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High School Writing Internships

There are not a lot of high school writing internships officially offered by organizations. There are only four that I know of. The first one is the Princeton summer journalism program here.

This program is for high school juniors only. Students in every state can apply for this residential program at Princeton (which is unpaid) to visit news organizations and do writing activities. There is also the On The Money Magazine journalism and entrepreneurship internship. This is a small paid program where Chicago high schoolers can write for their magazine. The next is one from Stanford and another is from a company called Writopia which I talk about below.

1) Princeton Summer Journalism Program is one of the best high school writing internships

Princeton University’s Summer Journalism Program hosts an annual 10-day residential journalism program in August. Participants travel from their home state to Princeton and spend a week in University dorms. They also attend workshops, lectures and learn how to create their newspaper. Students have the chance to visit major news agencies like The New York Times and Huffington Post, and also cover professional sports events. They can also film and produce short documentaries, attend theatre productions, conduct investigative projects, and create a group blog. Finally, they will be able to report, write and edit their newspaper, The Princeton Summer Journal. This publication is issued on the last day of the residential program. Students complete weekly reading assignments in order to keep up to date with current events. They also begin to prepare their stories and work with their college counselors to complete their college applications.

2) On The Money Magazine journalism and entrepreneurship internship

Do you love to write? On the Money Magazine (OTM), is a publication for teens by teens. High school interns from Chicago collaborate to publish articles on finance and entrepreneurship each semester. For our next issue of On the Money Magazine, we are seeking teens who would like to write an article. The internship will be held in conjunction with DePaul University’s Writing Center. You will not only be writing articles for the magazine but you will also learn skills such as writing, public speaking and writing.

Interviews will be held tentatively on Tuesday, September 27, 2022 at 5pm. The internship will last until December 2022. Before interview, students are asked to send their resumes and writing samples. These can be attached at the end of this application.

3) Stanford science journalist intern

Stanford science journalist interns gain faculty mentorship and support at the university level for multi-media creations (written, audio, and podcast) and comments on scientific research articles. You can apply for the high school writing internship here.

Qualifications to apply:

High-school level student
Enrolled in your sophomore, junior or senior year of high school
Interest in pursuing scientific career within the fields of medical, psychological, engineering or computer science
Minimum of 5 hours a week commitment

4) Writopia high school writing internships

High school students who took a Writopia Lab workshop in the last calendar year are eligible for Writopia’s high school writing nternships. High school interns are role models for our writers aged six to nine years old and offer editorial and moral support. High school interns support instructors in our workshops by typing and helping with story-development. This is a volunteer opportunity. We are happy to fulfill community service or volunteer requirements for schools.

Interns in high school must be:

- - At least 15 years of age at the beginning of their internship.
  - You have completed at least one Writopia Lab 15 hour workshop in the last calendar year (trimester break, school break, summer workshops all count).
  - You can commit to two weeks of summer workshops, or one weekly trimester-long workshop.

How to Apply

- Apply for Summer Jobs by May 1st
- Acceptance of School-Year Application on a rolling basis
- Fill out this form to apply
- Questions? Email (register@writopialab.org)

What to do if you can’t find high school writing internships online

If you cannot find high school writing internships that you can apply for online and you are interested in becoming an author, try contacting local publishers in your area. You can do this by going to google.com/maps and typing in “book publisher near me.” You will now see the Google My Businesses of publishers near you and book publishers near you.

Now that you see the Google My Businesses of marketing companies near you, you can cold-call these companies using the phone number listed on their Google My Business and ask them for an internship. You can also cold-email these companies by finding their email on their company website, and you can get their company website from their Google My Business. I have found cold-emailing to be more effective though as I have landed a website development internship as a high schooler this way.

Trying to intern for a publicist would be more useful if your career goal is to become an author. However, if you are more interested in writing for a newspaper when you are older, you should try contacting local newspapers in your area to ask for an internship. Another option to get high school writing internships is to contact college English departments and college English professors in your area and ask them for an internship. Getting in contact with professors is typically done through cold-email. You want to go to the faculty staff directory of the university you want to research for, and then you can start emailing professors that you find interesting asking if you can do an internship for them. You should read their professor bio and see what they are doing and what they are interested in so that you can write a tailored email about why you are interested in working for that professor. A tailored email is very important to get a response from that professor. They do not want to read a generic email or they won’t get back to you. Trust me, I did that originally and got no responses.

See the below picture for an example of a cold email I did. They didn’t have any research opportunities yet, but I was able to work on UChicago’s website.