summer programs & internships

I didn't do the standard "prestigious summer program" pipeline. no RSI, no SSP, no PROMYS. I applied to RSI and didn't get in. instead of feeling bad about it, I ended up doing things that taught me more.

here's what I actually did and what I learned.

what I did

my neurotech internship (Boston, summer 2025)

what: internship at a neurotech startup. I was their youngest intern.
what I did: EEG, fNIRS, and GVS research. real research on real brain-computer interface problems.
how I got it: not through a program. through building relationships and demonstrating capability. I cold-emailed startups doing work I cared about. most didn't respond. one did.
what I learned: working at a small startup is the best education you can get. you do real work — not glorified job shadowing. at a 5-20 person company, interns ship features and contribute to research. at a big company, they get a tour and a t-shirt.
the bigger lesson: the best internship you can get as a teen is at a small startup where you'll actually do real work. find a company doing something you care about, prove you can contribute, and offer to work for free or cheap.

I-Lab internship (summer 2024)

what: paid minimum wage. learned shop tools. see work-experience for more on what this taught me.
honest take: this was my first "real" work experience. not glamorous. but learning to use shop tools (see design-engineering) and being in a work environment as a teenager was grounding. not everything needs to be prestigious to be valuable.

Math in the Mountains (Jackson, WY, summer 2025)

what: math program directed by a renowned mathematician. I was a counselor.
what I got from it: being a counselor at a math program is different from being a student at one. you learn by teaching. the math community people I met through this are some of the most interesting people I know. the director is brilliant.

TKS Delta cohort

what: The Knowledge Society — 10-month program for ages 13-17. weekly sessions, cohorts of ~30 students. got in through a connection.
honest take: TKS is polarizing. the community is the real value — you meet other ambitious teens. the curriculum on "emerging tech" can feel surface-level if you're already technical. I got value from the peer group, not the content. see communities for communities that offer similar peer value.

RSI — applied, didn't get in

I'm including this because honesty matters. RSI is the "gold standard" research program, <2.5% acceptance rate. I applied. I didn't get in. it stung at the time. but looking back, the summer I spent at a neurotech startup was probably better for my growth than RSI would have been — I got to do real work at a real company, not a structured research experience designed for college apps.
this is the anti-pipeline in practice. the "best" program isn't always the best path for you.

CS140E — a university embedded OS course (auditing, Winter 2026)

not a summer program, but worth mentioning. I audited this university course on embedded operating systems. you can learn from the best institutions without being enrolled.

the cold email strategy (how I got my internship)

this is the most valuable advice on this page.

find startups doing work you care about. < 50 employees is ideal. look at AngelList, YC's startup directory, or just search for companies in your area of interest.
write a specific email about what you'd contribute, not what you'd learn. "I can build X for you" beats "I'd love to learn about Y from you."
include a link to something you've built. a github repo, a live project, a paper — anything that shows you can do work.
follow up once after a week. don't follow up more than that.
expect a ~5% response rate. send a lot of emails. this is a numbers game.

the key insight: small startups are always understaffed. if you can credibly contribute, they'll find a way to bring you on — even if they don't have a "high school internship program."

what I think about the program landscape

there's a whole industry of "prestigious summer programs" marketed at ambitious high schoolers. RSI, SSP, PROMYS, ROSS, SUMaC, Clark Scholars, Garcia, Simons, MITES, LaunchX. some of them are genuinely excellent. most of them matter more for the credential than the learning.

the fundamental question: do you want to learn, or do you want a credential? the best programs give you both. but if you're choosing between a prestigious program and working on something you actually care about — ask: will this program give me something I can't get on my own? if the answer is just "prestige," skip it.

a summer spent building your own project or interning at a startup where you do real work can be more valuable than any program. programs are good for meeting people and getting mentorship you can't get otherwise. they're not good for getting a line on your resume.