Why Internships in Business, AI, and Tech Are a Must for High School Students
- BetterMind Labs
- Jul 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 19
“Over 70 percent of the students who completed an internship reported gains in key transferable skills. Additionally, over 80 percent of these former interns say that the experience helped to expand their professional and social networks.”
— Matthew T. Hora & Hee Song,
According to Internship.com, 90% of students who completed an internship felt more prepared to succeed in college and their future careers. These aren't just flattering statistics. It's a wake-up call for any teenager targeting top colleges, selective scholarships, or a tech, AI, or business career.
In the current admissions market, a high GPA and test scores won't cut it. Students require high school internships that provide real-world learning, leadership, and meaning. Whether starting a company, creating an AI product, or working on a real-world business problem, internships are becoming the new requirement.
The Importance of Internships for High School Students
High school internships are no longer the exception. They're the smart thing to do.
Here's what they provide:
Real-world experience
Students see how actual companies function, from meetings to problem-solving to teamwork. This kind of early exposure helps students build workplace skills long before college.
Career clarity
Not sure if you’re into marketing or machine learning? Try both. Internships help students explore interests before locking in a college major.
Skill development
Internships develop hard and soft skills: coding, research, data analysis, public speaking, and time management. Whether a tech internship or a business internship for high school students, students graduate better equipped for the future.
Confidence and professionalism
Earning the respect of being treated and viewed as a young professional shifts the way students perceive themselves and how others perceive them as well.
Types of Internships for High School Students
Depending on your interests, schedule, and goals, several types of internships for teens offer real impact.
High School Business Internships
Perfect for students who want to study marketing, finance, consulting, or entrepreneurship. You could study competitors, create reports, examine trends, or assist with customer experience plans.
High School Tech Internships
Perfect for students who love coding, web development, or software engineering. You could learn front-end and back-end programming, work on real apps, or be part of open-source projects.
Passion Project Mentorships
Some students go beyond internships and design their own projects. These are strong, particularly if they're mentored, and can be the crown jewel of college applications.
AI Internships and Programs for High School Students
With the rise of artificial intelligence, now students can have access to AI programs for teens where they develop machine learning models, apply data to answer questions, or delve into prompt engineering.
Take Richard, for example
Richard had no background in machine learning when he joined BetterMind Labs. However, he was interested in how AI might be used in the healthcare sector. During the summer, he worked on a mentored project that brought his passion for biology and artificial intelligence together, looking at how the two can be combined.
The outcome? He developed an AI system that is capable of detecting melanoma, or skin cancer, from pictures of bruises on the skin.
What began as an ember of interest became a fully operational prototype. Richard learned how to train models, gather and clean data, and test for accuracy. More notably, he learned how to turn an idea that was important to him into something real.
Projects such as Richard's don't just build skills. They build purpose.
And when it came time to write his college essays, Richard didn’t need to search for a story; he had one.
How Internships Help with College Admissions
Top universities like Stanford, Harvard, and MIT are no longer just looking for grades. They want evidence of initiative, curiosity, and impact. That’s why passion projects and internships are becoming such a key part of successful applications.
Internships help by:
Showing demonstrated interest
An internship in AI or business shows you’re exploring your interests beyond school.
Providing strong essays and stories
Students who have actually done real work write more compelling, more memorable essays that admissions reps adore.
Enhancing credibility with recommendations
A positive recommendation from an internship mentor says a lot about character and work ethic.
Differentiating in a sea of applicants
When you have thousands of students applying with comparable academic credentials, internships help you to stand out.
NACAC says that more than 25% of colleges take internships and work experience into account as a significant factor in admission decisions.
Final Thoughts
If you’re a student or a parent of one, trying to navigate high school with college in mind, internships are the smartest way to get ahead. They help teens figure out what excites them, build confidence, and stand out in one of the most competitive admissions landscapes ever.
Whether a remote AI certification, a summer business internship, or a personal passion project, the idea is to start. Explore. Build. Test. Fail. Learn.
And in the process, be the kind of student colleges can't help but notice.
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