Data Science & AI Opportunities for High School Students
Browse 20 verified Data Science & AI opportunities for high schoolers, matched by interest with real deadlines and eligibility.
High School Entrepreneurship and AI Video Pitch Competition
Pitch a business idea in a short video. Entries are individual, the registration fee is $25, and prizes are $500, $250, and $100. Register by January 8, 2027 and submit the video by January 15.
USA/North America AI Olympiad
Multi-round AI competition with a February first round of non-coding and Colab coding tasks, an invitational second round, and a June camp that selects Team USA. Exams are proctored at your school or a test site.
SHTEM Summer Internships
Eight-week in-person Stanford research internship on interdisciplinary projects spanning information theory, machine learning, and the humanities. Unpaid with a $95 application fee; you arrange your own housing and transport.
CMU AI Scholars
Fully funded four-week residential AI program at Carnegie Mellon for 11th graders, with research projects and faculty lectures. Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and documentation of financial need is required to apply.
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.
SEES Summer High School Internship
NASA-funded research internship using real mission data in astronomy, planetary science, and remote sensing, with a two-week on-site stay in Austin plus virtual projects. For U.S. citizens in 10th or 11th grade who are 16 by the start. Selected students attend on scholarship or as fee-based participants, and travel scholarships may be available. The 2026 deadline was February 22 and the next cycle is not announced; the program says its future depends on funding.
GENIUS Olympiad
International project competition on environmental topics, with tracks including AI, robotics, and science. Applications open in December 2026, cost $75 per project, and finalists present at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York in June 2027.
Experiences in Research
Paid six-week internship ($500/week) working about 30-35 hours a week with Berkeley Lab scientists on real projects in data science, coding, or experimentation. Northern California students who turn 16 by mid-June, with priority near the Berkeley site.
AI4ALL Summer Internship
Ten-week internship at UCSF Mission Bay working with faculty on biomedical research using data science and AI. Restricted to SFUSD juniors taking AP Statistics or AP Computer Science; unpaid and you commute daily.
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.
Beaver Works Summer Institute
Four-week project-based summer program at MIT in AI, autonomous racing, radar, and satellites. Admission requires finishing a free online prerequisite course that opens in winter; tuition is free under $200,000 family income.
Technovation Girls
Girls and gender-expansive students build a mobile app or AI project addressing a community problem with a volunteer mentor, then submit code, a demo, and a business pitch. Free, and you can register without a school program.
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.
Aspirations in Computing Award
Recognition program for students who are women, genderqueer, or non-binary with an interest in computing, awarded on the basis of technical projects, leadership, and community. Winners join a national community with internship and scholarship connections.
Beaver Works Summer Institute
Four-week, project-based STEM summer program at MIT. Students complete an online prerequisite course, then take on an intensive team project in autonomy, robotics, AI, or quantum computing. No tuition.
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.
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.
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.