimedia Journalism Workshop at LMU
11-day residential broadcast workshop producing a live news broadcast, aimed at students facing career-access barriers.
Drexel University Biomedical Engineering Summer Institute
A Drexel University pre-college summer institute where high schoolers get an introduction to biomedical engineering through lab work and design projects on Drexel's Philadelphia campus.
Duke Pre-College Neuroscience
A residential Duke summer course exploring the nervous system from individual neurons to brain networks, covering memory, emotion, and neurological disorders through labs, case studies, and a capstone experiment.
Duke Pre-College: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Residential course on ML, data analysis, and algorithmic thinking.
Duke Pre-College: Social Psychology
A two-week Duke Pre-College course in which high school students explore how social contexts shape thoughts, emotions, and behavior, covering group dynamics, identity, conformity, and persuasion.
Earth and Environmental Sciences (UConn Pre-College Summer)
A non-credit UConn pre-college course in which high schoolers study Earth systems, mineralogy, and the geologic history of Connecticut through lectures, lab demonstrations, and fieldwork with Department of Earth Sciences faculty at the Storrs campus.
Earthwatch Girls in Science
A 7-day Earthwatch field research expedition for high school girls from underserved schools and communities, led by female scientists to build mentorship connections and interest in STEM and conservation careers.
Earthwatch Ignite
Earthwatch program offering 12-14 day field research expeditions across the U.S. that pair high school students from underserved schools and communities with practicing scientists on live conservation research projects.
Earthwatch Teen Expeditions (Ignite Fellowship)
Fully-funded field research expeditions run by the nonprofit Earthwatch Institute that place high schoolers alongside professional scientists studying conservation topics like wildlife, climate, and habitat protection.
Eckerd College Pre-College Marine Science
A one-week residential program on Eckerd's Gulf of Mexico waterfront campus where high school juniors and seniors do hands-on field and lab work spanning marine biology, marine geology, and marine chemistry.
Ecology Project International (EPI)
Nonprofit that runs 5-14 day field ecology expeditions in biodiverse ecosystems (Yellowstone, Costa Rica, Baja, the Galápagos) where high school students conduct hands-on conservation research alongside professional scientists and local land managers.
Economics for Leaders Virtual (Foundation for Teaching Economics)
The remote version of FTE's Economics for Leaders program for current high school sophomores and juniors, delivering the same economic-reasoning and leadership curriculum online for students unable to attend an in-person site, with optional college credit.
embARC Summer Design Academy
A four-week residential and commuter summer program at UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design where rising high school juniors and seniors explore architecture, urban design, and sustainable city planning. The program combines an Architecture + Urban Design Studio, a Digital Design Workshop, a Materials Exploration Workshop, and a lecture series with practicing designers, with no prior design experience required.
Emerging Filmmakers: Digital Filmmaking Summer Institute — UCLA
3-week intensive writing/shooting/editing a short narrative film on UCLA's campus.
Emerson College Pre-College Journalism Institute
1-5 week sessions for students building/improving a school publication.
Emory Pre-College Neuroscience Program
A two-week program on the science of the brain, memory/cognition techniques, neurological disease, prosthetics, and brain-machine topics.
Encampment for Citizenship
A residential summer civic-leadership program for ages 15-18 that brings students together to explore social justice issues through youth-led workshops, meetings with community members such as farmworkers and Indigenous groups, and year-round leadership development in facilitation and activism.
Enterprise for Youth: Paid Internship Program
A San Francisco nonprofit's paid internship placement program for high school juniors and seniors, offering roles across industries such as tech, retail, healthcare, and small business. Interns complete 75 hours (about 12 hours/week) with weekly professional development workshops and job coach support.
Entrepreneurship & Innovation (Bentley University Pre-College)
A Bentley University pre-college summer track offering multiple 3- to 7-day courses such as Innovation and Design for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs and Accounting Adventures: Converting Dreams to Dollars, in which high schoolers work through site visits, workshops, and pitch competitions on the Waltham, MA campus.
Environmental Studies Summer Youth Institute (Hobart and William Smith Colleges)
A two-week, one-college-credit residential program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for about 50 academically talented students entering junior or senior year, who explore environmental challenges through scientific, social, economic, and ethical lenses while documenting the Adirondack region.
Envision Intensive Law & Trial
10-day residential trial advocacy program at Stanford culminating in a mock trial in a real courtroom.
Envision NYLF Advanced Medicine & Health Care
An advanced-track follow-on to Envision's NYLF Medicine program offering deeper clinical simulations, hospital site visits, and healthcare career exploration for students who want to go further into pre-med topics.
Envision NYLF Medicine & Health Care
An eight-day pre-college program held at university campuses like Yale, UCLA, and Emory where students practice clinical simulations such as suturing and triage and hear from doctors and medical students about health care careers.
Esporterz Esports & Coding Camp
An in-person esports and coding camp based in Larkspur (Marin County, Bay Area) where teens play competitive and casual video games on pro-gaming PCs, learn basic coding and robotics, and take part in outdoor STEM activities during weeklong summer sessions.
Evodyne Summer Advanced AI Robotics Program
A summer program in Mountain View, CA (or virtual) where high schoolers ages 14+ build and keep an advanced quadruped robot dog, learning ROS, Python, C++, CAD, and computer vision over several weeks of in-person or online instruction.
Exploring Entrepreneurship (Fordham Gabelli)
A one-week summer program at Fordham's Gabelli School of Business in New York City in which high school juniors and seniors develop a new business idea at the Foundry innovation hub and pitch it to a panel of startup experts and entrepreneurs.
Exploring Entrepreneurship (USC Marshall Pre-College)
A four-week USC Marshall School of Business pre-college summer course in which high schoolers move through ideation, product-market fit, financing, and pitching phases of launching a startup, conducting market research and presenting at a final pitch competition, with the option to live on campus or commute.
FACES Summer Medical Academy (Samuel Merritt University)
A two-week, in-person summer program at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland exposing high schoolers (15+) to medicine, nursing, and allied health through clinical skills training, anatomy workshops, and patient simulations, with certifications in Stop the Bleed and opioid overdose intervention.
Farm Bureau Foundation Gold Cup Award (Sonoma County Fair)
An annual award from the Farm Bureau Foundation of Sonoma County given to a graduating 4-H or FFA member who exhibited at the Sonoma County Fair, based on a mock job-interview competition judging leadership, citizenship, project work, and academic achievement. The winner receives a $2,500 scholarship and their 4-H club or FFA chapter receives an additional $500.
Finance Institute: Wall Street in the Classroom (Fordham Gabelli)
A summer program at Fordham's Gabelli School of Business on its Rose Hill campus in which high schoolers considering finance study financial markets, stocks and bonds, alternative investments, risk management, and industry ethics and trends.
Foundation for Teaching Economics – Advanced Economics for Leaders
Week-long residential program for students who've completed HS/AP economics, covering college-level micro/macroeconomic theory alongside leadership development.
Foundation for Teaching Economics – Economics for Leaders
Selective residential/live-online summer program where sophomores/juniors learn to integrate economic reasoning into leadership decisions using FTE's Five Economic Reasoning Principles.
Foundation for Teaching Economics – Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy
Week-long FTE summer program where students explore how economic systems support innovation, developing their own business idea, pitch, and funding plan.
Foundation for Teaching Economics: Environment & the Economy
A residential FTE summer program held at university campuses nationwide for high school sophomores and juniors, using lectures, hands-on classroom activities, case studies, and a field trip to teach a rational, economics-based approach to environmental issues alongside leadership skills.
Fox Chase Cancer Center Immersion Science Program
Free Philadelphia-based laboratory training program for high schoolers 16+, including a hands-on molecular biology training lab and an advanced Summer Fellows research track.
Fred Hutch Summer High School Internship Program (SHIP)
A paid eight-week Seattle-based cancer research internship for 11th-12th graders with little to no prior research experience, opening with two weeks of lab-technique training before mentored work in a Fred Hutch research group.
GenCyber Camps
NSA- and NSF-funded free, one-week cybersecurity camps hosted at universities across the country covering internet safety, cryptography, ethics, network scanning, and core security principles. No prior experience required.
GenCyber Forensics Camp – Norwich University
A free week-long GenCyber pre-college program at Norwich University for rising sophomores through seniors, using gaming, modeling, and simulation to teach digital forensics tools while students build and keep a mini computer.
GenCyber Summer Camp – Baylor University
A free five-day cybersecurity summer camp for students completing grades 8-12, hosted by Baylor University and McLennan Community College in Waco, TX, featuring hands-on exercises, industry speakers, and a closing team competition.
GenCyber Summer Camp – Illinois State University
A free, NSA/NSF-funded residential summer camp at Illinois State University where high schoolers entering grades 9-12 learn cybersecurity fundamentals and IoT security through hands-on labs while experiencing college life.
GenCyber Summer Camp – Purdue University Northwest
A free, five-day NSA/NSF-funded GenCyber camp for high schoolers at Purdue University Northwest covering cybersecurity awareness, network security, cryptography, ethical hacking labs, and cyber forensics.
GenCyber Summer Camp – University of West Florida
A free five-day GenCyber camp at the University of West Florida for rising 7th-12th graders (age 13+), introducing cybersecurity first principles, Linux fundamentals, and career pathways through hands-on activities.
GenCyber Summer Camp (Rochester Institute of Technology)
A free, NSA-funded GenCyber day camp at RIT for rising 8th-12th graders covering cyber ethics, online safety, and cybersecurity defense fundamentals, with a dedicated GenCyber for Girls session alongside the co-ed session.
Generation Human Rights (GenHR) Student Internship
A remote internship with the nonprofit Generation Human Rights in which high school and university students help develop human rights education curricula, conduct research, and support organizational projects.
Genetics Immersion Program (University of Michigan)
A free six-week summer research program in which high schoolers are paired with a Ph.D. or postdoctoral mentor in the University of Michigan Department of Human Genetics to design and run an original genetics research project, with a stipend, free transportation, and daily meals provided.
Genome Science Camp (Cold Spring Harbor DNA Learning Center)
An advanced hands-on genomics camp at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's DNA Learning Center for students entering grades 11-12 with a genetics or AP Biology background, who manufacture Taq DNA polymerase and use it in PCR-based genomic analysis of several organisms.
Georgetown Entrepreneurship Academy
A two-week residential Georgetown University summer program where high schoolers learn startup fundamentals, prototype testing, and market research, culminating in a team pitch competition.
Georgetown Law Academy
Two-week residential law/government program with Supreme Court visits.
Georgetown Summer College: Exploring Race and Diversity
A Summer College course examining anthropological theories of race, ethnicity, and culturally-constructed social phenomena, taken for college credit alongside Georgetown undergraduates.
Georgetown Summer College: General Psychology
A credit-bearing introductory psychology course offered through Georgetown's Summer College, surveying perception, memory, cognition, neuroscience, learning, personality, social behavior, and psychopathology, taken online or in-person alongside undergraduates.
GetSET (SWE Santa Clara Valley)
A four-year outreach program of the Santa Clara Valley Society of Women Engineers in which 25 incoming high school freshmen are selected annually to attend an intensive week-long summer program with over 50 hands-on engineering and science workshops led by volunteer women engineers, returning each summer through senior year.
Gilder Lehrman History School
A free summer program offering live, interactive history courses taught by Gilder Lehrman master teachers, with a track for high school students in grades 9-12 alongside elementary and middle school levels.
Girls Inc. of Alameda County Eureka Program
A multi-year STEM, sports, and leadership pipeline for girls from under-resourced East Bay communities, combining a summer intensive with school-year programming to build confidence in math and science through hands-on activities and near-peer mentors.
Girls Make Games Virtual Summer Camp
A three-week live virtual summer camp for girls and non-binary students ages 8-18 (with a dedicated Teen track for ages 13-18) to learn game design and development in small groups, culminating in an individual practice game and a team game for Demo Day.
Gnomon Digital Arts Summer Camp – Animation
A five-day high school summer camp at Gnomon School of VFX, Games & Animation in North Hollywood where students (grades 10-12) learn 3D character animation and visual effects in Autodesk Maya from working industry artists.
Goethe-Institut San Francisco Teen Summer Camp
A two-week German-language summer camp for teens ages 14-17 in San Francisco that combines language instruction with project work on sustainability and social issues.
Golden State Star Party
An annual four-night amateur astronomy gathering held under dark skies at Frosty Acres Ranch in Adin, in far Northern California. The event welcomes newcomers and families alongside experienced astrophotographers, with telescope viewing, educational talks, and camping on-site.
GRAMMY Camp
A week-long, non-residential music industry intensive run by the GRAMMY Museum in multiple U.S. cities, letting high schoolers train with Grammy-winning professionals in tracks like music production, performance, and music business.
GRAMMY Camp – Los Angeles
A seven-day, non-residential music industry intensive run by the GRAMMY Museum Foundation at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles. High schoolers with existing skills apply to a Music Production track (plus Songwriting, Performance, or Music Business) and work with industry professionals on real recording projects.
Great Books Summer Program
A residential summer program held on the campuses of Amherst, Stanford, and abroad in which middle and high school students read and discuss classic literary works by authors such as Shakespeare, Dante, and Dickinson with university professors and scholars.
GSPA Summer Media Academy
A one-week in-person academy at the University of Georgia (run by the Georgia Scholastic Press Association) where high schoolers choose a track in Broadcast Journalism, Multimedia Journalism, Entertainment and Media Studies, or Advertising and PR, producing broadcast shows, news pieces, and short films.
Harvard Debate Council Summer Workshops
Public Forum, Policy, Congressional/Model Congress, and World Schools training.
HEAL Internship Program (Alameda Health System HealthPATH)
A clinical-rotation workforce internship for Oakland high schoolers at Alameda Health System's Highland Hospital, exposing students to fields like emergency medicine, pediatrics, and nursing, with elective school credit and a stipend or scholarship for successful completers via the OUSD partnership.
High School Archaeology Camp (Crow Canyon)
Residential camp excavating an actual Ancestral Pueblo site in Colorado.
High School Field School (Center for American Archeology)
Multi-week residential real excavation/lab work in Kampsville, Illinois.
Hiller Aviation Museum Aviation Camp Teen Volunteer Program
A free volunteer role at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos where teens age 13+ help run weekly aviation summer camps for younger kids, gaining aviation and STEM knowledge, public-facing experience, and community service hours.
HOBY California – Northern California Leadership Seminar
HS sophomores attend a multi-day leadership seminar on ethical leadership, civic responsibility, and service.
Howard University High School Summer Enrichment Program – Actuarial Science Track
A residential summer program at Howard University's School of Business for rising high school juniors and seniors interested in mathematics, statistics, and data-driven decision making, covering actuarial science fundamentals and career exposure.
HudsonAlpha Biotech Academy
A four-week summer program for teacher-nominated high schoolers focused on genetics, genomics, and biotechnology.
HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
While based in Alabama, they offer excellent virtual bioinformatics short courses ("Code of Life") for high schoolers.
Hutton Junior Fisheries Biology Program
An eight-week paid summer mentorship sponsored by the American Fisheries Society that pairs high school students with local fisheries professionals for hands-on aquatic and fisheries science fieldwork.
iD Tech – Digital Music and Beats
A live, virtual private-lesson course from iD Tech where teens (ages 10-19) learn beat-making and digital music production software one-on-one with an instructor from home, a flexible remote option for students who can't attend an in-person studio program.
iD Tech Summer Camps - Bay Area
Week-long day and overnight tech camps at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and other Bay Area locations covering coding, game design, robotics, and AI.
iD Tech: AI & Machine Learning Camp
1-2 week camp (incl. Stanford) building/training ML models in small groups.
Idyllwild Arts Summer Program
A summer arts program on a mountain campus in Southern California offering 120+ workshops and intensives for teens ages 13-18 in visual arts, music, theatre, dance, film, and creative writing.
IMG Academy Performance Camp
A nationally known multi-week residential athletic performance camp combining strength and speed training with sports-science topics like nutrition, injury prevention, and performance-technology data analysis.
Immerse Education Software Development & AI Summer Programme (Bay Area)
A one-week overnight coding and AI summer program hosted at UC Berkeley for students ages 15-18, covering programming fundamentals, algorithms, data structures, applied AI, and game design, with career-skills sessions and one-on-one coaching from industry professionals. The program emphasizes exposure to Silicon Valley's tech and gaming industries alongside hands-on coding projects.
Immerse Education: Entrepreneurship Summer School – San Francisco
A two-week residential 'Career Insights Pathway' program for students ages 15-18, based at UC Berkeley with excursions across the San Francisco Bay Area, featuring 45 hours of project-based entrepreneurship teaching, weekly 1:1 coaching, industry visits, and a personal project for college/CV applications, in small classes of 7-10 students.
Immerse Education: Psychology Summer Program
A pre-university psychology summer course for students aged 13-18, held on campuses in Cambridge, Oxford, and other global locations (with an online option), offering small-group, university-style teaching in psychology and an optional academic reference letter.
Immerse Into ASL (Gallaudet University)
A weeklong, 24/7 residential American Sign Language immersion camp at Gallaudet University for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing students entering grades 10-12 who are new or beginner-to-intermediate signers, combining ASL instruction with Deaf culture and history.
Inspirit AI Summer Program
2-week program teaching AI and machine learning fundamentals through hands-on projects. Students build neural networks and work with real datasets.
Interlochen Arts Camp - Creative Writing
A summer residential writing program at Interlochen Center for the Arts where high schoolers spend one to three weeks focusing intensively on two genres such as fiction, poetry, novel writing, or comics, based at the dedicated Writing House.
Interlochen Arts Camp - High School Programs
A renowned residential summer arts camp in Michigan where high schoolers train intensively in music, theatre, dance, visual arts, film, or creative writing alongside a community of thousands of young artists.
Interlochen Arts Camp - Screenwriting Intensive
A distinct one-week track from Interlochen's Creative Writing program, the Screenwriting Intensive gives high schoolers daily one-on-one instruction from professional screenwriters and filmmakers at Interlochen's DeRoy Center for Film Studies, the only facility in the country dedicated to film and animation studies at the high school level. Students draft an original short script and may have it staged as a live reading.
Interlochen Arts Camp – Animation
A three-week residential program at Interlochen Center for the Arts (Michigan) where high schoolers (grades 9-12) create digital animated shorts using industry-standard software in the 26,000-square-foot DeRoy Center for Film Studies, ending in a public screening.
Interlochen Arts Camp – Music Production & Engineering
A three-week residential program at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan where high schoolers (grades 9-12) record, mix, and produce music in professional studios using Pro Tools and Logic Pro, working on live recording sessions with expert faculty.
International Economics Olympiad (IEO)
Global olympiad combining economics theory, data analysis, and business case problem-solving; participants reach IEO via their country's national selection.
International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL)
Global olympiad in linguistics and language puzzles; you reach it by performing well in your country's qualifying contest (e.g., NACLO for US/Canada).
International Physics Olympiad (IPhO)
Invitation-only global competition for top national teams; experimental and theoretical exams.
International Psychology Olympiad (IPsyO)
A global competition in which high school students demonstrate psychology knowledge and research skills through a qualification test, a reading-based exam module, and a team-based research proposal presentation. Students from around 80 countries, including the US, have participated since its 2021 founding.
International Thespian Festival
A week-long national theatre festival at Indiana University bringing together thousands of high school Thespians for workshops, college auditions, and the Thespy Awards recognizing excellence in school theatre performance and technical design.
International Youth Neuroscience Association (IYNA) Ideaathon
Virtual competition where teams propose a solution to a neurological problem (e.g., "Design a better treatment for epilepsy").
Introduction to Fossils - High School Paleontology Intensive (Museum of the Rockies)
Introduction to Fossils is a week-long, high-school-level paleontology intensive at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. Students work alongside paleontology experts to learn field and lab skills and travel to a nearby Montana fossil site to explore the region's geology.
Investment Banking Fundamentals (NYU SPS High School Academy)
An intensive in-person summer course through NYU School of Professional Studies' High School Academy in which students who have completed grades 9-11 study the origins of investment banking, trading strategies, IPOs, and mergers and acquisitions.
Investments, Financial Planning & You (UC Irvine Merage)
A commuter summer program at UC Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business in which high schoolers study wealth creation, asset allocation, and technical and fundamental analysis through case studies and simulations, culminating in a personal wealth-management capstone presentation.
Iowa Young Writers' Studio
A highly selective two-week residential creative writing program at the University of Iowa's Magid Center where high schoolers workshop fiction, poetry, or multi-genre writing under instructors from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Island School Summer Term (Cape Eleuthera Institute)
Six-week residential marine and human ecology program in The Bahamas for rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors, including PADI scuba certification and field research on mangroves, reefs, and sustainable systems.
Jackson Hole Science Expedition (Teton Science Schools)
A 26-day field ecology expedition for students in grades 10-12 based at Teton Science Schools' Kelly Campus in Grand Teton National Park, combining wildlife and ecosystem study with an independent field research project, a Yellowstone camping trip, and a capstone backcountry backpacking expedition.
Jefferson Lab High School Summer Honors Program
A paid six-week research internship at Jefferson Lab where local high schoolers conduct mentored physics and engineering research alongside lab scientists.
JHU CTY Fast-Paced High School Chemistry
Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth's advanced three-week residential chemistry course covering roughly a year of high school chemistry through lab-based instruction.
Joffrey Ballet School Summer Intensives
Summer ballet intensives at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City, including a pre-professional track for ages 14-25 covering classical technique, partnering, pointe, and contemporary styles, admission by audition.
Johns Hopkins CTY: Cognitive Psychology
3-week residential CTY course at LMU (LA) on perception, memory, and processing.
Johns Hopkins Internship in Brain Science (JHIBS)
An eight-week Johns Hopkins summer internship placing high schoolers in neuroscience labs to work on projects related to brain imaging and neurological disease under faculty and postdoc mentorship.
Johns Hopkins Internship in Brain Sciences (JHIBS)
An eight-week paid summer research internship for Baltimore high school juniors/seniors in neuroscience and mental health medicine.
Judith River Dinosaur Institute Dinosaur Digs
6-day campout excavating real Jurassic dinosaur bones in Montana.
Juniper Institute for Young Writers (UMass Amherst)
A residential and online summer creative-writing program at UMass Amherst for motivated high schoolers, offering experimentation across genres in a pre-college setting.
Just The Beginning Summer Legal Institute (SLI)
Free week-long legal immersion for underrepresented students, with courthouse visits and attorney/judge panels.
Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop
An intensive two-week residential summer workshop at Kenyon College where talented high school writers develop craft across fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction through daily exercises and small-group critique.
Kettering University Robotics Camps
Summer robotics camps at Kettering University for students in grades 8-12, covering mechanical design, Java programming for robotics, and FIRST Robotics Competition-related skills, offered as day or residential sessions.
Kinhaven Music School Senior Session
A six-week residential summer chamber music program in Vermont for about 90 elite high-school-aged musicians, emphasizing collaborative, non-competitive orchestral and chamber playing plus optional composition study.
Lamar University ChemE Summer Camp
Free week-long day camp introducing students who've completed chemistry and Algebra II to chemical engineering through labs, plant tours, and the ChemE Car competition.
Language Bits and Bytes: Computational Linguistics Coding Camp (UNT)
A five-day in-person summer camp at the University of North Texas introducing high schoolers to computational linguistics through Python programming, natural language processing, and machine learning, with no coding experience required.
LaunchX
A summer entrepreneurship program offering in-person (San Diego) and fully online tracks in which high schoolers ages 14-21 build and launch a real startup with mentor guidance, ranging from a 3-week online bootcamp to a 4-week in-person immersion, with need-based financial aid available.
Lavner Sports Analytics Virtual Camp
Online camp using statistics and coding (Java/Python) to analyze sports data and build analytical models, combining STEM with sports.
Lavner Tech Revolution San Francisco
Multi-week summer tech camp with data science and coding tracks at various SF Bay Area locations, covering Python and data analysis.
LCAD Pre-College Summer Program
Four-week summer program at Laguna College of Art and Design where high schoolers build foundational art and design skills and can earn transferable college credit.
Leangap Summer Startup Program
An intensive entrepreneurship program based at UC Berkeley (with a fully online option) where high school students validate a business idea, build a prototype, and launch a real startup over four weeks. The program culminates in a Demo Day pitch to investors and Silicon Valley business leaders.
LLNL Biotechnology Summer Experience
A free two-week program engaging students in an authentic molecular-biology/bioinformatics research project isolating, characterizing, and sequencing duckweed genes.
Local Summer Archaeological Field School (Foothill College)
Free 10-day field school teaching survey/excavation at Clear Lake, CA sites.
Looking for Shakespeare (NYU Steinhardt)
A four-week online summer intensive from NYU Steinhardt's Program in Educational Theatre in which high school students study Shakespeare's plays through close text analysis, acting, and virtual production.
Los Angeles Center of Photography Summer Camp Certificate for Teens
An in-person certificate program at the Los Angeles Center of Photography for students ages 12-18 with no prior experience required, consisting of one foundational course plus two elective courses in photography completed within a single summer term.
MACLA Teen Tech Center
Free San Jose program blending media arts (stop-motion animation, filmmaking, photography, illustration) with teamwork-based creative projects for teens.
Manhattan University Electrical and Computer Engineering Summer Program
A four-day, non-residential summer program for rising 10th and 11th graders on Manhattan University's campus, with workshops and interactive labs covering power and renewable energy, electronic design, embedded systems, and professional trips to technology companies and research centers.
Marine Science Careers + Internship Academy
Weeklong (and multi-week) academy where teens explore intertidal ecology, animal husbandry, lab investigations, and shipboard research aboard Ocean Institute vessels.
MathILy
A five-week residential summer program at Bryn Mawr College where mathematically excellent secondary students explore advanced topics and build problem-solving skill through an interactive, discovery-oriented format.
Max Planck Florida Institute (MPFI) Summer Research Internship
A six-week full-time paid internship in neuroscience (also scientific-programming and mechanical-engineering tracks) with hands-on wet-lab work including genetic engineering, histology, and microscopy.
Mayo Clinic HERO (Healthcare Experience and Research in Oncology)
A two-week virtual Mayo Clinic program where Midwest high school students collaborate with peers on a genetics-based cancer research project and a patient case study to explore oncology and clinical care.
Meadowmount School of Music
A seven-week summer intensive for young violinists, violists, and cellists in the Adirondacks, founded by legendary teacher Ivan Galamian, combining rigorous private practice with weekly lessons and chamber coaching.
MEET Kelley (Indiana University)
A free pre-college program at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business for rising high school seniors from underrepresented backgrounds, combining business instruction, campus activities, and a professional case competition, with tuition, housing, and food fully covered and travel scholarships available.
Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy (MMLA)
A four-week residential language immersion program for students in grades 8-12 offering Arabic, Chinese, French, German, or Spanish, built around Middlebury's signature 'Language Pledge' that requires English-free communication throughout the program.
Midwest High School Scholars Analytics Academy
A one-week Illinois State University summer academy (running since the mid-1990s) for academically strong high schoolers from underrepresented groups, introducing insurance, actuarial science, and data-driven problem solving.
Missouri University Journalism Workshop
A one-week residential summer workshop at the University of Missouri School of Journalism where high schoolers learn 'The Missouri Method' through hands-on instruction in writing, interviewing, audio, podcasting, video, and investigative reporting, culminating in original reporting projects with instructor coaching.
MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute – Quantum Software
A rigorous MIT program combining an online prerequisite course with a four-week in-person summer session where students implement real quantum algorithms in Qiskit.
MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute – Serious Games Development with AI
A selective four-week in-person MIT summer program (following an online prerequisite) where high school students with Python proficiency build an AI-driven disease-outbreak simulation game, learning software development practices, UI design, and AI's role in game mechanics.
Modus Ponens Institute Intro to Philosophy Camp
4-day live online camp for beginners, no background required.
Morristown Festival of Books Teen Writing Contest
Festival‑associated contest celebrating teen writing; winners are recognized at the Morristown Festival of Books.
MSK HOPP Summer Student Program
A highly selective eight-week paid lab internship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for NYC-area high school juniors, where students conduct an independent, mentor-supported cancer research project in a translational oncology lab.
MTC Bay Area High School Internship Program
A paid summer internship placing Bay Area high schoolers with regional transportation, city planning, and public works agencies across nine counties, where students gain hands-on experience in transportation and urban planning and present a capstone project.
Museum of Tolerance MOTivating Teens Program
Six-week Los Angeles teen internship where students build public-speaking and dialogue-facilitation skills while learning Holocaust history and museum education.
Music Production Boot Camp (Music for All)
A hands-on residential music production camp at Ball State University where high schoolers learn Pro Tools, Ableton, professional recording sessions, and game-audio design in a 10,000-square-foot studio facility, run by the nonprofit Music for All.
MYNA (Muslim Youth of North America)
A national, youth-run Muslim organization offering 20+ camps, events, and leadership programs each year for middle and high schoolers, with financial aid available to make programming accessible.
NABA Accounting Career Awareness Program (ACAP)
A free, week-long residential summer program from the National Association of Black Accountants held on partner college campuses, in which high school students attend workshops on accounting, finance, and entrepreneurship, tour accounting firms, and receive year-round mentoring, with tuition, housing, and materials fully sponsored.
NAIOP-Drexel Summer Real Estate Program
A 10-day residential program on Drexel's campus, run with the NAIOP commercial real estate association, introducing first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented rising high school juniors and seniors to careers across commercial real estate including architecture, development, brokerage, construction, and finance, through case studies and site visits to firms like FMC and Comcast.
National Flight Academy
A residential aviation-themed STEM academy aboard a simulated aircraft carrier in Florida, where students in grades 6-12 fly missions in simulators and learn navigation, meteorology, aerodynamics, and leadership skills over multi-day sessions.
National History Academy
A four-week residential summer program at Foxcroft School near Washington, DC where rising 10th-12th graders study American history, government, and law through site visits, discussions with scholars, and a culminating project.
National Student Leadership Conference – Business & Entrepreneurship
9-day residential program where students run business simulations, build and pitch a startup to investors, and study industry analysis at university campuses including UC Berkeley.
National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC): Psychology & Neuroscience
A nine-day residential summer program held on college campuses (Duke, UC Berkeley/San Francisco, University of Michigan) where high school students explore the biological systems that shape thought and behavior through clinical simulations, anatomy workshops, and brain imaging studies.
National Student Leadership Conference: Law & Advocacy
A selective 9-day residential pre-college program at Georgetown University or the University of Michigan where students step into the role of trial attorney, examining evidence and arguing a simulated case from start to finish alongside practicing attorneys.
National Youth Leadership Forum: Engineering (NYLF)
8-day forum (2026 at UC Berkeley) covering CAD, microcontrollers, rockets, capstone design.
National Youth Leadership Forum: Law & CSI
Explores both sides of the criminal justice system via simulations and legal/forensic mentorship.
NatureBridge Summer Teen Program (Yosemite)
Teens ages 15-18 backpack and camp in Yosemite National Park while studying ecology and building leadership skills through NatureBridge's environmental education curriculum.
NEURO-RocHS
A paid six-week neuroscience research program pairing Rochester high schoolers with University of Rochester Del Monte Institute lab mentors for hands-on research and career-pathway exposure. Currently limited to Rochester City School District partner schools.
Neuroscience Institute – Wake Forest Pre-College Summer Program
A week-long, overnight pre-college program at Wake Forest University for current 9th-12th graders featuring brain dissection, lab visits, electrophysiology demonstrations, and poster presentations covering neuroanatomy, neuropharmacology, and behavioral neuroscience.
New York Math Circle High School Summer Program
A three-week program of deep mathematical thinking and problem solving beyond the standard curriculum, including applied mini-camps and contest prep.
NFB Youth Slam
A nationwide, week-long residential STEM program from the National Federation of the Blind that empowers blind and low-vision high schoolers to explore science and engineering, build leadership skills, and connect with blind mentors and peers. The next Slam runs July 25-31, 2027.
Non-Trivial Research Fellows
An 8-week online summer research fellowship for students ages 14-20 to develop an original research or policy project on high-impact issues including AI safety, with $1,000 in project grants available and no program fees; one of the most selective teen programs by application volume.
North Carolina Governor's School
The nation's oldest statewide residential summer program for gifted and talented students, offering rising juniors and seniors intensive study across the arts alongside academic disciplines at no cost to families.
Northeastern University Oakland: Experiential Entrepreneurship
A two-week residential pre-college program on Northeastern University's Oakland campus where high school students form teams, learn business planning, product development, pitching, and negotiation from Bay Area mentors, visit local innovative businesses, and culminate in a pitch presentation to entrepreneurs.
Notre Dame Engineering Exploration High School Summer Camps
Free week-long hands-on engineering camps, including a dedicated Robotics Camp, hosted by Notre Dame's Engineering Innovation Hub for local high schoolers entering grades 10-12.
Notre Dame Introduction to Engineering Program (IEP)
A two-week residential Notre Dame summer program for students between their junior and senior year that surveys multiple engineering disciplines through hands-on projects, faculty talks, and campus life.
NSLC Business & Entrepreneurship
A 9-day residential summer program from the National Student Leadership Conference held at university campuses including Columbia, Duke, UC Berkeley, and Michigan, where high schoolers ages 14-18 run business simulations, pitch an original venture to a panel of investors, tour companies, and build professional networking skills.
NSLC Engineering Summer Program
The National Student Leadership Conference's Engineering program is a residential pre-college experience (offered at UC Berkeley among other U.S. campuses) where high schoolers explore civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering through hands-on projects such as drone design, aquatic robotics, and wind turbines.
NSLC Environmental Science & Sustainability
Nine-day residential pre-college program at UC Berkeley from the National Student Leadership Conference, combining water and soil analysis, green building design, and renewable energy labs with a leadership curriculum.
NSLC Game Design (National Student Leadership Conference)
A residential summer program held at UCLA where students entering grades 9-12 learn game design fundamentals, prototype original video games, and explore careers in the gaming industry alongside peers from across the country.
NSLC High School Nursing Program
A nine-day residential pre-college program where students practice clinical nursing skills such as vitals, venipuncture simulation, pediatric care, and CPR while exploring the nursing profession with working nurses.
NSLC International Business & Finance
A 9- to 12-day residential NSLC summer program held at Columbia, UC Berkeley, or the University of Oxford in which high schoolers analyze global markets, design supply chains, and study firm valuation through simulations and field trips to sites like Wall Street and London's financial district.
NSLC International Diplomacy
NSLC's International Diplomacy program has high schoolers take on the role of UN diplomats, debating current events and practicing negotiation across a joint session split between Georgetown University and Columbia University. Students explore international relations theory alongside communication and leadership skills.
NSLC Marketing & Public Relations
A new 2026 NSLC summer program at Columbia University in which high schoolers launch a simulated marketing and PR firm, plan a product marketing campaign, and act as a PR consultant advising clients on messaging and crisis communications, alongside residential college-campus life.
NSLC Political Action & Public Policy (National Student Leadership Conference)
Intensive summer program where students simulate roles in Congress, draft legislation, run campaigns, and explore political leadership and public policy careers.
NSLC Summer Cybersecurity Program
A 9-day residential summer program at Georgetown University run by the National Student Leadership Conference, where students ages 14-18 study cryptography, digital forensics, and network security through simulations, a capture-the-flag exercise, and visits to federal agencies like the FBI and DIA.
NSLC Veterinary Medicine
A residential pre-college summer program where students practice clinical skills, tour veterinary facilities, and meet veterinary professionals to explore the field of veterinary medicine.
NYFA 3-Week 3D Animation Summer Camp for Teens
A three-week intensive at the New York Film Academy's Los Angeles campus where teens (ages 14-17) learn 3D animation fundamentals — drawing, storyboarding, sculpting, and character animation — from professional animators and VFX artists, with optional residential housing.
NYFA 3-Week Screenwriting Summer Camp for Teens
A three-week screenwriting intensive at the New York Film Academy's Los Angeles campus where teens (ages 14-17) learn story structure, character development, and script formatting from professional screenwriters, culminating in a completed short script.
NYIF Young Finance Scholar
A live virtual finance program from the New York Institute of Finance for students ages 15-18 covering micro/macroeconomics, company financial analysis, Wall Street fundamentals, and sustainable finance, taught by Wall Street professionals including CFA charterholders.
NYLF Business Innovation (Envision)
An 8-day residential pre-college program held at Georgia Tech, Yale, and UC Berkeley for students in grades 9-12, combining case studies in customer acquisition, financial management, and product development with team-based business challenges culminating in boardroom-style investor pitches and college credit from George Mason University.
NYU Schack Institute: Real Estate NYC (From Design to Development)
A one-week NYU pre-college course where students who have completed grades 9-11 study how real estate projects are conceived, designed, financed, and managed, through lectures, site visits, and applied assignments in New York City.
OBAP ACE Academy – Sacramento
A week-long, FAA-endorsed summer aviation academy in Sacramento run by the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, giving students ages 13-18 hands-on exposure to aerodynamics, air traffic procedures, and aerospace careers, plus a discovery flight.
Ocean Discovery Institute — Ocean Leaders Program
Free 4-year marine science pathway starting the summer before 9th grade, San Diego.
Ocean Heroes Bootcamp
Weekend bootcamp (in-person + virtual) where youth ages 11-18 design and launch their own ocean-plastic-pollution campaigns with mentorship and follow-on grant support.
Ocean Institute Marine Science Internship Academy
Week-long marine science career-exploration program in Dana Point, CA for students ages 14-17, including a research cruise, intertidal ecology fieldwork, and shipboard research aboard the Ocean Institute's tall ship.
Outward Bound California
Wilderness-based experiential education programs combining outdoor adventure with community service projects. Participants develop leadership, teamwork, and environmental stewardship through challenging expeditions.
Oxbridge Academic Programs - Literature
A study-abroad summer program at Oxford or Cambridge in which high schoolers choose a literature-focused major course alongside a minor elective, combining seminar-style discussion with cultural excursions across England.
Pacific McGeorge Law Summer Camp
University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law offers a two-week immersive high school course, 'Lawyers and the Rule of Law,' in Sacramento, where students learn legal analysis, argue mock cases, mediate disputes, and draft contracts alongside law faculty and JD students, with courtroom field trips.
Paleontology Academy California (Sternberg Museum)
Paleontology Academy California, run by Fort Hays State University's Sternberg Museum of Natural History, is a two-week residential program on the Santa Cruz coast where students ages 15-18 study marine paleobiology, comparing living coastal species to their extinct relatives through fossil-site fieldwork and visits to the UC Museum of Paleontology and Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Parsons Summer Intensive Studies (Pre-College)
A three-week, credit-bearing pre-college program at Parsons School of Design in New York City where students ages 16-18 take immersive studio courses in fashion, painting, graphic design, and more.
PBS News Student Reporting Labs Summer Academy
Free, all-expenses-paid week near D.C. reporting real community stories with PBS/WETA mentors.
Peninsula Robotics Summer Camp (FRC Team 6036)
Summer robotics camp in Palo Alto run by an award-winning, student-led FIRST Robotics Competition team, introducing Bay Area students to hands-on robotics engineering.
Penn ESAP – Robotics Track
A three-week residential precollege program at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering where students can choose a Robotics course among several STEM tracks, working in Penn labs alongside faculty and current students.
Penn State Weather Camp / Advanced Weather Camp
Weeklong residential summer program at Penn State's Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science. Weather Camp (students entering grades 8-10) and Advanced Weather Camp (students entering grades 11-12) teach forecasting, severe weather, and research through hands-on instruction from Penn State faculty and current meteorology students.
Perspectives Photo School – Youth Photography Program
A Bay Area photography school in Emeryville offering teens (ages 12-18) studio-based technical training plus field shoots across Bay Area locations like Golden Gate Park and Tilden Regional Park, with an advanced Photography Intensive + Exhibition track for building a portfolio.
Photosprouts Teen Photography Camp
Small-group teen photography camps (ages 12-19) in San Francisco and Palo Alto where all camera equipment (Canon R50 mirrorless, lenses) is provided; students shoot on location around the Bay Area and learn editing in Adobe Lightroom.
Pioneer Academics — Astronomy Research Program
Accredited online 1:1 research program culminating in an original paper for college credit.
Placer County Criminal Justice Pathways Summer Workshop
A District Attorney's Office program that introduces Placer County high schoolers to the criminal justice system through presentations, tours of the Santucci Justice Center, and hands-on activities with prosecutors and investigators.
Political Science – U.S. Elections Program at Cal Poly (Summer Springboard)
Summer public policy and political science program at Cal Poly focusing on U.S. elections, campaigns, and governance. Students study electoral systems, campaign strategy, and public opinion.
Political Science Internships for High School Students in California – Ladder Internships Guide
Article compiling 15 real political internships in California (e.g., USC Center for the Political Future, state legislative offices, local government programs). Many are exactly the kind of public policy placements you're looking for.
Pre-College Program - Explorations in Modern Literature (Columbia University)
A Columbia University pre-college summer course for high schoolers surveying modern literature across genres and historical periods to build critical reading, interpretation, and analytical writing skills.
PREFACE: Rensselaer Summer Engineering Design Program
A two-week RPI summer program for rising juniors and seniors that introduces the different branches of engineering through hands-on design projects; recent cohorts have focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.
Punjabi Pathways Youth Program
Live online Punjabi classes emphasizing Gurmukhi literacy and conversation, with a dedicated youth track for teens.
Quinnipiac Forensic Sciences: Crime Scene Investigation
Pre-college program where high schoolers learn forensic chemistry, fingerprint analysis, and evidence collection through mock crime scene investigations.
Rassias Center Youth Language Programs (Dartmouth)
Immersive summer and intensive language programs at Dartmouth College that use the energetic, drama-based 'Rassias Method' to accelerate learning in French, Spanish, German, and Italian for high school students.
Reagan Foundation – Great American Leadership Program
Residential leadership program studying presidential leadership through workshops, crisis simulations, and Reagan Library access.
Reason & Rationality High School Foundation Program
2-week residential "intellectual salon" at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Redbird Risk Management Challenge
A free week-long residential program at Illinois State University's Katie School of Insurance and Risk Management where high school seniors form teams to manage a simulated corporation through risk scenarios, learning actuarial and risk-management fundamentals; next held in 2027.
REEX Summer Program
A residential summer program at Howard University for rising juniors and seniors of color interested in commercial real estate, combining masterclasses, site visits, case studies, and a national team competition around real estate entrepreneurship.
Research Mentorship Program (RMP)
Six-week university-level summer research program pairing top HS students with UCSB faculty/grad mentors across disciplines, including environmental science and environmental policy.
Ringling College PreCollege
A four-week residential summer art and design program at Ringling College of Art and Design where sophomores through seniors take core studio classes plus two specialized immersion courses.
RISD Pre-College Program
A rigorous residential or online summer studio program at Rhode Island School of Design where high schoolers take college-level art and design courses modeled on RISD's first-year curriculum, with no portfolio required to apply.
ROAR Academy (UC Berkeley)
Summer program at UC Berkeley's FHL Vive Center teaching high schoolers autonomous driving algorithms and robotics to prepare for a simulation racing series.
RoboMasterminds High School Summer Camp
A summer robotics camp for rising sophomores through seniors at multiple Maryland locations, offering tracks in autonomous robotics, underwater robotics, and drone engineering where students design, build, and program robots using sensors and the engineering design process.
Rosetta Institute Molecular Neuroscience Workshop
Held at UC Berkeley. A dedicated lab workshop on molecular mechanisms of the brain (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, drug effects).
Rosie the Riveter Trust Youth Education Programs (Rosie's Service Corps)
Richmond, CA nonprofit program using WWII home-front history to give underserved middle/high schoolers trade skills, career mentoring, and service experience.
Rotary Youth Exchange
Long-standing global exchange program sending students ages 15-19 abroad for a full academic year (or short-term) to live with host families, attend local school, and learn a new language, sponsored by local Rotary clubs.
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) – District 5150
Free multi-day leadership camp for Bay Area HS students (Marin, SF, San Mateo) on citizenship, ethics, and community leadership.
RPI Aerospace Engineering (Summer@Rensselaer)
1-week program studying aerodynamics, wind-tunnel experiments, building RC planes.
Russian School of Mathematics – Bay Area Summer
After-school enrichment school with Bay Area summer courses in contest math, enrichment, and acceleration, offering both in-person and online classes.
Russian School of Mathematics Bay Area Summer
After-school enrichment school with Bay Area summer courses in contest math, enrichment, and acceleration, offering both in-person and online classes.
Rustic Pathways Service Trips for Teens
Supervised one-to-three-week international service trips for teens ages 14-18 that combine conservation, education-support, or community-development projects with cultural-immersion travel and documented service hours.
Rutgers Supply Chain Education Partnership Program
A summer program hosted by Rutgers Business School's Center for Supply Chain Management where high schoolers learn procurement, sustainability, inventory management, and logistics through instruction, Excel training, and guided industry facility tours with speakers from companies like Pfizer and Coca-Cola.
Rutgers Young Scholars Program in Discrete Mathematics
Four-week residential summer program at Rutgers introducing mathematically talented high schoolers to discrete mathematics through faculty and graduate-student mentorship.
Sacramento County DA Criminal Justice Youth Shadow Day
A one-day job-shadowing event held by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office where current or incoming Sacramento County high schoolers are paired with prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers, investigators, and judges to see the criminal justice system firsthand.
Sacred Heart Schools Atherton Gator Sports Medicine Camp
A full-day Atherton camp introducing high schoolers to sports medicine and allied healthcare professions through hands-on sessions on taping/bracing, concussion protocols, recovery modalities, and CPR certification.
Sacred Valley Service Program (Rustic Pathways)
Andean homestays/community service with visits to Machu Picchu and other sites, Peru.
SAIC Early College Program Summer Institute (ECPSI)
A 1-, 2-, or 4-week studio-intensive program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where students ages 15-18 create portfolio-quality work across disciplines like animation, fashion, and architecture while earning college credit.
San Diego Natural History Museum High School Internship
School-credit internship rotating through Paleontology, Entomology, and Botany departments.
San Francisco Ballet School Summer Program
Prestigious pre-professional summer ballet intensive with tracks for intermediate and advanced/pre-professional dancers, admission by audition.
San Francisco Shakespeare Festival - Upstart Crows
An audition-required summer teen intensive at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival for actors ages 14-18 with prior acting experience, focused on Shakespearean text, voice, and movement work, culminating in a performance; need-based scholarships are available.
San José Museum of Art Teen Art Camp
Weeklong summer art camps at SJMA giving teens behind-the-scenes exhibition access and guiding them to create work inspired by current museum exhibitions.
SCAD Rising Star / Summer Seminars
Savannah College of Art and Design's pre-college programs — a four-week credit-bearing track for rising seniors and shorter Summer Seminars workshops.
School of American Ballet Summer Course
A five-week intensive ballet training program in New York City run by the official school of New York City Ballet, admitting intermediate and advanced dancers ages 12-18 through a national audition tour.
School Year Abroad (SYA)
Immersive academic-year, semester, and summer study-abroad program placing U.S. high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors with host families and local partner schools in France, Italy, or Spain to build fluency while earning U.S. high school credit.
Scripps Research Alcohol Research Center – HS Mentorship Program
A neuroscience-focused mentorship program offering both a virtual Summer Journal Club and an in-person lab research track exploring how alcohol and drugs affect the brain.
Sea Education Association (SEA) High School/Pre-College Programs
Pre-college marine science and oceanography courses offered either on land at SEA's Woods Hole, Massachusetts campus or aboard a tall-ship research vessel at sea, open to current high schoolers and graduating seniors.
Secondary School Program - Literature Courses (Harvard Summer School)
A 4- or 7-week Harvard Summer School program offering college-credit literature courses such as Beginning Fiction, Introduction to Film, and Popular Culture and Social Theory, taught by Harvard faculty for motivated high schoolers on campus, online, or by commuting.
Service Learning in Public Policy (SLiPP)
A week-long immersive summer program at Founding Forward's Valley Forge, PA campus for students entering 9th-11th grade, combining public-policy coursework, hands-on service-learning projects, and college-prep workshops across four tracks: Environment & STEM Policy, Healthcare Policy, Legal Policy, and Media & Communications Policy. The 2026 session runs July 26-31.
Sewanee Young Writers' Conference
A two-week summer conference at the University of the South where roughly 85 high school writers take small workshops in poetry, fiction, playwriting, or creative nonfiction alongside faculty from the adult Sewanee Writers' Conference.
SFFILM Youth Filmmaker Camp
Teens learn storyboarding, screenwriting, cinematography, sound, and post-production from pros, creating and screening a short film by camp's end.
SFNOMA Project Pipeline
A free week-long architecture and design immersion for middle and high schoolers in San Francisco and Oakland, where students work in a studio with practicing architects to design a real project for a real site, tour buildings and firms, and present a final proposal.
Sierra Club Inspiring Connections Outdoors — Teen Peak Challenge
Urban teens take part in outdoor outings (hiking, backpacking, kayaking) designed to build environmental stewardship and self-reliance, culminating in a multi-day peak-climb challenge.
Sierra Nevada Field Campus Field Geology Course (SF State)
A field-based geology course run by San Francisco State University at its Sierra Nevada Field Campus near Sierra City, CA. Students hike and camp in the Sierra Buttes/Haskell Peak area learning to read rock formations from Paleozoic metamorphic rock through Tertiary volcanics to Pleistocene glacial deposits, including the region's gold-mining history.
Sierra Service Project
Faith-based summer service trips where youth volunteer teams repair homes for low-income families in rural communities. Participants learn about poverty, housing justice, and community development.
Simply Neuroscience Synaptic Hacks
Annual hackathon focused on neurotechnology and computational neuroscience.
Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation High School Summer Programs
College-credit-bearing summer field courses at the Smithsonian's conservation research campus in Virginia, where high schoolers learn hands-on conservation ecology field methods from Smithsonian and George Mason University researchers.
SOCAPA Los Angeles
A precollege summer intensive held at Occidental College in Los Angeles offering 2- and 3-week courses in filmmaking, screenwriting, and photography for students ages 14-18, with both residential and day-student options.
South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities Summer Programs
One- to five-week residential summer arts programs in South Carolina for students in grades 6-11, offering focused training tracks in music, visual arts, dance, theatre, and creative writing.
SPICE – Summer Program in Computational Psychiatry Education
A free eight-week NYC program at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai introducing high schoolers, especially from underrepresented STEM backgrounds, to computational psychiatry and neuroscience research.
St. Jude High School Research Immersion Program
A paid eight-week summer research program at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for Memphis-area rising seniors, who pair with a mentor on a lab, epidemiology, clinical, or data-science project related to childhood cancer.
Stagedoor Manor
A total-immersion theater summer camp in upstate New York for students ages 10-18, offering three-week sessions with dozens of full productions and classes across acting, singing, dance, and technical theater.
Stanford Applied Cyber Summer Workshops
Stanford's cybersecurity club hosts workshops covering practical skills in analyzing, exploiting, and defending computer systems. Open to Silicon Valley high school students.
Stanford National Forensic Institute (SNFI)
A summer speech and debate training program run by the Stanford Debate Society, offering camps in policy debate, forensics, and public speaking for middle and high school competitors.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Introduction to Finance and Banking
Two-week live-online Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes course introducing students to financial systems, investing fundamentals, and the role of banks and markets.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes - Biomedical Engineering
A two-week online course through Stanford's Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes that introduces students to biomedical engineering topics including implantable devices, neural interfaces, prosthetics, and AI applications in medicine, culminating in a capstone prosthetic-arm design project.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes - Creative Writing & Literature
A two-week, fully online Stanford summer program offering intensive single-subject courses in creative writing and literature for academically advanced students in grades 8-11.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes – Business Strategy
A Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes course where high schoolers analyze strategic decision-making at the global, industry, corporate, and functional levels, applying core business strategy concepts to real-world case examples in a live online classroom.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes – Introduction to International Relations
This two-week virtual course from Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes analyzes the causes of war and peace, global trade and protectionism, and international inequality through faculty lectures, small-group discussion sections, a public-opinion data analysis exercise, and a policy memo.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes – Introduction to Machine Learning
A two-week live-online course from Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes teaching machine learning fundamentals in Python, including data preprocessing, model training, and evaluation, for students entering grades 10-11 with prior programming and statistics exposure.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes – Introduction to Natural Language Processing
An online Stanford Pre-Collegiate course for students in grades 10-11 that teaches Python and the Hugging Face Transformers library to apply pretrained language models, covering how GPT-style systems are trained and issues of bias and data quality in NLP.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes: Legal Studies
Legal reasoning tools from law, education, and business faculty, capped by a mock trial.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes: Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
A two-week live-online Stanford Pre-Collegiate philosophy course examining the ethics and metaphysics of artificial intelligence, including questions of machine consciousness, algorithmic fairness, accountability, and potential machine rights, through readings, discussion, and projects.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes: Sociology of Inequality
A two-week live-online Stanford Pre-Collegiate course examining the causes and consequences of social and economic inequality through sociological frameworks, discussion, and short analytical writing, culminating in a group presentation.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes: The Nature of Evil
A two-week live-online Stanford Pre-Collegiate course exploring philosophical, psychological, and historical conceptions of evil, from individual wrongdoing to bureaucratic and systemic harm, culminating in a comparative-analysis group presentation.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes: Topics in Neuroscience
A two-week live-online Stanford Pre-Collegiate course introducing high schoolers to core neuroscience concepts spanning brain structure, cognition, and behavior, through discussion-based sessions and a culminating project.
Stanford Summer Session: Introduction to Cultural and Social Anthropology
An eight-week Stanford Summer Session course open to current high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors that introduces core anthropological concepts and methods through ethnographic case studies on gender, power, and immigration, plus hands-on field-observation exercises in Bay Area communities.
STARTALK
A National Security Agency-funded network of free or low-cost summer programs hosted at universities nationwide that teach critical-need languages such as Chinese, Russian, Arabic, and Korean to K-12 students.
STARTALK Chinese Immersion Program (Appalachian State University)
A free, NSA-funded STARTALK program for rising 9th-12th graders with little or no prior Chinese exposure, combining virtual pre- and post-camp activities with a three-week residential immersion in Chinese language and food culture at Appalachian State University.
Startup UCLA Summer Institute: Social Entrepreneurship (SESI)
A UCLA-run Social Entrepreneurship Summer Institute offered as a two-week virtual course (or an optional Los Angeles residential track) in which high school students in grades 10-12 develop a social-impact venture from idea to a final pitch presentation and earn a Certificate of Achievement.
Stevens Institute Pre-College: Biomedical Engineering
A one-week residential Stevens Institute of Technology program where high schoolers study biomedical engineering fundamentals, examine medical devices, meet industry professionals, and run labs analyzing physiological data.
Student Conservation Association (SCA)
The largest provider of hands-on youth conservation programs in the U.S. High schoolers can join short-term summer conservation crews doing trail building, habitat restoration, and wildlife protection in national parks and community green spaces.
Summer @ Stern (NYU)
A summer pre-college program at NYU's Stern School of Business in which rising high school juniors and seniors take two intensive courses spanning accounting, finance, marketing, management, and business psychology while experiencing college life and on-campus housing in New York City.
Summer Acting Workshop — South Coast Repertory
Two-week open-enrollment acting camp culminating in a family showcase.
Summer Business Camp (Rutgers Business School)
A week-long residential camp at Rutgers Business School's New Brunswick campus in which high schoolers learn business fundamentals, communication and team-building skills, and college admissions guidance, with scholarships available.
Summer Discovery UCLA: Sports Psychology
A three-week pre-college course at UCLA where students study mental conditioning, motivation, team dynamics, and performance anxiety in athletics alongside the business side of the sports industry.
Summer Linguistic Institute for Youth Scholars (SLIYS)
Ohio State University's live virtual introductory linguistics course covering phonetics, morphology, syntax, and language documentation, including fieldwork with native speakers.
Summer Shakes Intensive (Chicago Youth Shakespeare)
A Chicago summer intensive in which high school students train in Shakespearean acting technique and textual analysis, culminating in a week of live Shakespeare performances.
Summer Springboard Berkeley - Psych & Neuro Track
Pre-college residential program. The "Psych & Neuro" track includes brain dissection and seminars on mental health.
Summer Springboard: Fundamentals of Engineering at UC Berkeley
A two-week immersive pre-college program held on the UC Berkeley campus where high schoolers tackle hands-on mechanical, structural, civil, and biomedical engineering design challenges, including building a prosthetic limb and a scale-model building to code and budget, plus tours of Tesla Fremont Factory and Google HQ.
Summer Springboard: Kinesiology and Physical Therapy at UC San Diego
A two-week pre-college immersion in human movement and rehabilitation held on the UC San Diego campus, where students learn manual muscle testing, gait and balance assessment, and sports taping, and visit local physical therapy and sports medicine clinics.
Summer with Shakespeare High School Intensive (A Noise Within)
A five-week summer intensive in Pasadena, California for students ages 14-18 that combines conservatory-style Shakespeare text analysis with a choice of acting or theater technology training, culminating in performances.
Summer@Brown Online – Introduction to Linguistics
An asynchronous/blended online Brown University pre-college course introducing high schoolers to the fundamentals of linguistics, part of the Summer@Brown Online catalog for students completing grades 9-12.
Summer@Rensselaer: Aerospace Engineering & STEAMM Inventor's Studio
One- and two-week RPI summer courses where high schoolers tour aerospace research labs, run wind-tunnel experiments and build radio-controlled aircraft, or pursue interdisciplinary invention projects spanning science, technology, engineering, art, math, and medicine.
Sur La Table Teen Cooking Classes
Hands-on cooking classes and multi-day summer series covering knife skills, baking, and global cuisines for ages 12 and up, offered at Sur La Table stores including Berkeley, Palo Alto, Roseville, and Santa Rosa.
Syracuse University Pre-College: Aerospace Engineering
A two-week Syracuse University pre-college course where students build and test airplane and rocket models while learning aerospace engineering fundamentals from faculty and industry guest speakers.
Syracuse University Pre-College: Biomedical Engineering
A two-week Syracuse University pre-college course where students prototype a medical device, learn CAD, and rotate through simulated hospital departments to explore biomedical engineering as a major and career.
Syracuse University Summer College — Introduction to Sociology
2-week credit-bearing college course on identity and inequality.
Tar Heel Business Academy (UNC Kenan-Flagler)
A one-week pre-college program at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, held in Chapel Hill and Charlotte, in which rising high school juniors and seniors choose a Business Essentials or Entrepreneurship track, consult for a real company or design and pitch a new venture, and hear from guest business leaders.
Taste Buds Kitchen Advanced Teen Culinary Camp (Palo Alto)
A Palo Alto teen cooking camp for ages 13-17 teaching advanced cooking and baking techniques, knife skills, food styling, and recipe development in a small hands-on kitchen setting.
TCR History Camp
An immersive online or in-person workshop in which secondary students choose their own historical research topic and, guided by instructors, transform it into a first draft of a historical research paper over a two-week session.
Teach Me Wall Street: Investing & Trading Summer Program
A live virtual summer program for grades 9-12 covering stock market fundamentals, technical analysis, risk management, and portfolio management across two-hour live Zoom sessions in small breakout groups, with multiple weekly session times offered June through August.
Team OCEAN – Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Volunteer kayak interpretive naturalist program that trains high schoolers and adults to educate paddlers about responsible wildlife viewing and marine protection along Cannery Row in Monterey and Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing. Requires a five-week spring training (evening seminars plus Saturday field sessions) before summer shifts begin.
TeenLife Political Science Summer Programs Directory
Directory listing dozens of political science and government summer programs (college-based, D.C.-based, etc.), including many the above and more. Good for discovering extra options if you want more than UCLA/NSLC/Cal Poly.
Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts
A three-week tuition-free summer intensive for rising Tennessee juniors and seniors to develop pre-professional skills in music, ballet, theatre, filmmaking, or visual art.
The Bronfman Fellowship
A highly selective national fellowship for 26 intellectually curious Jewish 11th-graders each year, centered on pluralistic Jewish text study and cross-cultural dialogue with a parallel group of Israeli peers. Fellows attend a free immersive summer program in Israel and the U.S., then continue with monthly virtual sessions and winter/spring seminars through 12th grade.
The Nature Conservancy LEAF Program
Paid summer conservation internships for urban high school students, offering hands-on stewardship work and career exposure with The Nature Conservancy at sites across the country.
The Stock Market Game
National online investing simulation in which students manage a virtual $100,000 portfolio of stocks, bonds, and funds using real market data over a multi-week session.
TryEngineering Summer Institute (IEEE)
An IEEE-run residential engineering summer camp held at university campuses nationwide where high schoolers choose a track -- aerospace, general engineering, AI, biotechnology, or cybersecurity -- for hands-on projects and career exploration.
U.S. Cyber Challenge (Cyber Quests & Camps)
A national STEM initiative to identify cyber talent. High school students compete in Cyber Quests (online CTF-style rounds) to qualify for free week-long Cyber Camps at federal cyber centers. Camps include lodging and are by invitation.
UC Berkeley ATDP: Data Science Lab
6-week statistical/data science methods course via applied labs.
UC Berkeley Business & Entrepreneurship Academy with NFTE
A two-week, in-person Summer Discovery academy at UC Berkeley for grades 9-12 taught by an NFTE-certified instructor, covering market research, the Lean Canvas, financial planning, and marketing strategy, culminating in a professional business pitch judged in a classroom showcase.
UC Berkeley Haas Summer Entrepreneurship Residency
Two-week residential program where students develop an original idea into a full business plan through Haas faculty lectures and workshops, pitching to judges on the final day.
UC Davis AIFS High School Summer AI Tech Camp
A free day camp hosted by UC Davis's AI Institute for Food Systems (AIFS) that introduces high schoolers to AI concepts such as remote sensing, mapping, and machine learning applied to sustainable agriculture. Taught by UC Davis faculty; no prior coding experience required.
UC Davis Pre-College Program: Equine Science
A two-week residential pre-college program at UC Davis where high schoolers study equine physiology, behavior, nutrition, disease, and reproduction through lectures and hands-on labs at the Animal Science Horse Barn and Center for Equine Health. Students live in dorms, take college-style classes taught by UC Davis faculty, and observe veterinarians working with horses.
UC San Diego Future Leaders Summer Program
Three-week residential program with mock diplomacy simulations on global challenges, producing policy research reports for pre-collegiate credit.
UC San Diego Sports Medicine Summer Academy
A three-week in-person academy for rising 11th and 12th graders combining lectures, hands-on labs, and research projects in musculoskeletal anatomy, injury prevention, concussion research, and exercise science, taught by UC San Diego clinicians and researchers.
UC San Diego: Envisioning and Designing Sustainable Cities of the World
A one-week in-person course at UC San Diego Extended Studies where high schoolers analyze thriving and failed cities worldwide and design their own sustainable city, covering architecture, transportation, waste, and energy systems using mapping software.
UC Santa Cruz Summer Session (Linguistics)
High schoolers can enroll directly in UC Santa Cruz's undergraduate Linguistics courses over the summer, earning real UC credit.
UCLA Arts Summer Art Institute
Selective three-week studio-intensive pre-college program at UCLA where high schoolers focus on drawing, painting, photography, or sculpture and earn UCLA college credit.
UCLA Summer Discovery: Introduction to Real Estate
A three-week pre-college course at UCLA where grades 9-12 students study residential and commercial real estate fundamentals, finance, and law, with site visits to properties across the Los Angeles market.
UCLA Summer Sessions Greek & Latin Intensive Language Courses
Eight-week, in-person intensive Greek or Latin courses at UCLA that compress a full year of language study, preparing students to read authors like Homer or Cicero in the original. Language Intensives are on UCLA's pre-approved course list for high schoolers age 15+, so no petition is required.
UCSF Fresno Doctors Academy & Junior Doctors Academy
A multi-week summer healthcare career-exploration program run by UCSF Fresno for Central Valley high school seniors from partner school districts, combining mentorship from health professionals, hospital and clinic shadowing at VA and community facilities, and personal-development workshops.
UM Summer Language Institute (University of Mississippi)
A residential summer institute at the University of Mississippi offering intensive, college-credit-bearing Arabic and Chinese language courses for high schoolers through the university's Language Flagship programs, combining classroom instruction with cultural co-curricular activities.
UMass Amherst Hospitality & Tourism Management Pre-College Academy
A two-week residential or commuter pre-college program at UMass Amherst where rising sophomores through seniors explore hotel management, food and beverage, sustainable tourism, and event management through classroom instruction, field trips, and industry guest speakers, earning 2 college credits.
UMBC Summer Enrichment Academy – Introduction to Cybersecurity
A week-long summer day camp for high schoolers at UMBC covering ethical hacking, digital forensics, and open-source investigation, including a field trip to Northrop Grumman's Cyber Security Operations Center.
UNCSA Animation Summer Intensive
A rigorous introductory-to-advanced animation intensive at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, open to rising high school freshmen through incoming college freshmen, covering animation fundamentals and advanced technique.
UNCSA Summer Session
Summer intensives, camps, and workshops for high schoolers at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, spanning dance, drama, visual art, filmmaking/animation, and music with conservatory-level faculty.
United States Senate Page Program
A highly selective program in which junior-year high schoolers, sponsored and appointed by a U.S. senator, work full-time delivering documents and assisting with Senate floor operations in the Capitol while attending an accredited early-morning school.
University of Dallas Summer Institute in Classical Languages
A fully online summer program offering intensive first-year Latin or Greek language courses for college credit. High school students who have completed their junior year and are at least 16 by July 1 are explicitly encouraged to apply, alongside undergraduates and teachers.
University of Hartford Transportation & Civil Engineering Summer Camp
A one-week summer camp funded by the Connecticut Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration where high school students get hands-on exposure to transportation, structural, geotechnical, construction, and environmental civil engineering through concrete/metal testing labs, a driving simulator, and CT DOT field trips.
University of Maryland Cyber Camp
A summer cyber camp for high school students run by the University of Maryland's cybersecurity center, offering hands-on introductions to cybersecurity concepts and hacking/defense skills.
University of Michigan BioMed Focus
An eight-week paid biomedical research internship at Michigan Medicine for Michigan high school juniors and seniors, combining full-time lab research with science-communication training and college-prep support.
University of Michigan Genetics Immersion Program (GIP)
A six-week paid in-person experience working in active genetics/genomics labs with graduate-student mentors, with training in DNA analysis, genetic screening, and molecular biology.
University of Pennsylvania Pre-College – Introduction to Linguistics
An online, credit-bearing Penn Pre-College course covering the biological basis of human language and the sounds, forms, and meanings of the world's languages, taught alongside Penn undergraduates for college credit.
University of Toledo Summer Biomedical Science Program in Bioinformatics
A summer bioinformatics program for high schoolers entering grades 10-12.
University of Washington Linguistics Summer Courses
High schoolers who have completed 8th grade can enroll directly in real UW undergraduate Linguistics courses over the summer.
USA Debate Team (World Schools Debating Championships)
NSDA's selective national team trains at Harvard before representing the U.S. at WSDC.
USC Bridge Institute BUGS Jr. Program
Paid summer research program pairing high schoolers with USC faculty labs across biological disciplines, culminating in a poster symposium.
USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future High School Summer Internship
A fully virtual USC summer research internship in which competitively selected high schoolers analyze environmental and sustainability legislation, attend speaker sessions, and produce a published policy assignment.
USC Gould Pre-Law Summer Program
A USC Gould School of Law course dissecting case law, practicing oral advocacy, attending real federal appellate proceedings.
USC Marshall Pre-College – Exploring Entrepreneurship
Four-week USC program where students earn college credit studying entrepreneurship, take field trips to LA companies/VC firms, and pitch their own business concept.
USC Marshall Pre-College – Introduction to Business
Four-week USC Marshall program covering accounting, marketing, and strategy, including company visits and a final Capstone Case Competition pitching data-driven solutions.
USC Pre-College Introduction to Business
A USC summer pre-college course in which high schoolers study marketing, operations, finance, and leadership, visit local companies like Warner Bros. and SoFi Stadium, and complete a capstone case-competition analysis of a real company.
USC Pre-College: Psychological Science and Society
Four-week residential course on cognitive, developmental, clinical, and social psychology with labs, guest lectures, and field trips; earns college credit.
USC Pre-College: The Brain – Introduction to Neuroscience
A four-week residential USC summer course covering neurons, memory, and brain disorders through lectures, labs, and field trips, culminating in a mock-trial "mystery case" project and USC course credit.
USF Biomedical Engineering Summer Camp (Grades 9-12)
A day camp at the University of South Florida's College of Engineering Design for X (DFX) Lab where students entering grades 9-12 learn foundational biomedical engineering principles, bioelectrical signal measurement, and instrumentation using 3D printers, CNC routers, and oscilloscopes.
USF Bulls Finance Camp
A five-day summer camp at the University of South Florida's Muma College of Business where students entering grades 9-12 learn personal finance, investments, corporate finance, and FinTech from faculty and USF Federal Credit Union experts, including hands-on Bloomberg terminal training.
USF CyberCamp
A University of South Florida summer cybersecurity camp for high schoolers delivered by USF Innovative Education, introducing core cyber concepts through hands-on activities.
USF High School Robotics Camp
A week-long robotics camp at the University of South Florida for students entering grades 9-12, teaching Raspberry Pi, Python, and 3D-printed autonomous mobile robot design, with exposure to industrial robotics via ABB RobotStudio.
USF Pre-College Program – AI in Action: Turning Data Into Solutions
An in-person certificate program at the University of San Francisco introducing high school students to AI and data science fundamentals through hands-on projects using real California environmental and health datasets, with visits to Bay Area research labs.
USGS Volunteer for Science Program
Federal volunteer program placing supervised volunteers directly on USGS research projects.
Vanderbilt Aspirnaut Summer Research Internship
A six-week residential biomedical research internship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center for high schoolers nationwide, who work full-time in a lab on projects ranging from kidney disease to cancer alongside paid room, board, and stipend.
Vanderbilt Research Experience for High School Students (REHSS)
A six-week immersive research internship that embeds rising seniors full-time in a Vanderbilt University or Vanderbilt University Medical Center research lab under a faculty mentor.
Vanderbilt Summer Institute – Neuroscience: Your Six Senses
A two-week, on-campus course for rising 11th and 12th graders at Vanderbilt University exploring how the brain processes sensory information — light, sound, touch, taste, smell, and gravity — through interactive labs, demonstrations, and analysis of research data.
Veritas AI Fellowship
12-15 week 1:1 mentorship building an original AI model.
Victory Briefs Institute (VBI)
A top national debate camp at University of San Diego offering LD, Public Forum, and World Schools training.
Vindolanda Trust Work Experience Placement
A structured work-experience placement for students aged 16-17 at the Vindolanda Trust's Roman Army Museum and Vindolanda Fort and Museum in Northumberland, England, including hands-on excavation assistance, post-excavation and artifact preservation work, and a final project, with opportunities to observe live digs.
Virginia Summer Residential Governor's Schools - Visual & Performing Arts
A tuition-free, weeks-long residential summer program on a Virginia college campus where junior and senior high schoolers pursue intensive study in visual and performing arts alongside seminars and performances.
Wake Forest Finance and Investing Institute
A residential summer institute on Wake Forest University's Reynolda Campus in which high schoolers study stock market fundamentals, financial statement analysis, and investment risk while touring financial institutions and competing in a mock investment competition.
Wall Street Academy (University of San Francisco)
A week-long, in-person investing intensive at USF's Investment Lab where high schoolers use industry-standard tools like Bloomberg Terminal and FactSet to study investment fundamentals and global financial markets, including visits to major financial institutions such as BlackRock and Merrill Lynch.
Walnut Hill School for the Arts Summer Programs
One- to three-week residential summer intensives at Walnut Hill's arts boarding school near Boston, covering theater, music, dance, filmmaking/writing, fashion, and visual arts for students ages 11-19.
Wharton Essentials of Finance
An on-campus Wharton Global Youth Program summer course for high schoolers covering fundamentals of personal and corporate finance, including the time value of money, risk-return trade-offs, equities, and corporate accounting.
Wharton Global Youth Program: Moneyball Academy
A three-week on-campus summer program at the Wharton School in which rising high school juniors and seniors study sports analytics, learning statistical thinking, real-world applications used by sports analytics professionals, and introductory statistical programming.
Wharton Moneyball Academy
A three-week on-campus Wharton Global Youth Program for rising high school juniors and seniors that teaches statistical thinking and sports analytics, using data-driven decision-making methods drawn from finance and applied statistics.
Wharton Sports Business Academy
A three-week online Wharton Global Youth Program for rising high school juniors and seniors in grades 10-11, covering leagues, media, marketing, labor issues, and social impact in the sports industry through live classes, guest speakers, and a capstone analysis of an emerging professional league.
WildCare Youth Hospital Volunteer Program
A San Rafael wildlife hospital and education center program where volunteers under 18 support wildlife-patient care through prep, cleaning, and enclosure work, gaining close exposure to wildlife rehabilitation.
WPI Bioinformatics & Computational Biology (BCB) Summer Research Experience
A program where high schoolers apply math and CS to biological/medical problems through lectures, journal clubs, and lab work.
Writers Week (Sarah Lawrence College)
A one-week residential or virtual summer program at Sarah Lawrence College in which high school students take daily creative writing and performance workshops taught by MFA candidates and faculty, earning one transferable college credit.
Writing and Literature Track - NextGen Leadership Institute (Barnard College)
A three-week New York City summer institute in which students take a faculty-led seminar pairing close reading and literary criticism with craft work in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, journalism, or drama, alongside weekly leadership workshops.
WVU Forensic Science Summer Camp
Residential camp at West Virginia University where students entering 11th-12th grade study forensic chemistry, biology, and crime scene investigation.
Yale Neuroscience Summer Scholars (YNSS)
An eight-week summer program covering neuroscience, neurodegeneration, and neuroinflammation, with didactic education, lab-technique training, and a supervised research project for New Haven Public Schools students.
Yale Young Global Scholars – Politics, Law & Economics
A highly selective two-week residential summer program at Yale (14,000+ applicants for the full program) in which high schoolers take the Politics of Law & Economics (PLE) academic track alongside Innovations in Science & Technology and Solving Global Challenges tracks, across three summer sessions.
Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP) - GrubStreet
A Boston-area creative writing organization's teen program offering free Saturday writing sessions, seasonal writing classes, and a paid three-week Summer Teen Writing Fellowship in which teens work with published authors and receive an $800 stipend.
Young Civil War Historians Conference (Gettysburg College)
A weeklong residential conference held alongside Gettysburg College's Civil War Institute summer conference, in which rising high school juniors and seniors analyze original documents, photographs, and battlefield landscapes with leading Civil War historians and walk sites like Pickett's Charge.
Young Writers Workshop (Unterberg Poetry Center, 92NY)
A summer creative writing workshop for students in grades 10-12 hosted by the 92nd Street Y's Unterberg Poetry Center in New York City, pairing writing instruction with access to the Center's renowned author reading series.
Youth Conservation Corps (YCC)
A month-long paid summer program placing teens in national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and hatcheries for conservation work including trail maintenance, ecological monitoring, and invasive plant removal.
Youth For Understanding (YFU) USA
Nonprofit exchange organization sending U.S. high schoolers ages 15-18 abroad for summer, semester, or academic-year homestay programs in 35+ countries to build language fluency and cross-cultural skills.
ECFinder provides links to outside extracurricular opportunities for informational purposes only. Students and families should research each program before applying. ECFinder does not operate or control the listed organizations and is not responsible for their actions or policies.