Looking to gain practical experience while still in high school? Our blog highlights the benefits of remote internships for high school students. Discover how virtual internships can provide valuable opportunities to develop essential skills, explore potential career paths, and build a strong foundation for your future. We share insights into top companies offering remote internships and provide tips on how to make the most of these opportunities. Take the first step towards your professional growth by reading our blog and unlocking the vast potential of remote internships.
View our latest post: 40 Incredible Internships For High School Students
What Are the Benefits of Remote Internships for Students?
For many decades, internships have provided students with experiences that are highly related to a career or field they are interested in. These temporary arrangements connect a student’s academic coursework to careers in a variety of fields and are directly supervised by an employer (and sometimes a teacher).
During these introductory work experiences, students can perform tasks just as if they were already employed by the company providing the internship. Alternatively, students might do more job shadowing instead of task performance. The specific terms of every internship depend on the type of internship and numerous other factors.
Regardless of what their experience might be, students stand to gain significant benefits from engaging in internships. And now, there are also remote internships for high school students that can reach more students and take those benefits further.
Traditional (in-person) and remote internships for students share many benefits. However, other benefits apply only to remote internships, while others are more applicable to traditional ones. Here are some positives that can come from remote internships.
Honing Current Skills and Learning New Ones
The best remote internships for high schoolers are those that offer real-world experience in fields the students may be interested in pursuing as a career. Students can learn new skills and hone the ones they already possess during these experiences.
Networking Opportunities
Students can also connect with professionals in fields from all over the world. This can make students more marketable to hiring managers later and impressive to college admissions personnel. Remote internships can also be a boon for students who want to get a foot in the door with the employer hosting the internship.
Accessibility and Convenience
Remote internships for students can pad college applications and job resumes nicely, helping students stand out to colleges and hiring managers.
Since traditional internships require people to be on-site, many students aren’t able to participate in them. Transportation can also be an issue, especially for students who live in rural areas and those with already-busy schedules.
Remote internships for high school students offer a solution to these issues and have become more common than ever, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. These internships offer opportunities that students can take advantage of from anywhere without commuting or being in close contact with others.
Before Committing to an Internship
With both in-person and remote internships for high schoolers, it’s important that students are clear on the expectations before committing.
If you’re considering an internship, make sure you understand and agree with the accompanying stipulations of the opportunity, including:
- Whether it’s a paid or unpaid internship
- What time commitment is expected of you
- How long the internship lasts
- What your specific responsibilities are
These details apply whether you’ll be participating in an in-person or remote internship. You should also find out whether internships you are interested in offer other little perks, like discounts at local shops.
What Are the Best Remote Internships for High Schoolers?
One of the great advantages of remote internships is that you only have to go as far as your computer to find them! If you want to know what kinds of remote internships for students are out there, get started on your research by learning about the following opportunities:
The Google Computer Science Summer Institute
A popular opportunity for students who are interested in pursuing a career in computer science is the Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI), sponsored by Google. This internship program is completely online and lasts for four weeks.
The CSSI is centered on students who hail from marginalized communities and is designed to help them learn the basics of computer science and participate in workshops. Participants learn about career options, skill development, identity, and self-care. Ultimately, they are given the chance to network with industry experts.
The United Planet Virtual Internship
United Planet is a non-profit organization that operates to cultivate a global community through volunteering. High school students who are at least 16 years old can participate in this internship in a variety of areas, including:
- Education
- Global health
- Children
- Environmental sustainability
This is one of the best remote internships for high schoolers interested in learning more about cultures worldwide. At the same time, participants can expand their network, meet plenty of new people, and work with teams of students who share similar goals and interests.
The Smithsonian Institution
If you have a passion for history, museums, and research, you may be interested in the Smithsonian Institution. This internship program allows high school students to gain experience working with the Smithsonian, the world’s largest institution of education and research.
Students can take advantage of various virtual and hybrid opportunities across the different museums within the Smithsonian system, such as the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Portrait Museum, and several others.
The NASA High School Internship Program
For students interested in an out-of-this-world internship experience, NASA pulls through and offers a program that is available year-round.
These internships have typically been in-person opportunities at one of the NASA centers in the country. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, those opportunities went remote, and many of them remain that way.
Students in this program can work on various projects and assignments and don’t need any previous experience to apply for the internship. Depending on the length of the specific internship and the student’s academic level, these internships might even offer a stipend.
The Virtual Internships Foundations Program
High school students between the ages of 14 and 18 can take advantage of the opportunity to explore professional development and career options in a virtual online setting. In this remote internship program, students work directly with participating companies on various projects that benefit both the student and the company.
The Virtual Internships Foundations Program requires 15 to 18 hours of time from the student per week and runs for four weeks.
Summer Springboard
With the Summer Springboard program, high school students can engage in a nine-day micro-internship to explore various projects and observe or assist with one. Classes are held via Zoom and are delivered by a classroom coordinator and instructor in real-time.
The main goal of this remote internship for high schoolers is to help them boost their employability skills and improve their resume and college application. It also gives students a chance to make new professional contacts with networking opportunities.
EnergyMag Virtual Internship
EnergyMag offers various virtual internships throughout the year that are taken either as half-time or quarter-time internships. The half-time internships run for 20 hours per week for two to eight weeks. The quarter-time internships run for 10 hours per week and last anywhere from one to nine months.
Students learn how to perform research, gain networking experience, and communicate their findings in writing in a professional manner. When a student turns in a publishable report at the conclusion of the internship, they receive a letter of accomplishment as well as a recommendation from EnergyMag.
Inspirit AI Scholars
Two-week intensive remote internships are available with Inspirit AI, which is renowned for its coveted STEM internships. The remote internship program teaches students skills in artificial intelligence and coding and is taught by industry professionals and graduate students from schools like MIT, Stanford, and Harvard.
Because different difficulty levels are available, students get the unique opportunity to participate in the program for several years. As they grow with the program, students can build up to completing a complex AI research project that can be submitted to research competitions and scientific journals.
YouUnited
YouUnited is a non-profit organization led by students that aims to empower other students with employable skills. This virtual internship program is designed for students from middle school through college.
Opportunities to develop skills include more than remote internships; they also include scholarships, networking, and other resources to help interns gain experience in the working world along with skills like communication and time management.
The Absolute Remote Internship
For students interested in international relations, this project-based internship for high school students can be completed from any remote location. Students complete work as they learn to market themselves to future employers and get a jump on an international career.
Some industries the program includes are engineering, fashion, pharma, IT, marketing, sports, video production, and many others. Organizations in Spain, Canada, the UK, Japan, France, and other countries are all participants in this remote internship for students.
Finding the Best Remote Internships for You
Internships, even remote ones, aren’t just available from large companies. They can also be accessed through some small local businesses, so don’t forget to “shop local.” In addition, keep in mind that ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, there are more remote opportunities than ever.
This means you may have a good chance of finding a remote internship in fields that traditionally did not participate in them before the pandemic, such as mechanical industries and the healthcare field.
Finally, remember that you must apply to internships just as if you were applying for a job, so work on your writing and interview skills. The more confident and prepared you are, the better your chance of landing a rewarding remote internship will be.
