15 Agriculture Summer Programs for High School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 3 minutes ago
- 10 min read
If you are in high school and planning to major in agriculture or build a career in this field, consider joining an agriculture summer program.
What is an agriculture summer program? What will I do as a participant?
Agriculture summer programs help you explore how farming, technology, and science work together to solve real-world problems. You can study topics like soil health, animal care, crop management, and sustainable food production through field visits, research projects, and lab sessions. They give you a closer look at how food is grown and how research supports global food systems.
Taking part in an agriculture program can also strengthen your college applications. It shows early initiative in exploring an important and evolving field, along with skills in research, data collection, and problem-solving. Colleges value students who can connect academic study with real-world application, and agricultural programs show that you’ve already started doing that.
With that, here’s a list of 15 agriculture summer programs for high school students! If you're looking for more prestigious internships, check out this set of blogs!
15 Agriculture Summer Programs for High School Students
Location: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Cost: Free; small stipend provided
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: July 5 - July 31
Application Deadline: March 27
Eligibility: Current 10th and 11th-grade students with a strong academic background, particularly in STEM
Michigan State University’s Multicultural Apprenticeship Program is a fully-funded agriculture summer program for high school students with a focus on education and career preparation. While living on campus at MSU, you’ll be matched with a professor from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources to conduct an independent research project in a field like food sciences, natural resources, agricultural engineering, or crop sciences. Outside of your research, you’ll attend seminars in broader agricultural fields from veterinary medicine to forestry, learn about careers in agriculture, and participate in leadership seminars.
Location: Remote , you can participate in this program from anywhere in the world!
Cost: Varies depending on program type. Full financial aid available.
Application Deadline: Varying deadlines based on cohort.
Program Dates: Varies by cohort: summer, fall, winter, or spring. Options range from 12 weeks to 1 year.
Eligibility: You must be currently enrolled in high school and demonstrate a high level of academic achievement.
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous research program tailored for high school students. The program offers extensive 1-on-1 research opportunities for high school students across a broad range of subject areas that you can explore as a high schooler. The program pairs high school students with Ph.D. mentors to work 1-on-1 on an independent research project. At the end of the 12-week program, you’ll have developed an independent research paper! You can choose research topics from subjects such as psychology, physics, economics, data science, computer science, engineering, chemistry, international relations, and more. You can find more details about the application here.
Location: Purdue University, W Lafayette, IN
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not provided
Dates: July 6-18
Application Deadline: April 15
Eligibility: Rising 9th-12th-grade students
Purdue College of Agriculture’s C-PASA summer program brings students to campus for a free two-week business and agriculture summer program. You’ll connect with Purdue faculty and students to learn about different majors and educational opportunities in the College of Agriculture and how to leverage your degree for a variety of career paths. You’ll gain experience in college-level study of agriculture, conducting hands-on research projects, working in Purdue labs, and visiting on- and off-campus research facilities. To broaden your career preparation, you’ll tour agricultural companies, including Cargill, Corteva, and Syngenta, and connect with industry professionals to learn about their experience in the field.
Location: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, or Online
Cost: $8,399 (Residential) or $5,820 (Commuter/Online)
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; 30-35 students, including Cornell undergraduates
Dates: June 23 - July 11 (in-person) or June 2 - June 20 (online)
Application Deadline: May 9 (in-person) or May 5 (online)
Eligibility: Rising 11th and 12th grade students
Taught by Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences faculty, Sustainable Animal Husbandry gives high school students access to take an undergraduate-level course alongside current Cornell students. You’ll learn about domestic animal systems and sustainable agriculture, honing in on areas including beef and dairy cattle, animal genetics, animal systems in limited-resource countries, and toxicology. Assignments include analyzing scientific literature, conducting hands-on labs, attending educational demonstrations at agricultural facilities, and a final project researching a topic in sustainable agriculture of your choice. You’ll also attend workshops on college admissions from Cornell admissions staff and earn transferable college credit to get ahead on undergraduate requirements.
Location: UMass - Amherst, Amherst, MA
Cost: $12,157 (Residential); $7,022 (Commuter)
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Very selective; 2 students
Dates: June 29 - August 9
Application Deadline: Not specified. Check the site for updates
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors with at least a B in STEM courses
UMass Amherst’s Research Intensive summer program places two students into the Xing research lab in UMass’ Stockbridge School of Agriculture to conduct research focused on environmental and soil chemistry. You’ll contribute to the lab’s ongoing project areas, focusing on mitigating nano- and microplastic pollution in water streams to promote environmental and agricultural safety. You’ll work on developing natural filter materials to optimize wastewater filtration techniques, learning how chemistry and environmental science can directly contribute to large-scale agricultural systems. You’ll finish the program by designing a research poster on your findings, which you’ll present to a group of faculty, peers, and family members.
Location: The Food Project farms in Boston, Lincoln, Lynn, or Wenham, MA
Stipend: $15/hour
Acceptance rate/cohort size: 72 students across 4 sites
Dates: 6 weeks over the summer
Application Deadline: Applications open in January; deadline is updated yearly
Eligibility: Rising 9th - 12th graders between the ages of 14-17
The Food Project’s Seed Crew agriculture summer program for high schoolers offers a paid opportunity to learn about agricultural science and develop leadership skills while contributing to community gardens in eastern Massachusetts. You’ll spend your mornings working alongside Food Project staff to both grow and distribute produce, learning about the environmental, production, and industrial sides of agriculture. You’ll be trained in leadership and teamwork skills, and guided to use your work experience to prepare for professional work and civic engagement. In the afternoons, you’ll attend educational workshops focusing on topics across food accessibility and insecurity, social justice issues in agricultural and food sciences, and sustainable agriculture.
Location: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC; or University of Mount Olive, Mount Olive, NC
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not provided
Dates: June 15 - June 20
Application Deadline: March 31
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors from North Carolina interested in pursuing a career in agriculture
The North Carolina Farm Bureau’s Institute for Future Agricultural Leaders provides a fully-funded week of educational and career development training over the summer to rising seniors planning their future in agriculture. You’ll stay at one of three colleges in North Carolina, each with a school of agriculture, where you’ll learn about the college’s academic offerings while touring labs and research facilities. You’ll attend several daily seminars on specialized topics in agriculture, including Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Crop and Soil Science, and Entomology, led by university professors. Other educational events focus on leadership development and civic engagement. You’ll also receive career preparation guidance through on-site activities at local agribusinesses, visiting the NC General Assembly, and touring the North Carolina Farm Bureau offices.
Location: UMass - Amherst, Amherst, MA
Cost: $12,157 (Residential) or $7,022 (Commuter)
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Very selective; 2 students
Dates: June 29 - August 9
Application Deadline: Check the site for updates
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors with grades of B or above in STEM classes
UMass - Amherst’s Host-Microbe Mutualism Research Intensive brings high schoolers to a university lab for an agriculture summer program with a focus on biochemistry. You’ll contribute to ongoing research at the College of Natural Sciences’ Wang lab to study the interactions between plants, animals, microbes, and their impacts on crop health and sustainability. Centered on studying symbiotic relationships between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria, you’ll analyze how these crop-microbe interactions can impact sustainability and human health. Outside of the lab, you’ll participate in activities with other summer program students, learn about college life at UMass, and attend field trips in the Amherst area. You’ll finish the program by designing and presenting a research poster on your work, which you’ll present to your peers and UMass faculty.
Location: Online
Cost: $3,850
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; the course enrolls a maximum of 36 students, including Harvard students
Dates: June 23 – August 8
Application deadline: January 7 (early/priority); February 11 (regular); April 1 (late)
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors
Harvard Summer School invites high school upperclassmen to join current Harvard students for college classes, including an opportunity to pursue an agriculture summer program through its Food Systems and Social Justice course. You’ll study the topic of food system change, focusing on how redeveloping practices in global and local food production can promote a more sustainable and socially equitable future. Coursework will address the concepts of food justice, food sovereignty, and sustainability from environmental, social, and economic angles. You’ll learn to evaluate how agriculture intersects with policy, science, and social movements and the role of media, activism, and research in shaping agricultural structures. You’ll complete a final project on food system organization, conducting a case study of a social justice movement related to food justice, including an annotated bibliography, movement analysis, and an advocacy-focused editorial essay. You can view the full syllabus here.
Location: Smith College, Northampton, MA
Cost: $4,864
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Information not provided
Dates: July 19 - August 1
Application Deadline: Rolling admissions ending May 1 | Priority deadline: February 1
Eligibility: Rising 9th-12th graders
Smith College’s Sustainable Futures is an agriculture summer program for high school students looking for a combination of field work, classroom study, and the role of agriculture in broader social systems. You’ll study agriculture from a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing from environmental studies, cultural studies, and biogeography. Topics include the impact of colonialism on indigenous food sovereignty and the impacts of climate change on food systems. You’ll do hands-on work ranging from learning to identify Northampton's native plants and animals, visiting sustainable infrastructure systems in Massachusetts, and going on field trips to community gardens and permaculture sites. You’ll additionally work with the program cohort to develop strategies for sustainability initiatives in your local community.
Location: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Cost: $900
Acceptance rate/cohort size: 40 students accepted
Dates: June 15 - 20
Application Deadline: March 28
Eligibility: High school students aged 15-17
Hosted at North Carolina State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Livestock Science Camp provides an agriculture summer program focused on animal science and biotechnology. You’ll complete a survey study of agriculture and livestock production, learning about scientific methodologies and technologies used in animal production to ensure food safety. The program has a strong hands-on focus, so you’ll get to see animal science principles in action by visiting NC State’s cattle, swine, and horse educational units and participating in laboratory experiments. To help develop your career plans, you’ll tour animal industry farms, agricultural companies, and speak with professionals in the field about planning your next steps in college and beyond.
Location: Barnard College, New York, NY
Cost: $10,171 (Residential) or $8,160 (Commuter)
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not provided
Dates: July 20 - August 7
Application Deadline: Rolling admissions beginning December 1
Eligibility: Rising 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students
Barnard’s Pre-College course in Sustainable Food and the City trains high school students in agriculture, health policy, climate change, and environmental science in a multidisciplinary approach to food sciences. You’ll focus on agriculture through studying sustainable farming practices, including a field trip to a local farm, and how agricultural systems both contribute to and are put at risk by climate change. To add a local study to your curriculum, you’ll learn about NYC food policies, including food insecurity, city initiatives to reduce food waste, and nutritional health among NYC residents. Other topic focuses include soil health and biodiversity. You’ll finish the program by honing in on your favorite unit from the program to develop a final research project.
Location: Penn State University, University Park, PA
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not provided
Dates: Two 2-week sessions are offered
Application Deadline: February 27
Eligibility: Current 11th-grade students attending high school and living in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania high school students looking for an accessible agriculture summer program can consider the Pennsylvania School for Excellence in the Agricultural Sciences, a fully-funded two-week educational program. You’ll study fields like ecosystem ecology, food science, plants and people, global agriculture, and more, with a focus on systems-level analysis of sustainability and production. In the classroom, you’ll learn about specialized topics including animal welfare and meat sciences, environmental resource systems, and food evaluation and product development. You’ll also get hands-on experience in sustainability and agriculture through field trips to farms, surveying municipal trees, and experiments like testing lead concentration in water samples.
Location: University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Cost: $2,050 (for applications submitted before 4/1) or $2,150
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not provided
Dates: July 20 - July 26
Application Deadline: Rolling admissions from December to mid-June
Eligibility: Rising 10th - 12th-grade students with a minimum 2.0 GPA
University of Connecticut’s Food Science and Technology summer program for high schoolers merges the study of nutrition, science, and agriculture in a week-long course. You’ll study agriculture from STEM angles like food science and technology, microbiology, food safety, and chemistry. You’ll then look at the field through a production-focused lens, learning about product development, food packaging, marketing, and regulations on food sales and quality control. Outside of lectures and in-class discussions, you’ll also conduct lab experiments and workshops focused on chemistry and testing the makeup and safety of food samples.
Location: Brown University, Providence, RI, and Dartmouth, MA
Cost: $6,002
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: June 22 - July 3
Application Deadline: Rolling admissions ending May 9
Eligibility: Rising 11th - 12th grade students and graduating seniors
Brown’s Rhode Island Environmental Learning Lab allows high school students to learn about agriculture through the lens of environmental science. In the classroom portion of the course, you’ll attend lectures and discussions on ecology, sustainability, and environmental justice and activism. The field work course elements include a camping retreat and visiting varied ecosystems in the Rhode Island area. As a dual educational and leadership-focused course, you’ll identify an issue in environmental science or sustainability, with the ability to focus on agricultural systems, and develop a personalized Action Plan to create change in your community.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program in which students work one-on-one with a mentor to develop an independent research paper.
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