If you’re a high school student interested in architecture or design, you may already notice details other people overlook: building layouts, public spaces, interiors, materials, and how design affects daily life. Architecture and design summer jobs for high school students can help turn that curiosity into practical experience by placing you closer to how creative work happens in real settings.

Imagine spending your summer assisting with studio projects, creating models, supporting digital design work, organising materials for presentations, or observing how professionals turn early ideas into functional spaces. These experiences can help you understand the creative and technical sides of the field while building confidence, direction, and portfolio-ready skills.

How do you choose the right architecture and design summer job?

For high school students, architecture and design summer jobs can also be an opportunity to explore different career paths within the field. Some roles focus on drafting and visualization, while others introduce you to interior design, urban planning, graphic design, product design, or creative project management. Along the way, you begin developing practical skills and a clearer understanding of what design work actually involves on a day-to-day basis.

Of course, not every opportunity provides meaningful learning or mentorship. Some positions involve observation alone, while others allow students to contribute to real projects and collaborate with professionals. Finding the right experience can help you build both confidence and direction early on.

Across studios, nonprofits, creative agencies, museums, and educational organizations, there are growing opportunities for high school students to gain exposure to architecture and design through structured summer roles. You’ll strengthen your communication, creativity, and problem-solving skills while building a portfolio and learning how professionals approach design challenges in the real world.

To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 15 Architecture and Design Summer Jobs for High School Students. They’ve been selected for their learning opportunities, professional exposure, and creative skill development.

For more opportunities, consider the online architecture program.

15 Architecture and Design Summer Jobs for High School Students

1. Sasaki Foundation – Summer Exploratory Experience in Design (SEED)

Location: Sasaki Foundation, Boston, MA
Cost/Stipend: Stipend provided
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: 6 weeks between June and August
Application Deadline: Opens in spring each year
Eligibility: Boston-area high school students (Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Somerville)

SEED is a six-week paid internship that introduces high school students to design through collaborative project work and office culture. As an intern, you’ll dive into design fundamentals, job shadowing, and field trips to local design projects, guided by professionals from Sasaki and partner firms. Each week, design professionals will guide you through a new design concept, and you’ll work in teams to design solutions for real local projects.

By the end of the summer, you will understand what it takes to design our surroundings and how you can impact your community. This type of architecture design summer job serves as a powerful foundation for future college applications, demonstrating real-world experience in urban planning and landscape architecture.

Why it stands out: You will build a professional network and learn design skills from experts while earning a stipend.

2. Immerse Education’s Architecture and Design Summer School

Location: University College London, London, UK
Cost/Stipend: Varies; summer school scholarship available through our bursary programme
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; an average of 7 participants per class
Application Deadline: Multiple summer cohorts with rolling admissions
Program Dates: 2 weeks during the summer
Eligibility: High school students worldwide aged 15-18

The Career Insights Program lets high school students explore careers in major global industry hubs. The Architecture and Design Summer track is designed to give students direct exposure to real-world Architecture and Design Summer workflows and professional environments. Participants engage in project-based learning with established companies, attend interactive workshops, and visit offices, factories, and headquarters.

The program also includes weekly 1:1 career coaching sessions and personalized feedback on your resume and overall profile. You’ll present your findings to industry experts at the end of the program. You can find more details about the application here.

Why it stands out: You’ll gain direct industry exposure, build a professional network, and receive a certificate you can include in your college applications and work profile.

3. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum – Design Hive

Location: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY
Cost/Stipend: $2,000 stipend
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: December 2nd – May 19th
Application Deadline: Typically fall; TBA
Eligibility: Current high school juniors and seniors based in the New York City area

If you’re looking for architecture and design summer jobs for high school students that emphasise collaboration and portfolio development, Design Hive gives you a small-team setting where ideas move from early sketches to a finished group project. Guided by professional designers and museum educators, you’ll analyse objects from the museum’s collection, apply those observations to your own work, and take part in weekly studio time, critique, and iterative feedback.

You will also learn how to document your process and present your final outcomes. By the end of the program, you will have completed a collaborative design project that you can include in your portfolio. This experience gives you direct exposure to how designers frame problems, test ideas, and refine solutions over several months.

Why it stands out: You gain sustained, portfolio-ready project experience with direct mentorship from practicing designers in a museum setting, a combination rarely available to high school students.

4. Brooklyn Museum – Creative Practice Internship

Location: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Cost/Stipend: Paid; $16.50/hour, up to 120 hours per year
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: September – June
Application Deadline: TBA; June onwards
Eligibility: NYC high school students ages 15-19, enrolled as a sophomore, junior, or senior

In this paid, year‑long internship, you assist teaching artists in leading art classes for students of all ages. You’ll meet museum educators, artists, and staff to see how art practices can connect to social justice and community work. You’ll also collaborate with other NYC teens on creative projects tied to current museum exhibitions.

Your tasks may include preparing studio materials, learning lesson‑planning techniques, and practicing classroom management. Through these activities, you’ll strengthen communication, time management, and organizational skills. This experience is designed for teens who can commit fully, without other major extracurricular obligations.

Why it stands out: You gain direct classroom facilitation experience while building professional skills in a major museum setting, with compensation and a schedule that fits the academic year.

5. UCLA – TeenArch Studio

Location: UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; in-person commuter or virtual
Cost/Stipend: Calculate your fees here
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: June 22nd – July 10th
Application Deadline: June 12th
Eligibility: Students worldwide aged 15+ enrolled in grades 9-12

You will work through a series of physical modeling exercises that explore the relationship between hard and soft materials, learning how form and volume take shape through deliberate operations. Using diagrammatic drawing, physical model‑making, and 3D modeling, you will translate abstract ideas into a simple architectural enclosure.

You will receive individual feedback from instructors and peers during studio‑wide presentations, similar to a university‑level design course. You also attend technical and theory seminars that build your understanding of design principles and workflows. By the end of the program, you will present your final project to guest critics and keep the work as part of your portfolio.

Why it stands out: You earn University of California credit and build a design portfolio under the guidance of faculty at a top public architecture school.

6. The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Summer High School Internship

Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Cost/Stipend: $1,100 stipend
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: July 7th – August 7th
Application Deadline: March 13th
Eligibility: Current 10th or 11th grade students who reside in or attend high school in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut

You will be placed in a specific museum department where you will work alongside professionals in fields related to design, including exhibition design, graphic design, and digital media. Your tasks may involve contributing to concept development, visual research, or branding projects that support the museum’s exhibitions and public programs. You will also attend Career Labs led by creative professionals, such as architects and exhibition designers, who will share how design decisions are made in a large cultural institution.

Throughout the internship, you will develop practical skills in visual communication, project management, and creative problem-solving. The experience concludes with a final presentation where you will reflect on your learning and showcase your contributions to the museum staff.

Why it stands out: You gain structured mentorship and behind‑the‑scenes access to one of the world’s largest art museums, all while earning a stipend as a high school student.

7. Milwaukee Art Museum – ArtXpress Internship Program

Location: Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Cost/Stipend: Paid; lunch and MCTS bus tickets provided
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: July 7-31
Application Deadline: May 22nd
Eligibility: Milwaukee-area high school students ages 16–18 in grade 11 or 12, or recent graduates

You will work alongside practicing local artists and a small group of teens to design and paint a mural for public display on a Milwaukee County bus. Your design will respond to a community issue you care about, with inspiration drawn from the museum’s current exhibitions.

You will also mentor elementary students from Milwaukee Public Schools, leading them through the museum’s collection as a docent and making art with them. At the end of the program, the finished mural is unveiled at a celebration event at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Lunch and bus passes are provided for every session, which take place at the museum or nearby studio spaces. 

Why it stands out: Your work becomes a functional public artwork seen across the city, and you gain teaching experience by mentoring younger students—both rare achievements for a high school internship.

8. Chicago Architecture Center – Teen Fellows

Location: Harold Washington College, Chicago, IL
Cost/Stipend: Stipend paid
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: June 22nd – May 8th
Application Deadline: March 31st
Eligibility: Rising sophomore, junior, or senior high school students in Chicago and the surrounding areas

This intensive 15-month program combines college-level coursework at Harold Washington College, where you earn transferable credits, with professional digital design training in SketchUp, AutoCAD, Revit, and Adobe Creative Suite. You will develop design projects, build a personal portfolio, visit architecture firms and significant sites, and intern at a local architecture firm in the final summer (paid internship pending program performance).

The program is offered at no cost to selected participants, with a stipend provided to allow youth to prioritize program participation regardless of financial status. As one of the more comprehensive architecture design summer jobs available, Teen Fellows is structured as an intensive, college-level experience designed to challenge students through rigorous, project-based learning, emphasizing critical thinking, technical proficiency, and real-world application.

Why it stands out: You will earn college credit, receive a stipend, and gain a paid internship at a local architecture firm over 15 months of sustained mentorship.

9. Fallingwater Institute High School Residencies

Location: Fallingwater Institute, Mill Run, PA
Cost/Stipend: Varies by session
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: Varies by course
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Grades 9-12 (Drawing + Model Making); Grades 11–12 (Design + Build); international students are welcome to apply

These week-long residential programs immerse you in the study of architecture and design at Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Fallingwater, where you will create original, portfolio-worthy work led by a licensed teaching architect. The Drawing + Model Making session is open to students in grades 9–12 who are curious about careers in design, architecture, or the visual arts, while the Design + Build session is for students in grades 11–12 preparing for admission to architecture, design, or art school.

Studio explorations are comparable to a first-year foundation course typically required in undergraduate architecture programs, and you will enjoy access to Fallingwater for reflective writing and sketching from observation. This architecture design summer job setting provides an immersive, studio-based learning experience that can propel self-discovery and provide a foundation to explore careers.

Why it stands out: You will study at a UNESCO World Heritage site and learn from one of architecture’s most celebrated buildings, guided by practicing design educators.

10. DPR Construction – Build Up High School Internship in Construction Management

Location: Nationwide; construction project sites across the U.S.
Cost/Stipend: Paid hourly + transportation stipend
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: 8 weeks in summer; dates flexible to accommodate school schedules
Application Deadline: April 15th
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors; family income below HUD MFI for your county; legally authorised to work in the U.S.; demonstrated interest in the built environment

DPR Construction’s Build Up Internship brings a construction management angle to the many architecture and design summer jobs for high school students, placing you on an active commercial jobsite for 35-40 hours per week. Guided by a dedicated mentor team, you’ll support subcontractor coordination, document control, quality inspections, site walks, safety training, and project schedule updates while completing an eight-week Capstone Project focused on your career and education goals.

Build Up participants in the past have included students interested in architecture and civil engineering, and the experience helps clarify whether you prefer design or engineering pathways. The program concludes with a presentation where you share what you have learned with your team.

Why it stands out: You earn competitive pay while seeing how design concepts become physical buildings, with direct mentorship from industry professionals across architecture, engineering, and construction management.

11. Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) – Artslife Summer Internship

Location: MAD Museum, New York, NY
Cost/Stipend: Paid; $17/hour
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: July 7th – August 14th
Application Deadline: May 17th
Eligibility: Rising high school sophomores and juniors attending a New York City public or charter high school

As an Artslife intern, you will spend six weeks exploring careers across museum departments such as curatorial, education, and design, working directly with MAD staff and visiting artists. Your weekly schedule will include hands-on creative projects, collaborative group work, and guided field trips to other cultural institutions across New York City. You will also design and lead peer-to-peer tours, present your work, and create digital content for the museum.

The program starts with a team‑building orientation and continues with behind‑the‑scenes exposure to museum operations. By the end, you will have completed a portfolio‑ready collaborative design project and gained practical experience in museum‑based design workflows. 

Why it stands out: You earn a competitive wage while gaining direct, behind‑the‑scenes experience in a major museum, working on real projects with professionals in design, curatorial, and education departments.

12. HiArch Summer High School Program – University of Illinois Chicago

Location: UIC School of Architecture, Chicago, IL
Cost/Stipend: $450 for one week; $650 for two weeks
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Approximately 60 students (both weeks)
Dates: Week 1: July 20-24; Week 2: July 27-31, 2026
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: High school students around the world

Taught by UIC School of Architecture instructors, HiArch builds foundational skills in architectural drawing, design, and problem-solving through design exercises, one-on-one feedback from instructors and current UIC students, and group discussions. The program begins with basic hand-drawing skills, then quickly moves digital with introductions to drafting software and 3D-modeling, with students who participate in the full two weeks exploring more in-depth model making.

All students, regardless of whether they participate in one week or two, finish with a completed project and visual work they can use to supplement college applications. For students seeking architecture design summer jobs that provide a low-stakes introduction to the field, no prior experience is required, making this an accessible entry point.

Why it stands out: You will leave with a completed project and visual work for college applications while being taught by university instructors in a Chicago architecture program.

13. Miller Hull Partnership – Open Studio Internship

Location: Seattle, WA
Cost/Stipend: Stipend paid
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: July 27th – August 21st
Application Deadline: May 1st
Eligibility: Local high school student who has completed junior or senior year; grade 11 or 12

You’ll work full-time inside a professional architecture studio, touring active construction sites, attending project team meetings, and shadowing architects as they collaborate on real projects. Guided, hands-on design exercises will introduce you to core architectural thinking, drawing, and workflow.

Over the weeks, you’ll assemble a small portfolio of the work you’ve produced. On your final day, you’ll deliver a brief presentation summarizing your experience and projects. Transit expenses to and from the studio are covered. No prior design or software experience is required, but familiarity with tools like Revit, AutoCAD, or SketchUp can be helpful.

Why it stands out: You’ll receive one‑on‑one mentorship in a leading architecture firm while earning a wage, with all travel costs covered; an unusually comprehensive package for a high school internship.

14. Harvard Graduate School of Design – Design Discovery Youth

Location: Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA
Cost/Stipend: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: 3 weeks in the summer; exact dates vary
Application Deadline: TBA
Eligibility: Boston area high school students, rising sophomores through seniors, who live within 20 miles of Harvard GSD

You will spend three weeks exploring drawing, physical modeling, and digital representation techniques used in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. You will be taught by Harvard GSD faculty and advanced graduate students, with no prior design experience required.

Through small and large-scale projects, weekly discussions, and group design challenges, you will learn to translate your observations of the world into visual and spatial design language. You will also receive a program certificate, a student evaluation, and produce a draft portfolio of your work. Guests working in design fields visit to share their professional experiences.

Why it stands out: This Harvard-based program is free for qualifying students and gives you direct instruction from GSD faculty and graduate students, along with a portfolio-ready certificate and evaluation.

15. The Architect of the Capitol – Summer Internship Program (Architectural Aide)

Location: Capitol campus, Washington, D.C.
Cost/Stipend: Varies
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: Summer; 12 weeks, exact dates vary
Application Deadline: Varies
Eligibility: Current U.S. high school, college, or trade school students; at least 16 years of age by June 30th

You’ll join a paid, 12-week summer internship as an Architectural Aide, working alongside experienced architects in the care and operation of the U.S. Capitol campus. Your duties may include supporting architectural design services, project management tasks, and using CADD or GIS software for various projects.

You’ll gain hands-on professional experience within the federal government while exploring the historic buildings and grounds of Capitol Hill. The program also includes tours and networking opportunities with fellow interns, providing insight into careers in public service. High school applicants need prior experience with CAD and/or GIS.

Why it stands out: You will earn a competitive wage while working on the buildings and grounds of the U.S. Capitol, gaining exposure that is relevant to both architectural and construction management career paths.

From Sketches and Models to Career Insight

Not every creative interest needs to become a career, but the right summer role can help you see which ones deserve more attention.

With architecture and design summer jobs for high school students, the value is in the doing: making models, joining critiques, supporting projects, and watching design choices take shape.

That experience can reveal what energises you most, whether it’s spatial planning, visual storytelling, public art, construction, or studio collaboration.

For a clearer look at creative career routes, use our Career Exploration blogs to compare roles, skills, and possible next steps.