Why do internships in high school?
Before we jump into a long list of medical internships for high school students in New York, it is important to understand why these opportunities could matter for your future. According to PRISM, a consultancy, 70% of students attending a US News top 50 University have completed at least one internship while in high school. These opportunities serve as a way to distinguish yourself in the admissions process by showing that you have gone out and verified your future goals through experience. Doing internships will help you enter college with a clearer idea of the professional environments you enjoy or don’t enjoy, which will make it easier for you to recruit into a job you love after graduation. Students who have done at least one internship in high school also typically have an easier time recruiting into college internships and pre-professional organizations such as finance or pre-law clubs.
How to Find Medical Internships for High School Students in New York
The best way to find medical internships for high school students in New York is through online search tools and lists. The StandOutSearch database provides the largest free resource that lists almost every internship program for the high school age group and allows you to search by interest area. MIT Admissions also provides a helpful list of High School Internships.
However, official programs tend to be very competitive, so if you are serious about finding a summer internship in high school, you should also prepare a cold outreach strategy. You can read more about how to form a cold outreach strategy to find a high school internship at the end of this article. We also include email templates to make finding an internship or research position through cold outreach less daunting.
10 Medical Internships for High School Students in New York
Most of the medical internships for high school students below have an acceptance rate of 20% or lower, given that there are many more high school students looking for internships in New York relative to official programs that provide them. We recommend choosing at least five opportunities to apply to. If you see an opportunity that excites you, take a moment to write the deadline on your calendar!
Ages: 15-19
Location: Virtual
Timeline: Summer, Spring, Fall, or Winter
Deadline: Various Deadlines
StandOut Connect is a program created thanks to investment from UChicago’s Polsky Center for Innovation that matches high school students with internships in their interest area. Students interview with potential mentors who are leaders and innovators within their area of interest until they are hired for a two-month internship. Many students then receive optional return offers to continue with their internship for as long as they would like.
Ages: 16 and above
Location: New York City
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: March 15
The Summer Neuroscience Program (SNP) is a two-week course for NYC public high schoolers led by Rockefeller graduate students. Participants take a look at ongoing neuroscience research in an effort to understand how the brain works and how it relates to our daily life. We aim to introduce students to modern neuroscience, while empowering them to explore in their own unique ways the mysteries that remain. Students will even get to dissect a brain!
Ages: Rising Senior
Location: New York City
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: March 3
This internship consists of clinical immersion in inpatient and outpatient medical practice in neurosurgery. Interns will interact with med students, residents and attendings to learn about day-to-day practice, and engage in classroom-based and informal learning about hard and soft skills critical to becoming a physician.
Ages: Rising Juniors and Seniors
Location: New York City
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: TBD
This program examines the interplay of science, medicine, and the experience of health and illness by way of epistemological questions—“How do we know what we know?”—to appreciate not only what becomes defined and recognized as a disease, but the power relationships that produce these effects. This program takes up current and historical examples to interrogate how the benefits of advances in science and medicine remain unequally shared, while exploring critical tools social scientists have offered as possible interventions. Major themes from this session will address biomedicine as a cultural system, the politics of surveillance and care, the performance and rituals of healing, the structure of the US public health system, and others.
Ages: 16 or older
Location: New York City
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: April
The Einstein-Montefiore Summer High School Research Program introduces high school students age 16 and older to the excitement of leading-edge scientific research. Students are assigned to Einstein research labs and will join the lab team under the guidance of the laboratory director (or principal investigator) who will serve as a mentor. Students are expected to present their work at Einstein’s Annual Summer Research Day together with college students in the Einstein Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP). In addition, students attend all SURP faculty lectures and enrichment activities, including research ethics sessions. Following the summer experience, students become Research Ambassadors to their high schools and, working with their high school science department, develop a program for their school.
Ages: Sophomore or Junior
Location: New York City
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: March
The Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) at the American Museum of Natural History is an opportunity for New York City high school students to conduct scientific research with Museum scientists. In SRMP, high school students get paid to learn how to conduct research. Students work with peers and scientist mentors twice each week throughout the school year for a total of four hours a week on a project that has never been done before. Every research project is different, covering topics from "Genetic basis of foraging in ogre-faced spiders" to "Weighing Stars: How do we know how heavy stars are?" to "What were the Maya eating 2,000 years ago?" SRMP students learn a wide range of new skills, like working with DNA in the lab, analyzing data from space-based telescopes, reading scientific articles, and learning to code and analyze data in Python, R, and other programming languages.
Ages: 14 - 18
Location: Remote / New York
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: March 3
The process of collecting and storing health-related data - including genetics and genomics - has advanced by leaps and bounds during the past decade. This reality demands a new generation of scientists, data engineers and medical professionals to work together on finding new solutions to new challenges that the fast-changing environment imposes on the healthcare system.
Ages: 16 - 17
Location: Buffalo, NY
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: February 21
If you’re a high school junior, get first-hand scientific research experience to make those all-important decisions about a college science major and future career in science or healthcare. At Roswell Park’s Summer Cancer Research Experience Program, you’ll work with experts on your own independent research project.
Ages: 14 - 18
Location: New York City
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: February 10
Each participant in the HOPP Summer Student Program is assigned to an 8-week, biomedical or computational lab-based internship at MSKCC. Students are paired with a mentor who supervises their activities, helps them develop appropriate skills. Over the course of the internship, students complete a self-directed project that provides value to their mentor and/or Principal Investigator’s overall research objectives.
Ages: 14 - 18
Location: Amherst, NY
Timeline: School Year
Deadline: TBD
The Mini-Veterinary School is a five-week series of lectures by the most accomplished and dynamic veterinary professionals. For two hours, they will lead you on a fascinating journey of discovery. Each lecture will be a "course" in a subject covered in veterinary school. Graduates will not be eligible to practice veterinary medicine, but will have a better understanding of their pets' health! They will, however, receive a certificate attesting to the completion of 10 hours of veterinary science.
Cold Outreach Strategy for High School Internships
If the opportunities listed above don’t turn out to be a fit, the next step to finding medical internships for high school students in New York is to launch a cold outreach strategy. This may seem intimidating at first, but the guide below should make it much more simple. As an added note, please exercise caution when reaching out to professionals you don’t know. It is always safest to interview or meet virtually.
How to Find Companies to Reach Out to for a High School Internship
Use LinkedIn to find small companies where you can help with skills such as social media, coding, content/grant writing, or graphic design. Smaller companies that need more hands on deck will be the most likely to hire high-school-aged students. Try to find personal connections with the professionals you reach out to, such as being from the same state originally or liking the same sports team.
How to Find Professors to Reach Out to for a High School Research Position
You can use online university staff directories to find professors to reach out to for research positions. Note that if you are looking for a remote research position with a professor, you should be aware that these opportunities tend to be harder to come by. Professors typically have high school students help with more manual laboratory tasks such as washing beakers or running equipment and usually do not have very much use for interns at a high school education level within a remote setting. The exception is if you are doing computational research, which generally requires introductory knowledge of Python or R to parse large datasets. You should be able to learn Python or R on your own for free within a few months using resources such as Coursera’s R Programming Course or Python for Everybody.
How to Structure and Send Outreach Emails
For a successful cold-outreach strategy, aim to send at least 50 emails to potential internship providers. Be sure to include a link to your resume, which should be no more than one page while you are in high school. UChicago provides a helpful free resume template and guide. We recommend including your resume as a Google Drive link because including it as a PDF will sometimes negatively impact the deliverability of your email. However, be sure to check that the sharing settings on the document allow anyone with the link to view its contents. It can also be a good idea to include work samples in your resume, such as the link to a website you designed, a social media account you manage, or your GitHub profile.
Email Template for Finding a High School Internship
If you are unsure how to structure your outreach emails to potential internship providers, here are some basic templates you can customize to your needs.
Template for Finding an Internship
Subject: Student Reaching Out
Dear Mr./Ms.____,
I hope you are having a great day! My name is [your name], and I am a rising [grade] at [your school]. I read about your company on LinkedIn and found the concept quite interesting. For context, [briefly state how the company relates to your interests or experience].
I was wondering if you might be looking for interns. I know I would have a great deal to learn from working with you, and I would love to contribute in any way I can. I have included my resume here. Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Template for Finding a Research Position
Subject: Student Reaching Out
Dear Professor/Dr. ____,
I hope you are having a great day! My name is [your name], and I am a rising [grade] at [your school]. I recently read your paper on [restate the abstract] in [name of publication] and was quite intrigued by [part you found interesting]. I was wondering if I might be able to intern for you over this summer. [Elaborate on your relevant skills and experience and why you are passionate about the field].
I have included my resume here. Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Conclusion
Whether you are applying to established programs or launching a cold outreach strategy, the name of the game when looking for a high school internship or research position is perseverance. These opportunities can be extremely difficult to secure, but most high school students find it worth it in the end to get a head start on building their careers. If you found this article helpful, don’t forget to save it for later or share it with a friend. Good luck on your internship search journey!