9 Texas Hospital Internships for High School Students
If you’re looking to build a career in a competitive industry such as medicine, applying for internships can be a great way to get a head start. Internships allow you to explore your career interests early and acquire hands-on experience. Internships also equip you with essential soft skills like communication, teamwork, and time management, which are valuable regardless of the field you work in.
For students looking to pursue a career in medicine or healthcare, internships give you early exposure and an advantage in college applications. Participating in a medical research or hospital internship demonstrates commitment, curiosity, and proactive engagement; qualities that admission committees often look for in prospective candidates. Moreover, internships give you impactful experiences such as observing patient care or working alongside healthcare professionals, which you can discuss in college essays and interviews.
In this blog, we’ve curated a list of 9 Texas hospital internships for high school students to help you explore the medical field. The internships on this list are hosted by hospitals or university health centers, offering exposure to the latest medical research.
1. Ladder Internship Program—Health track
Ladder Internships is a selective start-up internship program for ambitious high school students! 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 and AI/ML to health tech, marketing, journalism, consulting, and more. You can explore all the options here on their application form. Ladder’s start-ups are high-growth companies, on average raising over a million dollars. Past founders have included YCombinator alums, founders raising over 30 million dollars, or founders who previously worked at Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. In the program, interns work closely with their managers and a Ladder Coach on real-world projects and present their work to the company. Here is the application form.
Interns are offered one-on-one training in communication, time management, and other such valuable skills and will also have the opportunity to attend group training sessions with other interns in their cohort. The virtual internship is usually 8 weeks long.
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world
Cost: $2,490 (financial aid available)
Application Deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort. November 24, 2024 for the upcoming winter cohort
Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year. December 16, 2024 onwards for the winter cohort
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
The MD Anderson Cancer Center High School Summer Program by the University of Texas is a paid opportunity designed for high school seniors looking to pursue careers in biomedical sciences and allied health. Through hands-on lab research, you will explore fields like oncology and biomedical science. You will deepen your subject understanding by working closely with faculty mentors, conducting experiments, and attending seminars.
This program is highly selective and accepts only up to 10 participants every year. Selected students get to undertake a research project in a biomedical discipline under the guidance of a full-time member of the MD Anderson faculty. Participants work 5 days a week in the MD Anderson laboratories. You not only engage in practical work but also get to participate in activities like abstract, poster, and elevator speech competitions. The program culminates with student presentations and a celebration luncheon.
Location: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Stipend: $6,800 stipend for the 10-week program; $6,120 for the 9-week program
Application Deadline: January 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Dates: June 3 – August 9, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Eligibility: Current Texas high school seniors aged 18 or over by program start
The Houston Methodist’s Summer Internship Program for High Schoolers allows select high school juniors and seniors to work alongside undergraduates on a research project under the guidance and mentorship of Houston Methodist's faculty. Over 10 weeks, you will learn about essential research and laboratory techniques required for the completion of your project. The program ends with a research symposium, where you will share a poster presentation of your work.
Additionally, the program includes a career and professional development curriculum to equip you with valuable tools for college applications. While you can choose your top 3 specialty preferences while applying, placement in research fields is based on availability and lab capacity limitations.
Location: Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX
Cost: Free with no stipend for high school students
Application Deadline: January 31, 2025
Dates: May 27 – August 1, 2025
Eligibility: High school students who are currently in their junior or senior year and will be at least 16 years old by the start of the program with a minimum GPA of 3.5
The HSRA program is a five-week interdisciplinary non-residential summer research experience for high school students in Texas. Participants get to contribute to research projects in active College of Natural Sciences (CNS) laboratories in biochemistry, biology, environmental science, genetics, neuroscience, genome engineering, data analytics, and ecology, among others. You are expected to spend 15-25 hours per week with your research group and engage in research at the laboratory. You will learn cutting-edge research techniques while gaining valuable insights through interactions with UT students and faculty in CNS undergraduate research groups.
Location: University of Texas, Austin, TX
Cost: $3,500. Need-based scholarships are available
Application Deadline: Applications for 2025 will open in January 2025
Dates: June 9 – July 16, 2025
Eligibility: Rising sophomores, juniors, or seniors who will be at least 15 years old by June 1
The Biomedical Excellence and Academic Training (BEAT) Academy offers high schoolers opportunities to explore medical and biomedical research. The course covers ongoing biomedical research at the UT Health Science Center in fields such as anatomy, physiology, medicine, molecular biology, aging, and neurodegeneration. As a participant, you will visit the human anatomy lab, interact with real and simulated patients for medical training, and get a glimpse into the latest advances in biomolecular technology. Additionally, you will attend a college prep session to learn more about the career of your choice. The program currently has an intake of 20 students.
Location: University of Texas Health Lozano Long Campus, San Antonio, TX
Cost: $700 registration fee and non-refundable application fee of $50
Application Deadline: June 2025 (tentative, based on 2024 dates)
Dates: July 8 – 12, 2025 (tentative, based on 2024 program dates)
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors
The DACCPM Summer Research Program runs for 10 weeks, during which participants are matched with a faculty mentor and assigned to a research project in cancer biology. As a Laboratory trainee, you will be introduced to institutional and federal policies required for conducting basic science research in a laboratory, lab safety practices and techniques, and how to conduct a literature review utilizing the medical research library.
As a Research trainee, you will learn about institutional and federal policies required for conducting human subject research in a clinical setting and participate actively in the technical aspects of your project and the interpretation of experimental data. By working on a broad range of challenging basic research and clinical projects, you will learn lab safety practices and techniques for gathering, analyzing, and presenting scientific data. You will be eligible to participate in a symposium toward the end of the program.
Location: MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Stipend: No stipend for high school students
Application Deadline: January 21, 2025
Dates: 8–10 weeks between the end of May and August (tentative, based on the 2024 program dates)
Eligibility: High school seniors who are 18 years or older who are in good academic standing or graduating
The Saturday Morning Science Summer Research Program is an 8-week-long experience that gives high school students the opportunity to work in a lab or on a research project with a Baylor College of Medicine researcher. You will work 40 hours per week and attend weekly ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions. During these sessions, you will learn about various aspects of research and professional development. The program concludes with the SMS Summer Research Symposium, where you get to present your research to the other summer interns. The program is highly competitive, with an intake of 40 students.
Location: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Cost: Free
Application Deadline: April 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program dates)
Dates: June 10 – August 5, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program dates)
Eligibility: Applicants must be 18 years of age by June 1
This camp is an opportunity for high schoolers interested in learning more about the health sciences to gain valuable hands-on science experience, interact with health professionals from various fields, and spend time with camp counselors. The program is residential and runs for a week. As a participant, you’ll develop basic clinical skills such as administering IVs, performing intubations, drawing blood, and taking vital signs in the simulation labs where medical and nursing students are trained. The program comprises interactive workshops, practical activities, and lectures. You will participate in labs and simulations where you practice clinical skills, engage in experiments, and observe medical technologies.
Location: Dell Medical School at The University of Texas, Austin, TX
Cost: $500. Need-based scholarships are available
Application Deadline: 2025 applications are TBA
Dates: TBA for 2025. Two camps were offered in 2024:
June 10 – 14, 2024
June 24 – 28, 2024
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9-11
The PATHS-UP Young Scholars Digital Health Summer Internship is a 3-week program designed to introduce high schoolers to the practical applications of digital circuitry, computer science, physics, and engineering research in the healthcare field. You will learn about tools such as pulse oximeters, accelerometers, GPS devices, speakers, and microphones. You will then design a prototype device that reflects the technology developed at the engineering research center. By gaining experience in engineering research, scientific writing, and communication, you will learn about the relationship between healthcare, programming, and digital design. The program has an intake of 12 students from select Houston-area schools.
Location: Rice University, Houston, TX
Cost: Free
Application Deadline: April 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program dates)
Dates: TBA for 2025. Two sessions were offered in 2024:
Cohort I: June 10 – 27, 2024
Cohort II: July 8 – 25, 2024
Eligibility: Open to 10th and 11th graders from select Houston-area schools
One other option—the Lumiere Research Scholar Program
If you’re interested in pursuing independent research, consider applying to one of the Lumiere Research Scholar Programs, selective online high school programs for students founded with researchers at Harvard and Oxford. Last year, we had over 4,000 students apply for 500 spots in the program! You can find the application form here.
Also check out the Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation, a non-profit research program for talented, low-income students. Last year, we had 150 students on full need-based financial aid!
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.