15 Entrepreneurship Extracurriculars for High School Students
If you’re a high school student interested in business, finance, or entrepreneurship, getting involved in an entrepreneurship extracurricular is one of the most effective ways to explore the field in depth.
What are entrepreneurship extracurriculars for high school students?
Entrepreneurship extracurriculars involve hands-on projects, structured programs, startup incubation labs, high school clubs, and much more. They help you develop skills like problem-solving, market research, communication, leadership, and financial literacy.
Why should you pursue entrepreneurship extracurriculars for high school students?
You’ll gain hands-on experience with goal-setting, customer discovery, pitching, iterative improvement, and project execution. You can develop important skills for building your own startup. If you’re planning to study business or related fields in college, these extracurriculars show clear evidence of interest and capability while helping you build a portfolio of meaningful work.
If you’re also looking for entrepreneurship summer programs, check here, or go here to explore startup ideas for high school students.
To help you get started, we’ve put together 15 strong entrepreneurship extracurriculars for high school students.
15 Entrepreneurship Extracurriculars for High School Students
1. Get a Startup Internship
Difficulty level: Moderate to advanced
Location: Remote
Resources/experience required: Strong communication skills; specific skills depend on internship type
Notes: Selective program; excellent for building practical entrepreneurial experience
The Ladder Internship Program is one of the most direct ways to gain entrepreneurship experience as a high school student. Instead of working on hypothetical business ideas, you join a high-growth startup and contribute to meaningful projects alongside founders and early team members. This gives you hands-on exposure to how startups operate, rapid iteration, user-driven design, tight deadlines, and creative problem-solving. Startups partnered with Ladder range across industries such as tech, deep tech, AI/ML, health tech, marketing, journalism, consulting, and more. These startups are usually funded (on average raising over $1M), and many are founded by Y Combinator alumni or former engineers and PMs from companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. You’ll complete a real project during your internship and present your work to the company. This experience could be valuable for your résumé, college applications, and future entrepreneurial work.
2. Join a Work-Learn Startup Incubator (Young Founders Lab)
Difficulty level: Moderate
Location: 100% virtual
Resources/experience required: None; interest in entrepreneurship recommended
Notes: Excellent for launching your own venture; strong mentorship from experienced founders
The Young Founders Lab (YFL) is a virtual, work-learn entrepreneurship incubator designed to help you build a revenue-generating startup while learning the fundamentals of business. Instead of only studying theories, you actively develop a venture that solves a real problem, conduct customer interviews, design a prototype, refine your idea, and ultimately pitch your product. Founded and run by Harvard entrepreneurs, YFL offers a mix of interactive workshops, case studies, founder talks, and hands-on building sessions. You’ll be mentored by experienced entrepreneurs and industry professionals from companies like Google, Microsoft, and X (formerly Google X). You will be guided through the essential frameworks such as business ideation, market validation, competitive analysis, and storytelling.
3. Join or Create an Entrepreneurship Club
Difficulty level: Beginner-friendly
Location: School-based or community-based
Resources/experience required: None; a faculty advisor helps with creating a club
Notes: Starting your own club demonstrates leadership and initiative
Joining or creating an entrepreneurship club is one of the simplest ways to get hands-on exposure to business thinking as a high school student. Through regular meetings, group discussions, and project-based activities, you’ll explore core concepts like ideation, marketing, product design, budgeting, and pitching. If your school already has an entrepreneurship-focused club, such as DECA, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), a Business/Innovation Society, or a school-run Startup Club, you can join and immediately participate in competitions, challenges, and team projects.
If your school doesn’t offer one, creating your own club can be even more impactful. Founding a club shows initiative, leadership, and the ability to build a community from scratch, all of which look excellent on college applications. One limitation is that clubs often depend heavily on student initiative and may lack access to industry mentors or real-world startup environments. However, the low barrier to entry makes clubs one of the most accessible and flexible ways to begin exploring entrepreneurship while still building meaningful experience.
4. Participate in Entrepreneurship Competitions
Difficulty level: Moderate
Location: Virtual or in-person, depending on competition
Resources/experience required: Basic research and presentation skills
Notes: Great for building public-speaking and pitch skills; impressive for college apps
Entrepreneurship competitions are an excellent way to apply your business skills in a structured, high-energy environment. These competitions typically involve creating a business idea, conducting market research, preparing a pitch deck, and presenting your idea to a panel of judges. You’ll get direct feedback on your work, which helps you refine your thinking and improve your communication skills.
There are several accessible competitions for high school students, such as the Diamond Challenge and Blue Ocean Competition. Participating in a competition pushes you to think critically about practical problems and to design solutions that are measurable, scalable, and user-driven. You’ll also learn to analyze competitors, define a target audience, estimate costs, and develop revenue models, practical skills that translate directly into future entrepreneurial work. A major advantage is the visibility that competitions provide. Winning or even placing as a finalist in a national entrepreneurship competition gives your college applications a significant boost because it demonstrates initiative, creativity, impact, and follow-through.
5. Start a Small Business or Micro-Venture
Difficulty level: Moderate
Location: Flexible (in-person or virtual, depending on venture type)
Resources/experience required: Basic digital skills; no prior experience needed
Notes: Highly impactful because it shows real execution and initiative
Starting your own small business is one of the most authentic ways to learn entrepreneurship. Whether you launch an online shop, offer a service, create digital products, or run a school-based venture, you’ll experience the full lifecycle of building something from scratch. This includes identifying a need, developing a product or service, pricing it, finding customers, managing finances, and improving based on feedback. Even modest businesses can teach you valuable lessons about operations and cash flow.
Running a micro-venture requires creativity and consistency. You’ll learn to manage social media, communicate with customers, track orders, set realistic goals, and iterate quickly when things don’t go as planned. These are practical skills that admissions officers love seeing because they show initiative, resourcefulness, and problem-solving.
6. Enroll in Entrepreneurship Summer Programs
Difficulty level: Little to moderate
Location: Virtual or on-campus, depending on program
Resources/experience required: None
Notes: Excellent for foundational learning; great for college résumé building
Entrepreneurship summer programs offer a focused, immersive environment where you learn business fundamentals and collaborate on structured projects. These programs often mirror the curriculum of business schools and incubators, covering ideation, market research, marketing strategy, financial modeling, prototyping, and pitching. They’re ideal if you want to strengthen your foundational knowledge before launching your own venture. Well-known options include programs like Berkeley Business Academy for Youth (B-BAY), UPenn’s Wharton Global Youth Programs, MIT LaunchX, and similar university-backed entrepreneurship courses.
A major advantage of summer programs is the mentorship you receive from faculty, entrepreneurs, and industry professionals. You’ll gain exposure to real case studies, participate in group projects, and practice essential skills like teamwork, strategic thinking, and pitching. These programs also help you build strong peer networks with motivated students from around the world.
7. Shadow an Entrepreneur or Small Business Owner
Difficulty level: Little to moderate
Location: Local community businesses
Resources/experience required: Professional communication; initiative to reach out
Notes: Great for learning by watching real operations in real time
Shadowing a local entrepreneur or small business owner is a practical, relationship-driven way to understand what running a business looks like day to day. Shadowing gives you access to the behind-the-scenes realities of entrepreneurship, everything from customer interactions and daily decision-making to budgeting and operations. Small businesses are often more open to student involvement, and many appreciate the extra help.
You’ll observe how owners handle unexpected challenges, brainstorm marketing ideas, manage staff, and evaluate what is or isn’t working. Shadowing lets you ask questions in real time and connect concepts you’ve learned in class or through online resources with real scenarios. You’ll gain insights into problem-solving under pressure, customer psychology, and how entrepreneurs think strategically over the long term.
8. Volunteer With a Nonprofit Using Entrepreneurship Skills
Difficulty level: Little to moderate
Location: Local nonprofits or virtual volunteering platforms
Resources/experience required: None; basic communication and organization skills help
Notes: Excellent for combining entrepreneurship skills with social impact
Volunteering with a nonprofit gives you a chance to apply entrepreneurship skills in a mission-driven environment. You might help redesign flyer templates, plan a fundraising campaign, analyze donor data, coordinate volunteers, or create content for the organization’s website and social channels. These responsibilities build skills similar to what an early-stage startup environment demands, but with a social-impact purpose.
Volunteering also helps you develop leadership and teamwork skills as you collaborate with staff or other volunteers. You’ll gain experience managing timelines, executing tasks independently, and solving problems with limited resources, skills that colleges look for in entrepreneurship-focused applicants. Nonprofit work is also impactful for college applications because it demonstrates empathy, initiative, and community engagement.
9. Build a Digital Product
Difficulty level: Moderate to advanced
Location: Virtual
Resources/experience required: Computer access; optional coding or design tools
Notes: Great for portfolios; scalable and high-impact
Creating a digital product, such as a website, app, blog, newsletter, or online tool, is one of the most self-directed ways to demonstrate entrepreneurial creativity. You get to design something from scratch, identify your audience, test ideas, and iterate quickly based on feedback. You can build a personal finance blog for teens, a productivity tool, a curated newsletter, a local business directory, or even a simple web app that solves a school-related problem.
Digital products have the added advantage of scale. Once posted online, your work can reach hundreds or thousands of users. You can track engagement, grow your audience, and even monetize through ads, memberships, or downloadable resources if you choose. If you’re drawn to independent creation and online platforms, building a digital product is a compelling and highly flexible option.
10. Sell a Product or Service Online
Difficulty level: Little to moderate
Location: Online platforms
Resources/experience required: Basic digital literacy; product or service to offer
Notes: Ideal for students who want to learn by doing and experiment with ideas quickly
Selling a product or service online is a highly hands-on way to learn entrepreneurship through real transactions. You’ll gain direct experience in marketing, customer communication, pricing, and fulfillment. Platforms like Etsy, Shopify, Instagram Shops, Depop, Fiverr, or even your own website give you a ready-made storefront. You’ll learn how to write compelling product descriptions, photograph your items, set prices, track orders, and evaluate which products perform best.
This process helps you understand the fundamentals of supply and demand, customer behavior, and branding. One benefit of online selling is adaptability; you can easily test multiple ideas and pivot based on sales data. This extracurricular is strong for college applications because it shows initiative, independence, and real-world execution. Even small revenue counts, colleges care more about the learning and creativity than the scale.
11. Take Online Entrepreneurship Courses
Difficulty level: Little to moderate
Location: Online
Resources/experience required: Internet access
Notes: Great for building foundational skills before launching real projects
Online entrepreneurship courses are an easy, flexible way to deepen your understanding of business fundamentals. These courses walk you through essential concepts, including identifying market opportunities, conducting customer research, creating business models, and developing marketing strategies. You can learn at your own pace while still gaining exposure to the frameworks real founders use. Many of these include case studies, interactive modules, video lessons, and assignments that help you practice applying what you learn.
A major advantage is that you can choose specific topics you’re curious about, such as branding, finance, venture capital, social entrepreneurship, or innovation management. These courses help you build foundational vocabulary and understanding, which makes it much easier to join clubs, apply to incubators, or start projects later. If you enjoy independent learning, online courses are a low-barrier, high-value entrepreneurship extracurricular.
12. Start a School-Based Social Venture
Difficulty level: Moderate
Location: School or local community
Resources/experience required: Ability to work with school admin; project plan
Notes: Excellent for leadership development and community impact
A school-based social venture allows you to combine entrepreneurship with community impact. This could include sustainability initiatives, peer tutoring services, awareness campaigns, recycling programs, community gardens, or student-run food drives. Launching a social venture teaches you project planning, stakeholder communication, budgeting, leadership, and outreach.
These interactions help you develop practical skills that closely mirror startup operations like problem-solving, coordination, and consistent follow-through. If you’re passionate about building something that lasts beyond your own involvement, school-based social ventures offer a high-impact path to explore entrepreneurship while making a meaningful difference.
13. Join a Youth Entrepreneurship Organization
Difficulty level: Little to moderate
Location: School chapters or virtual programs
Resources/experience required: None
Notes: Great for structured learning and mentorship
Youth entrepreneurship organizations offer structured programs, competitions, workshops, and networking opportunities tailored specifically for students. Popular options include Junior Achievement (JA), Diamond Challenge, VentureLab, and NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship). Many of these provide curriculum-based learning, virtual sessions, and opportunities to pitch business ideas to judges or local partners.
These organizations give you credibility and structure: you’re part of a recognized community with clear milestones, learning modules, and real deliverables. You’ll build teamwork, presentation, and leadership skills, and get feedback from business professionals who guide your growth. If you want a structured, community-driven way to learn entrepreneurship beyond your school setting, joining a youth entrepreneurship organization is an excellent option.
14. Complete a Market Research or Business Analytics Project
Difficulty level: Moderate to advanced
Location: Virtual or in-person
Resources/experience required: Basic research and analytic skills
Notes: Excellent for students interested in consulting or strategy
A self-led market research project gives you deep analytical experience and helps you understand how companies make strategic decisions. You can choose a topic, such as exploring teen spending habits, studying a competitor landscape, or evaluating pricing strategies, and use real data to conclude. These projects teach you how to collect data through surveys, interviews, secondary research, or publicly available datasets.
You’ll learn to synthesize your findings into charts, reports, or presentations, just like a real business analyst or founder. This kind of project strengthens your storytelling, evidence-based reasoning, and data interpretation skills. If you're interested in consulting, marketing, product management, or founding your own startup, this type of analytical project is a strong way to showcase your capabilities in college applications.
15. Document Your Entrepreneurship Journey Through a Blog, YouTube Channel, or Podcast
Difficulty level: Little to moderate
Location: Virtual
Resources/experience required: Camera or microphone, depending on medium; consistency
Notes: Great for personal branding and long-term portfolio building
Documenting your entrepreneurship journey through a blog, YouTube channel, or podcast is a powerful way to build your personal brand while demonstrating your commitment to the field. You can share your experiences launching projects, interview local entrepreneurs, review business books, explain financial concepts, or teach entrepreneurial strategies. Creating consistent content builds communication skills, storytelling ability, and confidence. Over time, you can grow an audience and even collaborate with other young creators or business owners.
You’ll also learn marketing skills like SEO, scriptwriting, video editing, audio production, and social media strategy. This extracurricular is especially unique because it shows long-term initiative and public accountability. If you love creating content and want to merge creativity with entrepreneurship, this is an excellent and very personal way to stand out.
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