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Summer Internships for 14-Year-Olds: A Comprehensive Guide

For 14-year-olds eager to explore potential career paths, gain valuable work experience, and build essential life skills, summer internships offer an unparalleled opportunity. These programs provide a platform to expand professional networks, make meaningful connections, and stand out in the competitive college admissions landscape. This article explores a variety of summer internship options available to 14-year-olds, with a focus on opportunities in the Los Angeles area and beyond.

Why Internships Matter for High School Students

Internships provide numerous benefits to high school students, allowing them to explore career paths, gain work experience, and build life skills. They also allow high schoolers to expand their professional network and make connections. Universities seek well-rounded, engaged, and passionate students, not just those with impressive GPAs and SAT scores. Hands-on internship experience gives students a leg up and gets them excited about the future. High school students who step up really stand out in the college admissions process, and summer internships provide a way for kids to showcase their drive and get them working in their chosen field.

Internship Opportunities in Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County offers a wealth of internship programs specifically designed for young teens. These programs span various fields, from science and medicine to arts and community service, providing diverse avenues for exploration and skill development.

Science and Medicine

  • Community Teen Intern Program (California Science Center): This program is designed for high school students in grades 10-12 who reside in the Science Center's immediate geographic community. Interns work in the Education Department, directly engaging with museum guests and delivering in-person programming. Their core job is to connect science to people’s lives through hands-on science activities. Throughout the summer, interns explore careers in marine biology & SCUBA diving or aviation. Applicants must be currently enrolled high school sophomore or junior (classes of 2027, 2028) with a minimum 2.0 grade point average.

  • Children’s Hospital LA - LA-HIP Program: This paid internship is designed for rising high school seniors from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine. Participants conduct biomedical research in the Saban Research Institute labs, attend specialized biology courses, receive SAT prep, and get guided college counseling. They also receive a stipend, Metro card, and meals.

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  • UCLA Health Volunteen Summer Program: This program places high school juniors and seniors in hospital departments across Westwood and Santa Monica. Volunteers assist with administrative and patient support tasks for four hours per week.

  • Cedars-Sinai High School Student Volunteers: This selective program puts students in a real hospital environment, shadowing clinical staff, helping visitors, and supporting hospital operations. Applicants must be between 14 and 18 and commit to weekly shifts.

  • Kaiser Permanente Teen Volunteer Program: This year-round volunteer program runs at multiple Kaiser Permanente sites across California. Volunteers help with non-clinical tasks such as delivering supplies, greeting patients, and supporting administrative staff. Most locations accept students starting at age 15½.

  • Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Volunteer Program: Open to juniors and seniors, this program gives access to hospital departments such as physical therapy, patient transport, and emergency registration. Volunteers assist with clerical tasks, visitor support, and non-clinical duties.

  • KP LAUNCH Program: This program gives early access to medical career paths through a structured, hospital-based summer internship. Hosted across multiple Kaiser Permanente locations in California, this program includes rotations in clinical departments, health education workshops, and mentorship from real medical professionals. The program specifically encourages applicants from underrepresented communities.

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  • Inspiring New Scientists through Professional Internships and Research Experience (INSPIRE): This program introduces high school students to careers in healthcare.

Arts and Culture

  • MOCA Teen Internship Program: This year-long paid internship program provides students with a behind-the-scenes look at careers involving contemporary art, artists, and museum operations. Interns meet at MOCA on Thursday nights and some weekends to work directly with museum professionals who create art, investigate exhibitions, and plan Teen Night events.

  • Getty Museum Internships: The Getty Museum offers two paid summer internship programs for high school students in the Los Angeles area: Teen Gallery Guides at The Getty Villa and Teen Gallery Guides at The Getty Center.

  • YAP (National Museum of the American Latino): This program offers four-week interdisciplinary internships in museums and other cultural institutions in cities across the nation, including the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

  • The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens: This institution offers a wide variety of volunteer opportunities-in everything from assisting guests to gardening-to participants as young as 14.

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  • Warner Bros. Discovery Honorships: Warner Bros. Discovery provides this program for students passionate about the business of media and entertainment. Participants are awarded honorships, which consist of both a scholarship and a paid summer internship at Warner Bros. Discovery Studios in Burbank, CA. Seniors with artistic ability and a passion for a career in animation can apply for an Animation/Hanna-Barbera Honorship, an internship-scholarship package awarded to up to six students per year.

  • Pasadena Symphony and POPS: Volunteers help fill a variety of functions, including serving as venue assistants, greeters, and ticket takers during concerts, along with non-performance roles in marketing, outreach, and programming.

Community Service and Youth Development

  • HIRE LA: This program is designed to provide a starter job for youth ages 14-24. It is funded by multiple sources and used to provide work experience, as well as work skills development, financial literacy, career coaching and mentoring, and career exposure.

  • Youth & Community Harvest Program: This program offers work experience and professional development to youth and young adults, ages 16 to 30, who are passionate about addressing the issue of food insecurity. This program provides a bi-weekly stipend for internship service with community-based organizations that lead urban farms, community gardens, and farmers markets in under-resourced neighborhoods.

  • Angeleno Corps: Angeleno Corps is a 10-month program that provides 18- to 30-year-olds with the opportunity to gain work experience through service learning, pursue their education, and receive a monthly stipend. Corps members complete their service at a community-based organization in one of six areas: Education and Child Care; Health, Climate, and Environmental Justice; Immigration Assistance; Nutrition and Food Justice; Technology and Digital Assistance; and Housing Rights Advocacy.

  • Student 2 Student Success (S2S) program: This program is designed to provide high school students with paid work experience and career exploration in the education and childcare fields. High school students in the program are paid for both training and on-the-job experience at the minimum wage.

  • L.A. City Pathways for Youth program: This program provides young people between the ages of 16-30 years old with the opportunity to learn about careers in the City of Los Angeles’ Recreation and Parks Department. Interns are placed at recreation centers and park sites across the city, working alongside recreational and maintenance professionals to create a welcoming environment for the local community. The program also serves as an entryway into City employment for youth interested in public service.

  • Summer Night Lights Expansion program: This program will hire young people ages 16-24 to coordinate activities at City parks and recreation centers with extended hours to provide youth and families with fun gathering spaces during the summer months. The program aims to provide a safe, welcoming environment in neighborhoods impacted by gang-related violence through extended recreation programming, meals, community activities, employment opportunities, and other resources.

  • Teen Parent Prosper Program: This program provides part-time employment to pregnant or parenting teens (ages 16-19), combining work experience through the City’s YouthSource Centers and wraparound services through the City’s FamilySource Centers. Participants will receive paid work experience and enhancement services for job training and work experience. Supportive services include child care assistance to support employment, financial literacy education, and parenting and child development workshops.

  • Court Angels: This internship program is provided by the Los Angeles Superior Court for local area high school students who may be considered at risk with high potential. Court Angels aim to provide participants with quality work experience and a deeper understanding of the court and court-related career opportunities.

  • CDI (Child Development Institute): The CDI connects students-including high schoolers-to internship and volunteer opportunities that utilize their unique skills and interests to support young children and serve families. Opportunities range from fields like event planning to landscaping to social media. CDI Early Learning Centers promote school readiness in children through literacy, art, science, music, gardening, and wellness activities. High school volunteers receive mentoring and gain hands-on experience while they help lead programs bringing kids and their parents together for nature clubs, parenting workshops, and more.

  • VolunTEEN program at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach: Students between the ages of 14 and 16 can take part in the VolunTEEN program at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. VolunTEENs are expected to commit to on-site service and will build valuable skills like public speaking and communication while engaging with visitors about the aquarium’s inhabitants and ecosystems.

Other Opportunities

  • Los Angeles County Public Works: This agency provides work opportunities for high school seniors.

  • Internships with the Port of Long Beach: These internships offer students the chance to gain work experience, explore potential careers, and earn a paycheck. Interns receive mentoring, acquire firsthand experience with international trade and related fields, and participate in personal enrichment training-building skills like financial literacy. The program is open to high school juniors and seniors who reside in Long Beach or attend a high school in the Long Beach Unified School District service area.

  • Metro Internship Program: This internship program provides high school juniors and seniors with a close-up look at careers in transportation and teaches them how to turn classroom concepts into real-world solutions. The program is open to students who reside in Los Angeles County, depend on transit, and live within proximity to a Metro rail station or Metro rail expansion site.

Internship Opportunities Beyond Los Angeles County

While Los Angeles offers a plethora of options, several prestigious programs throughout California cater to ambitious high school students.

  • Stanford Pediatrics Internship Program (PIPS): This program introduces students to pediatric research with Stanford faculty and postdoc mentors. It’s tailored for rising juniors or seniors in Northern California and is free to attend.

  • UCSF Summer Student Research Program: This paid internship places high school juniors or seniors in UCSF research labs where they’ll work one-on-one with mentors on biomedical projects, attend weekly seminars and labs, and present their findings at a symposium.

  • Bay Area Youth Science (BAYS) at UCSF: This paid internship at UCSF is open to rising juniors and seniors from KIPP SF College Prep and similar backgrounds. Participants conduct paid research in labs studying drugs, cancer biology, structural biology, or infectious disease.

  • Stanford Institutes of Medicine Research (SIMR): SIMR places rising juniors and seniors in top-tier labs at Stanford School of Medicine across areas like cancer biology, cardiovascular science, immunology, bioengineering, and neuroscience.

  • Stanford Medical Youth Science Program (SMYSP): SMYSP is a fully-funded, residential summer program for rising juniors and seniors interested in science and medicine. Hosted at Stanford University, participants engage in STEM coursework, research lectures, mentorship meetings, and group projects.

  • Buck Institute for Research on Aging Internship: This summer research internship prepares local high school students for careers in biomedical and geroscience research.

  • Medical Immersion Summer Academy (MISA): MISA gives pre-med and pre-health students hands-on clinical experience in diverse healthcare settings.

  • Science Internship Program (SIP) at UCSC: SIP immerses high school students in active STEM research under UCSC faculty, graduate students, and post-docs. You’ll work on real projects - not simulations - contributing to ongoing research in labs across disciplines. The program has an application fee, deposit, tuition, and optional housing costs.

  • Cardiothoracic Surgical Skills and Education Center - Stanford Summer Internship: This elective summer program trains high school and pre-med students in cardiothoracic surgery basics and advanced skills.

Virtual Internship Options

For students seeking flexibility or those who live outside major metropolitan areas, virtual internships offer a viable alternative.

  • Empowerly Research Scholar Program: Empowerly’s Research Scholar Program lets students work one-on-one with PhD mentors to create an independent research paper. Students choose from advanced topics like biotechnology, human disease, psychology, and public health.

  • MIT THINK Project: Organized by MIT undergraduates, THINK supports students in the early stages of independent STEM research projects.

  • Ladder Internships: In the program, you work with a high-growth start-up on an internship. Start-ups that offer internships range across a variety of industries from tech/deep tech, AI/ML to health tech, marketing, journalism, consulting, and more. Internships are available throughout the year, and you can also do your work fully remotely.

How to Choose the Right Internship

With so many options available, selecting the right internship requires careful consideration. Here’s how to pick an internship that fits you best:

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