15 Architecture Summer Internships for High School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
If you want to study architecture in college, internships are one of the best ways to start building experience early.
Architecture internships let you explore the field through real tasks, real tools, and real expectations, even at a beginner level. You get a better sense of what architectural work looks like, and what parts of it you enjoy.
Why should I participate in an architecture summer internship in high school?
Architecture internships help you learn how the field works day to day. You may be introduced to design concepts, drafting, basic urban planning, model-making, or portfolio work. You also learn how architects present ideas, revise work based on feedback, and collaborate with others.
Internships also add weight to college applications. They show that your interest in architecture goes beyond school assignments and that you have taken time to explore the field seriously. You also gain experiences you can talk about in essays and interviews, which makes your application feel more grounded. If you’re interested in architecture competitions, check out our blog here.
If you’re interested in architecture research programs more specifically, please check this blog out.
With that in mind, here are 15 architecture summer internships for high school students!
15 Architecture Summer Internships for High School Students
Cost: Varies depending on program type. Full financial aid available.
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Application Deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort. Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September), and Winter (November).
Program Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year, including Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
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. Ladder’s start-ups are high-growth companies on average, raising over a million dollars. Interns work closely with their manager at the startup on real-world projects and present their work to the company. The virtual internship is usually 8 weeks long. Apply now!
Location: Chicago Architecture Center, Chicago, IL
Cost/Stipend: No cost; stipend provided, including paid final summer internship
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective/Unspecified
Application Deadline: March 31
Dates: June 22– May 8 of the following year; Summer #1 (6 weeks Mon-Thu), Fall (14 Saturdays), Spring (16 Saturdays), Summer #2 internship (tentatively)
Eligibility: Incoming sophomores, juniors, seniors attending high school in Chicago or/surrounding area
Chicago Architecture Center’s Teen Fellows program is long and demanding in a good way. You spend months learning how design works through site visits, portfolio projects, and hands-on model building, while also picking up the software side of architecture, from SketchUp and AutoCAD to Illustrator and InDesign. You will be studying how Chicago changed and why, then translating that into design work of your own. The program ends with a summer internship placement at an architecture or design firm, so the pipeline feels pretty direct.
Location: Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, and Boston
Cost: Varies; financial aid available
Application Deadline: Multiple summer cohorts; rolling admissions.
Program Dates: 2 weeks during the summer
Eligibility: Students aged 13-18 currently enrolled in middle or high school
The Academic Insights Program lets high school students experience university life firsthand. You will live on campus and study in small groups of 7-10, and learn from tutors from eminent top universities like Oxford and Cambridge.
Participants can explore a wide range of subjects, spanning over 20 options, including Architecture, AI, Business Management, Computer Science, Economics, Medicine, Philosophy, and more. The courses are experiential and focus on hands-on learning. You may find yourself conducting dissections in medicine, designing a robotic arm in engineering, participating in a moot court for law, or building creative writing portfolios and business case studies.
By the end of the program, you’ll complete a personal project, receive written feedback, and a certificate of completion. You can find more details about the application here.
Location: Various locations throughout the U.S.
Cost: Varies based on location (limited scholarships available)
Application Deadline: Varies depending on location
Dates: Sometime between July – August
Eligibility: Students of color from grades 8–12
NOMA’s Project Pipeline is designed around the idea that architecture is tied to people, history, and public space. You work with architects and local partners while doing research, design exercises, and discussions that connect directly to a real city and real community needs. The projects usually feel grounded, like thinking through public spaces, neighborhood access, or how design choices affect who feels included. It is also one of the clearer pathways into architecture for students of color, since the program is built around mentorship and representation.
Location: Sasaki Foundation, Boston, MA (Metro North region option)
Cost/Stipend: Paid ($20/hour, up to 27.5 hours/week)
Application Deadline: Opens in spring
Dates: Six weeks, early July to mid-August
Eligibility: Current high school students (grades 9–12), residents of Boston or Metro North region (prioritizing Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Revere, Somerville)
SEED is a paid summer design program where you learn by working in a group, the way design firms actually operate. You go through charrettes, sketching, and digital drawing, but you also spend time on the kinds of questions designers ask early in a project, like what problem you are solving and who the project is for. Site visits are part of the rhythm, so you are not designing in a vacuum. Past projects have covered things like cooling spaces, gardens, and mobile learning setups, which gives the work a real community planning feel.
Location: Local architecture firms, Boston, MA
Cost/Stipend: No cost; paid through Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program
Application Deadline: February 20 (opens then)
Dates: July 6 – August 14 (Mon-Thu internships + Summer Fridays)
Eligibility: Boston Public Schools high school students, grades 9–12
This program is a six-week placement inside a Boston architecture firm, with the Boston Society for Architecture and PIC doing the matching. Your week is split between firm work and Summer Friday programming, where you go on tours, meet other interns, and see different parts of the city through an architectural lens. Because firms vary a lot, the day-to-day work can look different depending on where you land, but you still get exposure to professional routines and how projects move through a studio. The program ends with presentations, so you leave with something concrete to talk about.
Location: Fallingwater Institute, Mill Run, PA
Cost/Stipend: $1,500 per week (includes housing, meals, materials, instruction); limited need-based scholarships
Application Deadline: Late January
Dates: June 29 – July 3; July 6 – 10; July 20 – 24; July 27 – 31; August 3 – 7; August 10 – 14
Eligibility: High school students entering grades 9–12 or gap year students; no prior design experience required
Fallingwater’s residencies are not an internship in the normal sense, but they do give you a very focused design environment. You live on site and spend the week doing drawing and design work inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s approach, with studio time, instructor critique, and hands-on projects like model making or design-build. The setting matters here because you are surrounded by architecture that is treated like a living case study, not a museum object. It also works for beginners, since the sessions are built around learning through making rather than showing up with a portfolio already done.
Location: DPR offices nationwide (e.g., CA, CO, TX, WA), various states
Cost/Stipend: Paid; full-time rate
Application Deadline: April 15
Dates: 8 weeks summer, 35–40 hours/week (tentatively)
Eligibility: High school students interested in construction/architecture
DPR’s Build Up internship puts you in the middle of how a construction job actually moves, switching between the site and the office so you see both sides. You help with basics like documentation, takeoffs, and safety routines, and you sit in on coordination meetings where project managers and design teams work through problems in real time. You also get exposure to modeling and drawing reviews, which is where you start noticing how a clean architectural idea turns into something that can be built without surprises.
Location: Capitol campus, Washington, DC
Cost/Stipend: Paid (federal internship rate)
Application Deadline: January 30
Dates: 12 weeks summer (tentatively)
Eligibility: Current high school students (age 16+ by June 30), U.S. citizens or permanent residents seeking citizenship
The Architect of the Capitol internship is a preservation-heavy role where you help maintain historic buildings, monuments, and collections across the Capitol campus. Your work connects to actual operations, so you are shadowing professionals, learning how maintenance decisions get made, and seeing what it takes to keep large public spaces functioning while protecting the history inside them. The program also builds in tours and networking with other interns, but the core of it is learning how architecture works when the job is care, repair, and stewardship.
Location: College of Architecture and Planning, Denver, CO
Cost/Stipend: One-Day Workshop: $120; Day Camp: $750; Overnight Camp: $2,000 (scholarships available)
Application Deadline: Scholarship apps: February 1
Dates: One-Day Workshop: January 10; Day Camp: June 8 – 12; Overnight Camp: June 20 – 27
Eligibility: High school students entering sophomore/junior/senior year (Fall); no prior experience required
CU Denver’s Architecture in the City program is set up like a quick entry point into design school habits. You spend your time sketching, building models, and working with design software while faculty and working architects guide you through projects that touch architecture, planning, and urban design. The schedule also includes firm visits in downtown Denver, so you get a real look at what design offices do all day. Depending on the format you pick, you either get a one-day taste of the process or a longer camp where you can actually finish a design-build style project.
Location: Can be in any city. Fill out this form to be notified when there is a camp closest to you.
Cost: Free
Application Deadline: Dependent on camp
Dates: Dependent on camp
Eligibility: Open to students in grades 6-12
Hip Hop Architecture Camp teaches design through culture instead of treating architecture like a subject you have to “earn” your way into. You use hip hop as the lens, then work through design thinking exercises that connect buildings and public spaces to identity, history, and how neighborhoods function. A lot of the work is hands-on, including projects like designing sets for music video concepts, which forces you to think about materials, lighting, texture, and mood. It is architecture, but explained in a language that feels familiar.
Location: Girls Garage, Berkeley, CA
Cost: Free
Application Deadline: Applications open on February 1
Program Dates: Cohort 1: June 15 – 19; Cohort 2: June 22 – 26
Eligibility: Open to girls and gender-expansive youth in rising grades 9–12
Girls Garage runs this program like a build shop with a purpose. You work with a team to design and construct something real for a local nonprofit, so you will be learning how to plan, measure, adjust, and finish work that other people will actually use. Along the way, you pick up skills like carpentry, basic welding, applied math, and reading drawings, with builders and educators guiding you through each step. The conversations about teamwork and identity are part of the program, but the backbone is making something with your hands and getting it done.
Location: Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Cost: $1,500 (includes meals, housing, class materials, activities, and souvenirs). Limited need-based scholarships are available. To apply, students must submit a separate scholarship essay as part of the application
Application Deadline: March 1
Dates: July 6 – 11
Eligibility: Open to students entering grades 10–12
Camp ARCH is a one-week introduction to what design majors feel like in college, with tracks across architecture, construction science, landscape architecture, and planning. If you choose architecture, you spend your time doing studio-style work like hand drawing, model making, and learning the basics of how designers develop ideas. You work in groups, get critiqued, and learn how to explain your choices out loud, which is a big part of architecture school. The week ends with a final presentation where you show your projects and talk through your process.
Location: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Cost: Residential: $16,754 (includes 6-credit tuition, housing, meals, student services, and health fee); Commuter: $11,199 (includes tuition and student health fee)
Application Deadline: Residential: May 1; Commuter: May 19
Dates: June 22 – August 2
Eligibility: High school students (typically rising juniors or seniors) with a strong interest in architecture. No prior experience required.
Cornell’s pre-college architecture program is structured like a real slice of the AAP experience. You take a studio course and a lecture course at the same time, so you are balancing making work with understanding where architecture comes from and how it has been shaped over time. Most of your energy goes into the studio, where you build spatial thinking through drawing, models, and iterative design work, with critique built into the rhythm. Being based in Milstein Hall also matters because the space itself is designed for that kind of collaborative studio culture.
Location: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Cost: Residential: $12,208; Commuter: $8,130; International (residential): $11,949. Includes tuition, materials, room & board, program fees, and health access
Application Deadline: Domestic students: May 8; International students: March 13
Dates: June 22 – July 17
Eligibility: High school students who will have completed 9th grade by June 15; no prerequisites. International students must meet English proficiency requirements.
USC’s architecture program is studio-focused and runs on repetition, feedback, and a lot of making. You work through sketching, physical models, and digital drawing while learning the basic logic of architectural design, like how space, form, and constraints shape a project. Faculty and practicing architects give feedback as you go, so you get used to the idea that revision is normal. The site visits around Los Angeles add context, because you are not just designing in isolation, you are looking at real buildings and learning how architecture sits inside a city.
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, check out students’ reviews of the program here and 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 graduate of Harvard College, where he earned an A.B. in Statistics. 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.
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