As a high school student interested in social media, you may already spend time thinking about content, trends, and the ways brands, organizations, and creators connect with audiences online. But social media is much more than posting videos or tracking likes. Social media internships for high school students can help you understand content strategy, digital storytelling, audience engagement, branding, analytics, and communication across multiple platforms.

Picture yourself helping manage an organization’s Instagram account, creating content for real audiences, or working alongside professionals in media, journalism, nonprofit organizations, and communications. These experiences help you gain practical skills, receive mentorship, and explore future careers in marketing, communications, journalism, media studies, and related fields.

Finding the right internship can be challenging. Some opportunities focus primarily on observation, while others provide meaningful responsibilities, mentorship, and hands-on projects. That’s why it’s important to look for programs that offer real industry exposure, structured learning experiences, and opportunities to build transferable skills.

Organizations, nonprofits, media companies, museums, research groups, and public institutions worldwide offer social media internships that allow you to work on content creation, digital marketing, communications, branding, audience engagement, and multimedia storytelling. You’ll learn how professional teams develop campaigns, analyze performance metrics, manage digital communities, and communicate with different audiences.

To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 15 social media internships for high school students, showcasing diverse programs that can spark your interest and curiosity about future careers.

If you’re interested in media, you might also want to have a look at journalism internships for high school students.

Key Takeaways

Pay varies considerably, from unpaid options like SkillCraft’s social media internship to $17 per hour at the City of Round Rock’s Communications & Marketing internship.
Most internships on this list are restricted by location or residency, including the LA County Arts & Culture placements and the City of Knoxville’s Summer in the City program.
Program length ranges from a single six-week summer session, as with SkillCraft in Bermuda, to ongoing year-round opportunities, as with NorCal Public Media’s internships.
Several internships connect social media work to broader causes, including advocacy at the ACLU of Georgia and civil rights education at Boston NCSY.
Local government communications offices offer several structured options, including the City of Round Rock, City of Oak Ridge, and City of Knoxville, each pairing paid work with mentorship from public sector professionals.
Most programs require US work authorization and residency in a specific city or county, making this list one of the more geographically restrictive categories for international applicants.
Immerse Education’s Media & Journalism Summer Internship is one of the few options open to students worldwide aged 15 to 18, combining reporting and digital storytelling instruction with a personal project and certificate of completion.

Location: Rohnert Park, California
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Dates: Spring, Summer, and Fall cohorts offered throughout the year
Application Deadline: Open until filled
Eligibility: High school students, college students, or recent graduates with relevant interests and experience; not open to international students

In this internship, you’ll help maintain social media accounts, create written and visual content, monitor audience engagement, and contribute to digital outreach efforts across platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. The role also involves collaborating with media professionals and learning how social media supports journalism, community engagement, and public broadcasting.

Interns work under the guidance of the digital content manager while contributing authentic content that reaches real audiences across multiple media channels. In addition to social media work, participants gain exposure to multimedia storytelling and environmental reporting initiatives through the organization’s Center for Environmental Reporting.

Why it stands out: Students contribute directly to the social media strategy of a public media organization while gaining exposure to journalism, broadcasting, and environmental storytelling.

2. Immerse Education’s Media & Journalism Summer School

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Location: University College London, London, UK
Cost: Varies; summer school scholarship available through our bursary programme
Dates: 2 weeks during the summer
Application Deadline: Rolling admissions
Eligibility: High school students worldwide aged 15-18

The Career Insights Program lets you explore careers in major global industry hubs. The Media and Journalism Summer track is designed for you to explore journalism through a mix of structured learning and hands-on work in a global media setting. Across two weeks, you engage with topics like reporting, media ethics, and digital storytelling while working on practical projects. Sessions are led by journalists and academics who bring real industry insight into the classroom.

You take part in workshops, group discussions, and a personal project that lets you develop your own voice. The small class size means you receive consistent feedback and guidance. By the end, you build both confidence and a clearer understanding of how modern media operates. 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. LA County Arts & Culture – Get Lit – Words Ignite Communications Intern

Location: Los Angeles, CA
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Dates: June 15th – August 7th
Application Deadline: Rolling basis
Eligibility: Rising public high school seniors in Los Angeles County; live and attend public high school in the San Fernando Valley, Metro Los Angeles, or South Los Angeles and entering senior year in the fall; able to work legally in the U.S.; not a current or former employee of the worksite nor a relative of its employees, board members, or officers; not open to international students

As a Communications Intern at Get Lit – Words Ignite, you work alongside the Chief Growth Officer and other communications staff to create and update social media content and strategies across Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, and LinkedIn. You set up a content calendar, write original copy for status updates and stories, build Get Lit’s photo library, design other visuals, research potential new network members, and collect analytics.

During the summer, you help implement the organization’s annual summer fundraising campaign via social media and support live fundraising events. Working within a small, tightly knit team, you may also pitch in on administrative tasks like filing and data entry.

Why it stands out: It hands you real ownership of social media content, strategy, and analytics across four major platforms while pairing the paid work with college-prep workshops, mentorship, and cultural field trips through a nationally recognized teen poetry organization.

4. Internships with the ACLU of Georgia

Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Stipend: $15/hour (students ineligible to work in the U.S. may receive volunteer hours instead)
Dates: Spring, Summer, and Fall semesters; typically 12-15 weeks
Application Deadline: Rolling basis
Eligibility: High school students who have strong research and writing skills, high attention to detail, a passion for civil liberties, and the ability to commute to the Atlanta office; international students must verify that their visa status allows for off-campus volunteer/academic credit work and must be able to work in-person in Atlanta

The ACLU of Georgia offers internships across several departments, including communications, legal, policy, community engagement, and voter access. Students interested in social media and digital communications can apply for the Communications Internship, where you’ll help share the organization’s work with the public through content creation and storytelling.

Responsibilities may include creating and editing videos, designing graphics, drafting social media posts, taking photos, and preparing articles for publication on digital platforms. You’ll gain hands-on experience working with platforms like TikTok and Instagram while learning how social media supports advocacy, public education, and community outreach. The internship also exposes students to issues related to civil liberties, voting rights, and social justice, providing a broader context for the content they create.

Why it stands out: The internship blends social media content creation with advocacy work, allowing students to develop digital marketing skills while contributing to campaigns focused on civil rights and public policy.

5. City of Knoxville – Summer in The City Interns

Location: Knoxville, Tennessee
Stipend: $15/hour
Dates: June 1st – July 23rd
Application Deadline: March 31st
Eligibility: Applicants aged 16-22; international eligibility not explicitly stated

The City of Knoxville’s Summer in the City Internship Program places students in local government departments for an eight-week paid internship experience. Students interested in social media can contribute to content creation, newsletter writing, community outreach campaigns, graphic design, videography, and public communications projects for departments such as Communications, Empower Knox, KAT, and Neighborhood Empowerment.

Each intern is paired with a departmental mentor who provides training, feedback, and guidance throughout the summer while helping students understand how local government operates. In addition to departmental work, participants attend weekly professional and personal development sessions covering topics such as civic education, communication, economic mobility, mental health, and social justice.

Why it stands out: The program allows students to explore roles in social media, communications, and public engagement while working directly within the city government and receiving mentorship from public-sector professionals.

6. LA County Arts & Culture – Friends of the McGroarty Arts Center – Marketing and Communications Intern

Location: Tujunga, California
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Dates: June 15th – August 7th
Application Deadline: May
Eligibility: Public high school students entering 12th grade in fall; live and attend public high school in the San Fernando Valley, Metro Los Angeles, or South Los Angeles; able to work in the U.S. legally; not a current or former employee of the worksite, nor a relative of its employees, board members, or officers; not open to international students

In this program, you help promote a community arts center’s classes and events with a strong focus on digital outreach. You list classes and events on the website, distribute class schedules and flyers, register individuals for classes, and answer phone calls that link the center to its community. In marketing meetings, you help brainstorm new ideas and plan promotions, learning advertising planning, social media strategy, ad creation, and community relations firsthand.

You also organize art supplies, occasionally assist instructors with class preparation, and join the team presenting the center’s summer ceramic art show. Through this hands-on role, you build practical social media and nonprofit communications skills alongside working artists, instructors, and students.

Why it stands out: It allows you to learn advertising and communications strategy directly from staff while helping present live events such as the summer ceramic art show.

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Location: Bermuda (in-person)
Stipend: None
Dates: June 29th – August 7th
Application Deadline: February 13th
Eligibility: Ages 16-18; current high school students preparing for life after high school; young Bermudians recruited through local schools; not open to international students

In this program, you join 15 young Bermudians for a six-week summer internship focused on social media marketing. You split each week between three days of workshops with SkillCraft’s marketing consultant and guest speakers and two days at a local host business or charity, where you learn marketing fundamentals and social media management.

You apply them by planning, creating, and scheduling content for your host’s Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok channels. You build skills in content strategy, audience engagement, paid social media advertising, and using artificial intelligence as a marketing tool, while receiving one-on-one coaching toward your personal and professional goals.

Why it stands out: It pairs each high schooler one-on-one with a real Bermudian business or charity for hands-on social media work, and five of 15 interns in one cohort were offered further employment with their host businesses as a result.

8. Boston NCSY – Educational Content & Programming Intern

Location: Boston MA
Stipend: Paid hourly, rate not disclosed
Dates: July 6th – August 14th
Application Deadline: April 26th
Eligibility: Ages 16-18 at the start of the program; reside in or attend Newton Public Schools, or both; applicants over 18 must be enrolled in or graduating high school in the preceding school year; not open to international students

In this program, you serve as Boston NCSY’s Educational Content & Programming Intern, where social media sits at the center of your work supporting a nonprofit that engages Jewish teens through programming and digital content. It is one of the most community-focused social media internships for high school students, as you help manage the organization’s Instagram and Facebook presence, producing posts, reels, and stories that highlight upcoming programs and Shabbatons.

You also develop digital marketing strategies aimed at teen audiences, then monitor analytics to suggest ways to grow engagement and extend reach. Alongside this, you create educational materials, learning packets, and discussion guides, and provide hands-on support for event planning and logistics. Through the role, you build practical skills in content creation, graphic design, and video editing with tools like Canva, and audience analytics.

Why it stands out: It pairs a paid, city-supported first job with real ownership of a nonprofit’s teen-facing social media, letting you build and measure live Instagram and Facebook content while also developing educational programming.

9. City of Round Rock – High School Summer Intern – Communications & Marketing

Location: Round Rock, TX (in-person)
Stipend: $17/hour
Dates: Summer
Application Deadline: March 15th
Eligibility: Full-time high school seniors; minimum GPA of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale; not open to international students

As a Communications & Marketing intern with the City of Round Rock, you support the team that manages the city’s public messaging, with social media at the center of your day-to-day work. You help write social media content, produce advertising and city website updates, and create visuals that bring municipal campaigns to life for local audiences.

Working alongside city communications professionals, you contribute to real public outreach initiatives and complete a special project that builds your portfolio. You also attend professional development sessions covering leadership, communication, and career readiness. The experience sharpens your content creation, digital storytelling, and brand voice skills in an actual local government setting.

Why it stands out: It places social media and campaign visuals at the heart of a paid, mentored role inside a real city government, where high school seniors create public-facing content that residents actually see.

10. NorCal Public Media News Department Internship

Location: Rohnert Park, California
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Dates: Multiple cohorts offered throughout the year
Application Deadline: Rolling basis
Eligibility: High school students, college students, technical school students, and recent graduates; international eligibility not specified

The News Department Internship at NorCal Public Media gives students hands-on experience in journalism, multimedia storytelling, and digital media production. Interns work alongside newsroom professionals to help research stories, interview sources, cover community events, and produce content for radio, television, podcasts, and online platforms. Students also contribute to social media efforts by helping amplify news coverage and engage audiences across digital channels.

You’ll gain practical experience in reporting, audio recording, editing, photography, video production, and digital storytelling while working on projects intended for real public audiences. Through the organization’s Center for Environmental Reporting, interns may also explore environmental journalism and multimedia reporting focused on issues affecting communities throughout the Bay Area.

Why it stands out: Unlike many student journalism opportunities, this paid internship allows high school students to contribute to professional radio, television, podcast, and digital media projects while receiving mentorship from working journalists and producers.

11. City of Oak Ridge – Internship Program – Communications Intern

Location: Oak Ridge, Tennessee (in-person)
Stipend: Paid. rate determined by departmental placement
Dates: Starts in August, based on the student’s fall semester schedule
Application Deadline: July 10th
Eligibility: High school students seeking professional experience; strong writing and verbal communication skills with experience in social media tools, videography, or photography preferred; not open to international students

In this internship, you work directly with the Senior Communications Specialist to support how the municipality shares public information. Your core work centers on social media, where you draft posts about City projects, services, and events for the City’s official channels. You also write news releases, contribute a weekly blog post documenting the internship program, and may assist with photography or videography to strengthen visual content.

Throughout the term, you develop or update a professional portfolio that captures your published work, sharpening your writing, digital communication, and content-creation skills. You gain firsthand experience in how a local government plans, voices, and distributes its messaging to residents.

Why it stands out: It places you inside a working municipal communications office, where your social media posts, news releases, and weekly blog become real, published content for the City of Oak Ridge under direct mentorship from its Senior Communications Specialist.

12. The Met High School Internship Program

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Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York
Stipend: $1,100
Dates: July 1st – August 7th
Application Deadline: March 13th
Eligibility: Students in grades 10 or 11 with valid working papers who reside in or attend school in NY, NJ, or CT (Summer cohort) or specifically NYC (School-Year cohort); not open to international students

In this program, you are placed in departments such as social media, education, design, curatorial work, imaging, and other museum operations, allowing them to gain firsthand experience while working alongside professionals. Throughout the program, you’ll participate in departmental projects, cohort meetings, career readiness workshops, and mentorship opportunities while learning how museums engage audiences and manage creative initiatives.

Students interested in social media can gain exposure to how a major cultural institution develops digital content, connects with audiences, and promotes exhibitions and programs across multiple platforms. The internship is designed for students with a wide range of interests, and no prior knowledge of art history is required.

Why it stands out: The program provides paid access to a wide variety of museum departments, including social media and communications, while allowing students to learn directly from professionals at one of the most prominent cultural institutions in the world.

13. Los Angeles Times / HS Insider – 2026 Summer Internship

Location: Los Angeles Times newsroom in El Segundo, California
Stipend: Paid hourly, rate not disclosed
Dates: June 22nd – August 1st
Application Deadline: April 16th
Eligibility: High school students graduating within the next three years; residing in Los Angeles County or Orange County, California; legally authorized to work in the U.S.; able to commute to the El Segundo office for in-person days; not open to international students

In this internship, you produce digital and multimedia stories that are published on the HS Insider online platform for a real audience. Among social media internships for high school students, this option is especially strong for students interested in journalism, digital storytelling, and online publishing. Working a hybrid schedule split between the El Segundo office and a remote day, you pitch story ideas, conduct interviews, and develop reported pieces on local news, education, culture, and the arts.

Across roughly six to seven weeks at about 24 hours per week, you build published, shareable clips and sharpen your reporting, writing, and online-publishing skills. The experience grounds you in how a working newsroom moves a story from pitch to digital audience.

Why it stands out: It places high school students inside a professional Los Angeles Times newsroom where their reported, multimedia work is published for a real online audience on the HS Insider platform.

Location: Montgomery County, Texas; in-person placements at local host organizations (no virtual option)
Cost/Stipend: $20 non-refundable application fee; application fee-reduction waivers available for students eligible for an SAT/ACT fee waiver / No stipend
Dates: Two-week placements scheduled during June and July
Application Deadline: April 3rd
Eligibility: Current 11th grade students (rising senior); live or attends school within Montgomery County, Texas; complete a four-hour IRONMAN Texas volunteer shift on April 18; not open to international students

In the marketing-focused placement of this program, you support a host organization’s publicity work, with documented opportunities to draft press releases, assist with event planning, and help prepare marketing and presentation materials for community events and campaigns. Before starting, you complete an online interest inventory assessment and a required interview workshop, sharpening the professional communication and networking skills you can later add to a resume.

You report to an on-site mentor each day, sometimes rotating across departments, and finish the program by writing a reflection essay. The experience gives you an early, hands-on look at how organizations build and promote their public image.

Why it stands out: It is a decades-running, competitive program that places more than 200 local students each summer into real host organizations, where marketing-track interns can contribute to genuine publicity, events, and promotional materials rather than classroom simulations.

15. LA County Department of Arts & Culture / African Soul International – Marketing & Digital Content Intern

Location: Los Angeles, CA
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Dates: June 15th – August 7th
Application Deadline: May
Eligibility: Rising public high school senior entering senior year in fall; live and attend public high school in the San Fernando Valley, Metro Los Angeles, or South Los Angeles; legally able to work in the U.S.; not a current or former employee of the worksite, nor a relative of its employees, board members, or officers; not open to international students

In this internship, you promote West African drumming, dance, and cultural education programs through hands-on social media and digital content work. You capture photos and short videos at rehearsals and performances, write punchy captions about student-impact stories, and research arts and youth trends on Instagram and TikTok.

Working in Canva from staff templates, you design simple graphics and flyers, help manage a content calendar, and track likes, shares, and engagement in a shared tracker. You also draft school-outreach emails and add program highlights to the website and grant reports. Along the way, you attend weekly team meetings, shadow program delivery, join career workshops, and build a digital storytelling portfolio.

Why it stands out: It pairs beginner-friendly, real-world social media and content creation for a 25-year West African cultural arts organization serving 200+ LA schools with the paid Bloomberg Arts Internship’s mentorship, college-prep workshops, and cultural field trips.

A social media internship gives high school students hands-on experience managing content, strategy, and audience engagement for a real organization. Most placements are with nonprofits, media companies, or local government offices, where students help create posts, track analytics, and support broader communications goals. Programs run from a few weeks to a full year. Many conclude with a portfolio of published content or a final presentation.

No, most internships are designed to teach students content strategy and platform management from scratch. SkillCraft’s program explicitly builds skills through structured workshops before students apply them at a host business, and the City of Round Rock’s internship pairs students with communications professionals for hands-on training. A genuine interest in digital content and communication matters more than prior experience.

Many are paid, though rates vary by location. The City of Round Rock and City of Knoxville both pay around $15 to $17 per hour, while SkillCraft’s Bermuda-based program is unpaid but includes structured mentorship and potential job offers. Several nonprofit-based internships, including those with the ACLU of Georgia, also offer hourly pay.

Can international students apply to these internships?

Most internships on this list are restricted to US residents or specific local areas, since many require US work authorization and proof of residency in a particular city or county. Programs like the LA County Arts & Culture placements and City of Knoxville’s internship are not open internationally. Immerse Education’s Media & Journalism Summer Internship is a notable exception, open to students worldwide aged 15 to 18.

What age do I need to be to apply?

Age requirements vary by program, generally falling between 16 and 18. SkillCraft requires students to be 16 to 18, while Boston NCSY’s internship accepts students starting at age 16. Immerse Education’s Media & Journalism Summer Internship accepts students aged 15 to 18 from anywhere in the world.

Yes, nearly every program on this list gives students direct responsibility over live content. LA County’s Get Lit communications intern manages a content calendar across four platforms, and Boston NCSY’s intern produces posts and reels that go directly to the organization’s Instagram and Facebook audiences. Immerse Education’s Media & Journalism Summer Internship takes a slightly different approach, focusing on reporting and digital storytelling skills through a structured personal project rather than live account management.

How do these internships help with college applications?

Completing a social media internship demonstrates initiative and practical communication skills that translate well to marketing, journalism, or media-related college applications. Programs like the Los Angeles Times’ HS Insider internship result in published, shareable work, giving students a concrete writing sample. Immerse Education’s Media & Journalism Summer Internship provides a certificate of completion and direct industry exposure, both useful talking points for interviews.

From Content Creation to Career Clarity

From managing Instagram calendars to writing captions and tracking analytics, these experiences show how online ideas become real audience engagement across familiar digital platforms.

Through these social media internships for high school students, you can build skills in branding, storytelling, digital marketing, audience research, and professional communication.

They also help you notice which settings suit you best, from newsrooms and nonprofits to local government, arts organisations, advocacy groups, and media teams.

Ready to turn content creation into career clarity? Visit our Career Exploration blogs for practical guidance on media, marketing, communications, journalism, and more.