Internships for high school students in Chicago

Instead of the Fermilab summer high school internships, I think your best bet here is to just try to cold-email a university professor who does engineering/space research to do a research internship for them. You can read my guide on how to cold-email a university professor to find research opportunities in high school here.

Computer Science | Internships for high school students in Chicago

UChicago’s Data Science Institute | Internships for high school students in Chicago

If you are interested in computer science, UChicago offers the Data Science Institute which is this paid computer science summer research opportunity for high schoolers. They also pay a lot (about $5600 for the summer). This is probably the best computer science internship that you’re going to find online. They also don’t require a recommendation letter. The application is just a google form that you fill out with some essay-style questions so they can learn more about you. The acceptance rate for the program is around 10%. A pro to this program is that you can be as young as 14 (a high school freshman) to apply for it. This job is 40 hours a week and you’re going to UChicago to do the work.

Genesys Works | Internships for high school students in Chicago

Genesys Works is a paid work-study program that high school seniors can apply to from Janurary-March of their senior year. Then, you have to interview for the program and their interviews take place from March to April. During a high schooler’s senior year summer they have paid training for their paid school-year internship program. The training includes interpersonal skills like eye contact. They say that you don’t need any prior experience in business or technology. They will teach you everything you need to know to be ready for your internship.

Your internship will be in a large corporation. Then, during your senior year school year, they place you in an internship. They have 3 tracks/interest areas of internships you can choose from: computer science, information technology, and accounting. Throughout the internship, they also provide you with college and career counseling. 

If you want to go to college, Genesys Works staff assists you with college selection, applications, grants, and scholarships. You’ll earn $10,000-$15,000 over the course of your 12-month internship. Most internships start in August of your senior year and end the next August before you go to college.  As an intern, you’ll work 20 hours a week at a top company in the metro area. You go to school in the morning and work at your internship from 1-5pm Monday through Friday.

Everyone Can Code app program | Internships for high school students in Chicago

There is also the paid Everyone Can Code app program that you have to be 16-24 to do. In this program, you can build your own app or add features to an existing app. One of their requirements to join the program though is that need to have completed a minimum of 120 hours of Swift training w/ demonstrated progress towards or completion of Level 1 App Development with Swift Certification.

Political Science | Internships for high school students in Chicago

Mikva Challenge | Internships for high school students in Chicago

Mikva Challenge offers a paid summer internship in a Chicago elected official’s office. You must be 17-20 to do the internship though. Here is the application link. Mikva also offers a variety of paid youth councils for teens to join.

Other political science opportunities | Internships for high school students in Chicago

High schoolers can also do election judging in Chicago, which is basically helping out during elections. Another program Chicago offers is that the Board of Education has this program called the Honorary Student Board member that high school sophomores and juniors can apply to. They only choose one Honorary Student Board member and it’s very competitive so you need to have awesome extracurriculars already. Chicago also offers the Mayor’s Youth Commission which is this paid youth council. 

There’s also the Illinois State Board of Education youth council and the Illinois Student Advisory Council. The applications for the Illinois Student Advisory Council have stayed closed for like about 1.5 years though but the Illinois State Board of Education youth council applications do open every year around the spring.

Business

Junior Economic Club | Internships for high school students in Chicago

There is a Junior Economic Club chapter in Chicago. This is not an internship but rather, the Junior Economic Club is an organization across the U.S in many states that provides high schoolers interested in business with networking connections. It’s competitive to be accepted, but worth it. You are more likely to get internship offers in high school by joining the organization and the organization provides you with networking connections. 

They also provide kids with special opportunities to join elite youth councils in Chicago that you couldn’t get in otherwise if you weren’t in this organization. This organization also provided its student members with opportunities to work on websites for schools if you’re also interested in computer science. Here’s the application.

Future Founders and CSBI

There is also CSBI which is for high school juniors. They give summer internships in the financial services sector. For Chicago high schoolers, Future Founders, which is an entrepreneurial organization offers this couple-week paid program called Be Your Own Boss that lets you network with entrepreneurs. 

Honestly, though I don’t feel like this little program is really worth it. Maybe it can let you with entrepreneurs a little bit, but honestly if you are 18 I would go for applying for their programs in the dropdown in the image below. These actually help you further your business and you can get real resources.