In addition to formal internship programs for high school students, Stanford labs sometimes host high school interns on an informal basis, usually in unpaid internships. The Office of Science Outreach is not able to help individual students identify a host lab or project but if you click on the red title above, you will find some information and tips. Please do not call the Office of Science Outreach for advice or guidance.
The RISE (Raising Interest in Science and Engineering) Summer Internship Program for HS Students is sponsored by the Office of Science Outreach. It’s an intensive 7-week summer program for local Bay Area students (living within 25-mile radius of campus) interested in science, engineering, math, computer science, or psychology. Students spend 30 hours a week on the Stanford campus, working in an active research lab under the guidance of a mentor from the lab (typically a graduate student), and attending weekly group sessions that include field trips, presentations, hands-on science activities, and lab tours.
RISE is designed for bright low income students and those who will be the first in their families to attend college.
At the School of Earth Sciences, high school students spend 8 weeks in the summer working in different laboratories. Student interns must be interested in Earth sciences. They support ongoing research and are supervised directly by graduate students, post docs and lab managers. For local high school students only, selected by an application process. The application is released in late January and is due March.
The SMYSP Summer Residential Program offers five weeks of intensive science and health training each summer for low income and under-represented high school students from northern and central California. Participants live together at Stanford, attend scientific lectures, complete anatomy laboratory practicums, intern at Stanford Hospital & Clinics and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System hospital, and learn about college entrance requirements, application procedures and financial aid. The program is tuition-free; selection is based on an application process.
SIMR – The Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program, is for high school juniors and seniors interested in hands-on research in various fields of medicine (immunology, stem cell, cancer, neuroscience, bioinformatics and cardiovascular medicine). This eight week program enables the selected students to take part in research, attend introductory lectures and to present their work at a poster session open to the Stanford community.
The Space Weather Monitor program is an education project to build and distribute inexpensive ionospheric monitors to students around the world. The monitors detect solar flares and other ionospheric disturbances.
Discovering Medicine @ Stanford is offered by the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program (SMYSP) for high school sophomores and juniors who are preparing for a 4-year college and have a serious interest in pursuing a health or medical career. The program is interactive, with small group workshops, and direct interactions with a variety of health professionals from the Stanford Hospitals & Clinics and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System hospital, as well as faculty, staff, and students from the Stanford School of Medicine. There is a $975 program fee to attend.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies offers online classes for academically talented youth, residential programs on campus during the summer for high school and middle school students, and a fully accredited online high school.
For the first time in its history, Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world. Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) expands the Stanford experience to students and educators online. A computer and an Internet connection are all you need. View lecture videos, access reading lists and other course handouts, take quizzes and tests, and communicate with other SEE students, all at your convenience. Visit the program website to access the classes.
The mission of the Stanford Educational Studies Program community is to reach out, to enthuse young eager minds, and share our muses and sources of joy and inspiration with people around us, especially high school students.
We offer days on campus full of academic and non-academic classes taught by Stanford students. ESP invites students to attend classes that could vary from completely “non-academic” stuff like cookie baking and origami, to complicated and challenging classes on machine theory or quantum mechanics.
The Splash! program fee is $40, but generous need-based financial aid is available.
SMASH is a state of the art Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) summer enrichment program at the UC Berkeley and Stanford campuses, and is expanding to other sites in the future. Live on campus with other high potential Black, Latino/a, Native American, Southeast Asian or Pacific Islander high school students. Be prepared for college!
Stanford Explore is an exploratory series covering the basic fundamentals and current research areas represented by the five Institutes of the Stanford School of Medicine (Immunology, Neuroscience, Cardiovascular Medicine, Regenerative and Stem Cell Medicine, and Cancer Biology) as well as research areas in Bioengineering and Genetics. Participants are encouraged to sign up for all 4 weeks but may also sign up for just 1, 2 or 3 weeks. Cost is $750 per week.
The Cardiothoracic Surgical Skills and Education Center Stanford Summer Internship is designed to educate high school and pre-medical students considering careers in science, medicine, and public health in basic and advanced cardiovascular anatomy and physiology as well as medical and surgical techniques that will be utilized in pre-medical and medical school.
This program is open to all students worldwide. There is a fee of $5,800 fee to participate.
Due to overwhelming demand, this program has added a second session to accommodate additional students. Please note that the curriculum for both sessions are identical, and the application deadline is the same for both programs. Session 2 dates are July 20 -August 14, 2015.
The Stanford University Math Camp, SUMaC is designed for high school students who will be juniors and seniors in the fall, who have exceptional interest and ability in mathematics. SUMaC is for those who seek to be challenged in mathematics and those who would enjoy four weeks of intensive, in-depth, mathematical pursuits. SUMaC provides an environment that fosters social and intellectual development centered on the study and enjoyment of mathematics. Information and application materials for SUMaC 2014 will be available by January 14, 2015.
This two-week course is for students considering careers in a variety of procedure-based medical fields, such as surgery, dental surgery, and nursing. It may also be of interest to students who intend to study biomedical engineering, occupational or physical therapy, sports medicine, or to become EMTs/paramedics. There is a $4,250 fee to participate.
The Stanford Middle School and High School Science Circles are academic enrichment programs for students in the Stanford area who are interested in the sciences. Activities take place in the evening during the academic year. Program fee of $250 or $350 per quarter.
The Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine (CHARM) Lab offers field trips and demos/presentations in local K-12 classrooms and on campus. The CHARM Lab creates robots and human-computer interfaces that use haptics in order to improve human health, safety, and quality of life. The word haptics refers to the sense of touch. Applications of our research include:
Math circles are weekly gatherings of high school, middle school, and elementary school students working on problems involving complex and advanced mathematical topics, guided by mathematicians and educators. Fee of $250 per quarter.
The Stanford Brain Bee is a local qualifying round of the International Brain Bee (IBB), a neuroscience competition exclusively for high school students ages 14-18. The Stanford Brain Bee involves both a written component and a live oral Q&A session. In addition to the competition, students will have the opportunity to attend a presentation by a Stanford neuroscientist and speak with Stanford professors and students from the medical, biosciences, and neuroscience fields.
Stanford's Clinical Anatomy invites high school students to visit their labs and facilities. Through customizable programs, instructors help students discover, learn, and apply human anatomy in a professional context by introducing students to many of the same learning resources used by Stanford medical students.
Stanford offers many free lectures for the general public on science and engineering topics that are delivered by Stanford's top researchers in terms understandable to the lay public. Examples include the SLAC Lecture Series and the Summer Science Lecture Series. See the "Lectures & Public Events" page on this site for more information.
Inspiring Future Scientists Through Shadowing (IFSS) is a program hosted annually by the chemistry department at Stanford University during the first two weeks of August. This program gives rising juniors and seniors in high school an opportunity to experience cutting edge chemical research while shadowing a graduate student mentor as they work in the laboratory. We encourage applications from US citizens and permanent residents over the age of 16 interested in careers in science - particularly from women and under-represented minorities. Preference will be given to local students, as no on-campus housing is available for this program. Participants must arrange for their own transportation to/from the Stanford Campus. There is no cost to participate.
The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is opening its lab doors with a new summer program aimed at girls who will be in 10th grade in Fall 2015. SAILORS aims to expose high school students from underrepresented populations to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The two-week, full-time program will provide both broad exposure to AI topics through faculty lectures and industry field trips, as well as in-depth experience with a research area through hands-on projects. Mentoring and career/personal development sessions with faculty, researchers, and graduate students will further enable personal growth and an opportunity to explore career interests in AI. There is no cost to participate.
The Canary Center at Stanford is a research center dedicated to early cancer detection research. As part of our efforts to train the next generation of scientists, we offer a paid and unpaid summer internship program. Canary Center interns will work in faculty labs for a 10-week internship in our state-of-the-art research facility. Each participant will be matched with a faculty, postdoctoral scholar, or senior scientist mentor who will help them craft a research project. The successful applicant can expect to work in a dynamic lab environment on challenging projects that involve a broad range of research techniques. The program also includes a series of weekly seminars on early cancer detection research, conducting scientific research, careers in science and the chance to interact with other interns. The program culminates with a research symposium, where students present individual talks or posters on their summer projects in front of their peers, faculty and lab mentors.
The Stanford Visitor's Center offers many public tours.
Project Motivation, affectionately known as ProMo, is a student group dedicated to promoting higher education to minority youths through on-campus visits and tours. Project Motivation is determined to instill a positive attitude towards higher education and help K-12 students understand the unlimited opportunities open to them. Formed in the mid-70's, Project Motivation seeks to encourage under represented high school students to pursue higher education. It is a program that facilitates the interaction between high school students and Stanford undergraduates. Teachers, help your students tour part of campus, see a dorm room, hear college stories from undergraduates and get the scoop about college life.
SIMR Bioengineering Bootcamp is a hands-on design experience in bioengineering for high school students. Students attend lectures on a diverse set of bioengineering research topics and work for 2 full days a week only (Tues/Thurs) for 8 weeks on a real-world biodesign project which addresses a medical need. There is no cost to participate other than an application fee.
The Stanford Pre-Collegiate Science Conference 2015 aims to highlight current research from the perspective of Stanford scholars as well as the incredible work being done in science by young scholars across the country. Conference features will include, but not limited to, hands-on activities, presentations by Stanford faculty and staff, student contributed talks, roundtable discussions, professional and student panels, and student scientific poster exhibit. There is a $400 registration fee.
SNF invites K-12 school classes and groups to visit our cleanroom facilities, where micro and nanotechnology devices are fabricated and researched. We offer an array of visit and tour formats, including introductory presentations on nanoscience and nanofabrication, cleanroom gowning activities, and different types of tours (including guided window and webcam tours, including nanofabrication demos) with the opportunity to meet and talk with researchers and staff who work on our facility. See the “SNF Tours” link on the SNF Education webpage linked above.
The Youth Leadership Conference on Asian and Pacific Islander Health is a four day residential conference at Stanford University. High school students (including those entering high school Fall 2015 or those who will graduate Summer 2015) from across the country are invited to attend to gain leadership skills for effecting change in local communities. Conference participants will meet other students interested in making a difference in public health. Leading medical experts, professors, and policymakers will speak on issues of Asian and Pacific Islander health. Students will also have a chance to apply the skills they gain in an outreach planning simulation. There is a $375 fee to participate (some financial aid available).
These 7-week unpaid internships are awarded to outstanding high school and undergraduate students interested in pursuing careers in biomedicine and biological sciences. Interns work from mid-June until early August on a research project within the lab of Professor Jill Helms that entails exposure to the latest biochemical, molecular, and analytical techniques in a given field.
The Stanford Math Tournament (SMT) is an annual student-run math competition for high school students held at Stanford University. SMT aims to encourage interest in math by providing students from around the world an opportunity to work on fun and challenging problems and to meet other students interested in math.
Stanford High School Summer College is a selective program that grants high-achieving students, ages 16 – 19, access to undergraduate education at Stanford University. This program offers an eight-week college experience that provides academic, social, and intellectual opportunities not found in a high school classroom. High School Summer College participants enroll as visiting undergraduates in Stanford’s Summer Quarter and take the same courses as matriculated Stanford students taught by Stanford faculty. Students interact with peers from across the U.S. and around the world, and have ample opportunity to explore the unique recreational activities available on campus and in the culturally rich San Francisco Bay Area. Through embracing a diversity of socioeconomic, cultural, and racial backgrounds, Summer College creates an inclusive community of learning where students are challenged to reach their fullest potential—while at Stanford and beyond.
Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine is a hub of interdisciplinary research in genomics with a goal towards improving human health. GeneCamp offers a new 9-week internship program for high school students and undergraduates. There is no charge to participate.
The SSTEM program consists of 4 Saturdays; each day introduces students to four different specialties: primary care, general surgery, ophthalmology, and cardiology. Each day will include breakfast, an opening activity, health professional-led presentations, and 2-3 hands-on activities led by Stanford medical students. Students will get opportunities to suture, learn surgical knot tying, perform CPR on mannequins, and dissect sheep hearts and cow eyes. In addition, students will also get an opportunity to visit Stanford for a session in the anatomy lab and a tour of campus.
MEDCSI is a rigorous 2 week program in Medicine that is open to highly motivated high school and premed students. It was created to empower students with the knowledge to plan for a career in medicine. Workshops and sessions are taught by Stanford faculty and include hands on experiences such as performing bedside ultrasounds, dissections, suturing, splinting and visits to the Stanford emergency life flight station and free clinics.
There is a non-refundable application fee of $75 which is sent with the application, and, if accepted there will be program fee of $3,850. Some financial aid available.
Girlz Gone Wireless (GGW) is a program hosted by Professor Ada Poon and her lab members in Stanford’s Electrical Engineering (EE) department. This new one-week summer workshop will introduce high school students to the wonderful world of EE, teaching them basic concepts about electricity and electronics and how they are being used to create tiny implantable medical devices.
The workshop is free and open to local rising 9th and 10th graders with a minimum 3.5 GPA and an interest in engineering. There are no prerequisites other than a desire to learn about EE. Priority will be given to those members of groups who are the most underrepresented in EE today: women, African Americans, Latinas/Latinos, and Native Americans. Girlz Gone Wireless especially targets students from low income families or those who will be the first generation in their families to attend college.
The application deadline has passed and we don't make exceptions.
The Stanford Undergraduate Minority Medical Alliance (SUMMA) is pleased to partner with the Stanford University Minority Medical Alliance and the Center of Excellence in Diversity in Medical Education to offer the inaugural pre-health conference for high school students! The program targets diverse high school juniors and seniors.
This conference is designed to provide guidance, resources and inspiration to high school students who are tomorrow's leaders in the health professions. Participants will learn about different health careers and design a plan to apply to college and professional schools as a confident, competitive applicant for an exciting career in health. From financial aid and college admissions to volunteering and academic success, students will learn strategies directly from undergraduate and medical students.
The $10 registration fee includes lunch.
Are you interested in Veterinary School? In learning about the various specializations in the Veterinary field? In caring for animals and interested in pursuing a career working with animals? The Stanford Undergraduate Pre-Vet Club presents the 4th Annual Pre-Vet Expo, a free one-day conference for high school and undergraduate students interested in the field of Veterinary Science.
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