Summer Programs for 9th Graders
Most high-profile summer programs are written with juniors in mind, which makes it easy to assume there's nothing out there for a freshman. That's not true — a real, if shorter, set of programs is open to 9th graders specifically, and starting early is one of the better ways to figure out what you actually like before it's time to build a junior-year resume around it.
Below are verified programs from Pathfind's database where a 9th grader meets the published grade requirement — not just programs that happen to accept "high schoolers" broadly.
Freshman year is also the cheapest time to try something and be wrong about it. Use these mostly to explore, not to optimize.
We found 99 verified matches below. Want the full list instead? See all Grade 9 Opportunities.
LaunchX Summer Entrepreneurship Program
Selective summer program where teams launch a real startup, offered in person and online. Priority applications land in mid-November with a final round in early March; need-based awards are available.
Cedars-Sinai Teen Volunteer Program
Session-based hospital volunteering in Los Angeles where teens work alongside patients and staff. You must be 14 to 18 and complete a full session. The volunteer jacket costs $30.
HOSA-Future Health Professionals
Career organization for students interested in health careers, with 70+ competitive events, leadership conferences, and community health service from state to international level. Join through a school chapter.
MIT THINK Scholars Program
Propose a STEM research or engineering project you haven't built yet; finalists get up to $1,000 in funding, weekly MIT mentorship, and an all-expenses-paid trip to MIT. Free to apply, solo or in pairs.
Interlochen Arts Camp
Residential summer arts camp in northern Michigan covering music, theatre, dance, visual arts, film, and creative writing in sessions of one to six weeks. Tuition is steep, but 86% of families who requested aid received it last summer.
Essentials of Finance
Two-week online introduction to corporate valuation, venture capital, and alternative investments, taught by Wharton faculty.
Financial Decision Making
Two-week online certificate covering the fundamentals of saving, borrowing, and investing through daily live lectures and recitations.
CTY Summer Programs
In-person and online summer academic courses for students who qualify through above-grade-level testing. Tuition-based, with financial aid available.
Law Academy
One-week pre-college academy in Washington, DC covering criminal law, constitutional law, and Supreme Court cases through lectures and mock trials. Applying by the early deadline waives the application fee.
Stanford AI4ALL
Two-week AI program covering computer vision, robotics, medical AI, NLP, and ethics with graduate-student mentorship, online in June or residential in July. Open only to 9th graders; tuition is steep but need-based aid exists.
Canada/USA Mathcamp
Five-week residential program teaching advanced, exploratory mathematics beyond the standard curriculum. Fully free for families earning under $100,000, with sliding-scale tuition above that.
PROMYS
Six-week residential program where students work through open-ended number theory problem sets alongside counselors and visiting mathematicians. Tuition is fully covered for families earning under $80,000.
California State Summer School for the Arts
Four-week state-run residential arts intensive at Cal Poly Pomona in animation, film, dance, music, theater, visual arts, and creative writing. Nearly 60% of students recently received full or partial scholarships, limited to California residents.
Ross Mathematics Program
Six-week residential number theory intensive built around discovery — students prove their own theorems instead of memorizing someone else's.
Summer Mentorship Program
Fully online mentorship pairing you one-on-one with a working poet or prose writer in poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. Fee remission is reviewed separately from admission.
Pre-College Academy
Saturday conservatory program in downtown San Francisco running August through May with private lessons, ensembles, and master classes. Admission is by audition and expects 1-2 years of prior study; financial aid is offered.
PITCH Health Careers Program
Three-week summer program at UCSF exploring health and medical science careers through mentored investigations and college-readiness workshops. Prioritizes first-generation and low-income students; 2.5 GPA minimum.
Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes
On-campus and online summer courses at Stanford open to any qualifying student, not just those enrolled at Stanford OHS. Tuition-based with need-based financial aid.
Kode With Klossy Summer Camp
Free two-week coding camp for girls and gender-expansive teens, covering web development, machine learning, or mobile app design. No experience required.
LINC Summer High School Program
Free summer conservation and leadership program with an environmental-justice community-science track and an outdoor-leadership track including camping and kayaking. Participants receive a completion stipend.
SAGE Summer Camp
Free one-week residential camp at the SLAC and Stanford campuses with job shadowing, hands-on projects, and career sessions led by lab scientists. Ages 14-17 in a set list of Northern and Central California counties.
Academic Talent Development Program
Summer enrichment courses at UC Berkeley across the sciences, math, and humanities. Costs several hundred to about $1,250 per course, with a Pathway Scholarship for financial need.
Galaxy Explorers
Multi-year Oakland program where teens run museum demonstrations and join inquiry teams in engineering, climate tech, and digital media, with externships at partners like NASA Ames. $1,500 a year, fully covered for students with demonstrated need.
Youth Task Force
County advisory body of students who bring youth voice to government and community-organization policy, meeting monthly in San Jose. Open only to Santa Clara County students.
AwesomeMath Summer Program
Three-week live online intensive built around olympiad and contest problem-solving, taught by experienced competition coaches.
Mosaic Journalism Workshop
Free two-week summer newsroom intensive at SJSU where about 20 mostly Bay Area students report, write, shoot, and produce work that gets published. Requires work samples and full attendance.
Pathways
Free, self-paced seven-week virtual program for girls and non-binary students exploring AI, cybersecurity, data science, game design, or web development, with mentor check-ins along the way. Replaced the flagship Summer Immersion Program, which ended after its 2025 cohort.
San Francisco Youth Commission
A 17-member commission that is the official youth voice in City Hall, advising the Mayor and Board of Supervisors on youth budget and policy over a year-long term. Open to San Francisco residents ages 12-23.
Stanford National Forensic Institute
Speech, debate, and public speaking institute run at Stanford since 1990, with summer sessions in Palo Alto plus online options. Enrollment is rolling and space-limited.
√mathroots
Free residential summer math program at MIT for current high school students. There is no tuition or housing cost.
AFSA Opportunities for High School Students
Directory of public diplomacy, exchange, essay, and international-affairs opportunities maintained by the professional association for U.S. diplomats.
AI Foundations & CS Discoveries
Free, self-paced computer science and AI courses with no application or deadline. Code.org rebranded to CodeAI in 2026 as it shifted focus from coding toward AI literacy.
AI Scholars & AI Fellowship
Online AI courses over Zoom — a 25-hour group program in Python, neural networks, and AI ethics, or a mentored individual research fellowship. Both charge significant tuition, with need-based aid up to 100%.
AI Scholars Program
Ten-session live online AI course taught by graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and similar schools, ending in a social-impact project. Tuition is $1,400 with payment plans; admission is rolling year-round.
AI4ALL Open Learning
Free, self-paced online curriculum introducing artificial intelligence through projects on topics like computer vision and data bias. AI4ALL has paused all of its high school programming, so this is kept for reference only.
Amazon Future Engineer
Collection of free computer science courses, virtual field trips, and career-exploration content for students and teachers, including introductory coding and cloud computing material.
American Youth Policy Forum Events
Public policy learning and youth voice resources connecting students and educators with discussions about education, equity, and youth policy.
Children's Health Council Teen Volunteers
Teens ages 14 to 18 volunteer with a Palo Alto nonprofit that supports children and teens with learning differences and mental health needs. Volunteers serve across the Peninsula and South Bay.
Civics Unplugged
Civic leadership community and fellowship opportunities for young people developing projects that strengthen democracy and public participation.
Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program
Join a local Civil Air Patrol squadron to learn aviation and leadership. Annual dues are $25 to $50.
Close Up Washington, D.C.
Civic education program built around discussions with public officials, visits to government institutions, and student-led policy workshops in Washington, D.C.
Code in Place
Free online course that teaches the first half of Stanford's intro Python class (CS106A) to beginners. Each group of 10 students gets a volunteer teacher. Sessions run in cohorts, so check the site for the next one.
Computer History Museum Teen Volunteer Interns
Students in grades 9 to 12 research technology history and run tours and hands-on activities for young visitors at the museum in Mountain View.
Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX)
Scholarship to live with a host family in Germany and attend a German high school. No previous German is required.
Cooper Union Summer STEM
Three- or six-week college-level engineering and computer science classes at Cooper Union in New York City. Financial aid is available, with priority for NYC residents. Applications for 2027 open December 11, 2026.
CS50x: Introduction to Computer Science
Harvard's free, self-paced introduction to computer science, covering abstraction, algorithms, data structures, and web development in C, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. No formal application and no cost for the online course.
DoSomething.org Campaigns
Free national campaigns — voter registration, food drives, mental-health awareness, and more — that students can run in their own community. Some campaigns offer scholarships or prizes.
EarthEcho Youth Programs
Free environmental action programs and youth councils where students lead water-quality monitoring, coastal restoration, and advocacy projects in their own communities.
Elements of AI
Free online introduction to artificial intelligence that needs no coding experience. It covers what AI can and can't do and how to start building simple AI methods. Start any time.
Engineering and Robotics Academy
Two-week hands-on program where teams identify a real-world problem and design a robotic solution, ending in a capstone presentation.
Flight Teen Volunteers
Teens ages 14 to 18 run aviation and STEM activities for museum visitors in San Carlos, including the Invention Lab and virtual reality experiences. Applications are taken on an ongoing basis.
Gains in the Education of Mathematics and Science (GEMS)
Summer STEM camp at Army research sites. There is no fee, and students get a small stipend.
Girl Scout Gold Award
The top Girl Scout award for a lasting community project you lead. You must be a registered Senior or Ambassador Girl Scout.
Global Youth Institute
Students research a global food-security challenge and write a paper, then present at a multi-day institute alongside scientists and policymakers. Participation is usually through a state or regional youth program.
Grammy Camp
Summer music industry camp in cities such as Nashville, Miami, and New York. Tuition runs $2,500 to $3,600 by location.
Habitat for Humanity Youth Programs
Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity through its youth programs and help build homes near you.
Hack Club
Free network of student-run coding clubs plus open online programs, workshops, and community events. Students can join an existing club or start their own with Hack Club's tools.
Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM)
Intensive residential summer math program. The 2026 session cost $7,208.
High School Journalism Institute
Summer journalism workshops at Indiana University covering reporting, photojournalism, design and yearbook. Open from rising high school freshmen through rising college freshmen.
IBM SkillsBuild for High School Students
Free self-paced online courses on AI literacy, ethics of generative AI, and other tech skills for students ages 13 to 18. Start any time.
Idyllwild Arts Summer Program
Two-week summer intensives on a Southern California mountain campus in visual arts, dance, theatre, music, film, fashion, and creative writing. Rolling enrollment until sessions fill; need-based scholarships available.
Intensive Immersion Program
Free 15-month mentorship and technical-training program in Oakland for Black male high schoolers, combining two 7-week summer sessions with year-round coding, entrepreneurship, and leadership training. No prior coding experience required.
JA Company Program
Start and run a real student company with classmates through Junior Achievement.
JA Titan
Junior Achievement business simulation where you make decisions to run a company.
Junior Ambassadors
Volunteer and philanthropy program for ages 14-18 supporting UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital through fundraising events, bedside activity kits, and cards for patients — not clinical shadowing.
Junior Auxiliary
Hospital volunteer program in Mountain View or Los Gatos for students 14+ who've completed 8th grade, requiring a year-long commitment. Join through an application seminar, typically announced each January.
Junior Science and Humanities Symposium
Students present original scientific research — by poster or oral presentation — at regional symposia, with selected students advancing to a national symposium. Free to enter.
Junior State of America
Student-led civic organization that ran conventions, seminars, and debate programs on public policy. It announced it would close and stop operating on August 31, 2024, and its website no longer loads. Kept for reference only.
Key Club International
The largest student-led high school service organization, on 5,000+ campuses, where members commit to at least 50 service hours a year. Join your school's chapter or petition to charter one; small annual dues.
MathILy
Intensive residential summer math program for strong math students. Tuition is charged.
Mu Alpha Theta Membership & Competitions
National high school and two-year-college mathematics honor society that hosts conventions and competitions and recognizes student research and community outreach in math.
NASA HUNCH
Classes at participating schools design and build real products for NASA. You take part through your school.
National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y)
Merit-based scholarship for high school students to study a critical language, either abroad or online.
National Youth Leadership Council Service-Learning
Service-learning and civic engagement resources that help students connect community projects with public issues, reflection, and action.
NYLF: Medicine & Health Care
Eight-day residential pre-college program on host campuses including UC Berkeley, with simulated trauma cases and suturing practice plus optional college credit. Open enrollment rather than competitive admission, and the clinical work is simulation.
Oakland Youth Advisory Commission
Commission of about 20 young people ages 13-21 representing Oakland's council districts, advising the City Council and Mayor and meeting twice monthly at City Hall. Unpaid, with dinner and transit reimbursement.
Pathways Research Explorers (High School Explorers Program)
Two-week introduction to cancer research at Fred Hutch in Seattle, with hands-on lab activities. It costs nothing to attend, students who finish get a $500 award, and applicants must live in the Seattle area. Applications for 2027 open next January.
Polyphony Lit
Online literary magazine for high school writers. Submit your writing, or join the student editorial staff to review other teens' work.
Project Euler
Free archive of several hundred mathematics and programming problems of increasing difficulty, solved by writing code. Progress is tracked through a free account.
Reading Partners Volunteer Tutoring
One-to-one literacy tutoring for elementary students in under-resourced schools, with training and a structured curriculum provided. Many regions offer in-person and online tutoring sessions.
Red Cross Youth & Young Adult Programs
Volunteer opportunities through local Red Cross chapters, including blood drives, disaster preparedness education, and Red Cross Club leadership. Some roles carry age minimums.
Rotary Interact Club
Rotary-sponsored service club for ages 12-18 where members run at least two projects a year — one local, one international — with mentorship from a sponsoring Rotary club. Join or start a chapter through your school.
Spirit of America Youth Leadership
Four-day residential civics and leadership program at Valley Forge with a free enterprise team challenge. The fee is $850, and many students attend free thanks to donor support. Sessions run from October 2026 through July 2027.
Student Press Law Center Resources
Free legal and civic education resources for student journalists, including training on press freedom, media law, and newsroom rights.
Student Reporting Labs
Free youth journalism program with lesson plans, editing support, and publication opportunities for student-produced video and audio stories on national broadcasts and the PBS NewsHour site.
The Congressional Award
Non-competitive, self-paced program where students set personal goals across voluntary public service, personal development, physical fitness, and expedition. Participants log hours toward Bronze, Silver, and Gold certificates and medals.
The Junior Academy
Free online program where you join an international team and work with STEM experts on real-world challenges.
TiE Young Entrepreneurs
In-person academy in Palo Alto where Bay Area students build a startup in teams over about eight weeks and pitch to Silicon Valley judges, with winners advancing toward TYE Global. Seats fill first-come.
USACO Guide
Free, community-maintained practice curriculum for competitive programming, organized by topic and difficulty with curated practice problems and an online judge for submitting and checking answers.
Victory Briefs Institute
Two- and four-week residential debate camps in Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, and World Schools at the University of San Diego and UT Austin. Registration is rolling once dates post.
Whitney Youth Insights
After-school and summer program at the Whitney where New York City teens work with contemporary artists.
Writing Workshops & Teen Poetry Slam
Free weekly spoken-word writing and performance workshops in San Francisco and Oakland, plus an annual Teen Poetry Slam whose finalists represent the Bay Area at Brave New Voices.
Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!)
Class run by local YEA! chapters where you build a real business. Top students compete for college scholarships and start-up money.
Young Writers Workshops
Multi-genre writing workshops run by The Kenyon Review — two weeks residential on the Kenyon College campus, one-week summer intensives, and six-week online workshops during the year.
Youth & Government
Year-long civic program where you join a local Bay Area delegation and take a role as legislator, attorney, judge, or journalist at statewide sessions. Fees and deadlines are set by each local YMCA.
Youth Crew
Five-month, hands-on service-learning program for ages 15-18 at the Center's Sausalito hospital, working alongside staff on animal care and ocean-conservation education. Applications open in fall for the following year.
Youth Media Programs
Free Oakland-based training in journalism, audio production, and digital storytelling for ages 14-24, no experience needed. The organization paused in late 2024 and relaunched in 2026 — confirm current status before applying.
Youth Service America
Youth civic engagement and service opportunities supporting student-led community projects and participation in national service campaigns.
Youth Stewards
Free, hands-on habitat-restoration program at open space preserves in Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto, doing invasive-plant removal in seasonal cohorts. The next cycle opens in spring.