15 Entrepreneurship Summer Programs in Massachusetts for High School Students
If you’re a high school student interested in building things, solving real problems, or eventually starting your own venture, consider enrolling in a local entrepreneurship program.
Massachusetts is a strong place to explore entrepreneurship early. The state has a long history of innovation and is home to universities, startups, and research-driven companies. Summer programs here often draw on that environment, giving students a closer look at how businesses are built and grown.
What do you do in entrepreneurship programs in Massachusetts for high school students?
In most entrepreneurship summer programs, you work on a real project. This might involve identifying a problem, researching potential customers, developing a solution, and explaining your idea clearly. You may also learn how to think about pricing, basic finances, and how businesses make decisions when resources are limited.
How are entrepreneurship programs in Massachusetts for high school students helpful?
These programs help you figure out whether you enjoy building and testing ideas over time. For college applications, these programs show initiative and real engagement, but more importantly, they help you understand what kind of work excites you.
If you’re also interested in entrepreneurship programs abroad, check here, or go here for entrepreneurship extracurricular ideas for high school students.
With that in mind, here is our list of 15 entrepreneurship summer programs in Massachusetts for high school students!
15 Entrepreneurship Summer Programs in Massachusetts for High School Students
1. Academic Immersion at Boston University’s Business Track
Location: Boston University, Boston, MA
Cost: $5,640
Program Dates: Three-week program during the summer
Application Deadline: Varies by session
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors enrolled in a college-preparatory curriculum.\
AIM: Business is a three-week summer program offered by Boston University in partnership with the Questrom School of Business. The program is designed to give you practical exposure to entrepreneurship and core business concepts in a college-style setting. In the mornings, you attend classes that cover marketing, finance, operations management, organisational behaviour, and quantitative methods used in business decision-making. These sessions focus on how businesses think through problems rather than memorizing terminology. Afternoons are application-focused. You work in teams on case studies and build a New Product Development business plan, moving from idea generation to validation and execution.
2. Young Founders Lab
Cost: Varies depending on program type. Full financial aid available.
Location: This program is 100% virtual, with live, interactive workshops
Program Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year, including summer, fall, winter, and spring
Application Deadline: Varies according to cohort. You can access the application link here!
Eligibility: The program is currently open to all high school students
The Young Founder’s Lab is a start-up boot camp founded and run by Harvard entrepreneurs. In this program, you will work towards building a revenue-generating start-up that addresses a complex problem. You will also have the opportunity to be mentored by established entrepreneurs and professionals from Google, Microsoft, and X. Apart from building the start-up itself, you will also participate in interactive classes on business fundamentals and business ideations, workshops and skill-building sessions, case studies, panel discussions, and more. You can check out the brochure for the program here.
3. Entrepreneurship & Innovation Bootcamp
Location: Tufts University Medford/Somerville Campus, MA
Cost: Commuter: $4,225 | Residential: $5,750
Program Dates: July 5 – July 17
Application Deadline: May 1
Eligibility: Students entering grades 10–12 or recent high school graduates; residential students must be at least 15 at the program start.
The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Bootcamp at Tufts University is a two-week summer program that introduces you to how new ventures are built from the ground up. You work closely with other students, Tufts student mentors, and alumni while learning how to identify real problems and turn them into structured business ideas. You learn how to build a business case, design solutions that stand out, think through go-to-market strategies, and understand early sales and customer discovery. Pitching is a central part of the experience, and you practice presenting your ideas to advisors and stakeholders in formats similar to founder-investor conversations.
4. Ladder Internship Program
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Application deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort
Program dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
Ladder Internships is a selective start-up internship program for ambitious high school students! In the program, you work with a high-growth start-up on an internship. Start-ups that offer internships range across a variety of industries, from tech/deep tech, and AI/ML to health tech, marketing, journalism, consulting, and more. Ladder’s start-ups are high-growth companies on average, raising over a million dollars. Past founders have included YCombinator alums, founders raising over 30 million dollars, or founders who previously worked at Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. In the program, interns work closely with their managers and a Ladder Coach on real-world projects and present their work to the company. Here is the application form.
5. Babson Summer Study for High School Students
Location: Online or In-Person at New England Innovation Academy, Marlborough, MA
Cost: Online: $6,295 | In-Person Day: $9,295 | In-Person Residential: $12,995
Program Dates: July 8 – July 28
Application Deadline: March 13
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors who are at least 16 years old by the program start date
Babson Summer Study is a three-week experiential entrepreneurship program offered by Babson College, widely recognised for its focus on entrepreneurship and venture creation. Centered around the for-credit course Introduction to the Entrepreneurial Experience (EPS 1110), the program is designed to help you think and act like an entrepreneur while tackling real-world social, economic, and environmental challenges framed by the United Nations Global Goals. Throughout the program, you’ll explore entrepreneurship through a practical, action-oriented lens. The curriculum introduces core concepts in venture creation, leadership, marketing, finance, and business communication, with a strong focus on problem-solving, teamwork, and decision-making.
6. Innovation and Design for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs
Location: Bentley University, Waltham, MA
Cost: Online: $1,490 | Commuter: $2,450 | Residential: $3,380
Program Dates: July 13 – July 17
Application Deadline: June 1
Eligibility: High school students interested in women-focused opportunities and innovation-driven business leadership.
Innovation and Design for Aspiring Women Entrepreneurs is designed for high school students who want to explore entrepreneurship through creativity, leadership, and human-centered design. Hosted on Bentley University’s campus, the program focuses on how innovative thinking and business strategy come together to solve real-world problems. Over the course of the week, you’ll work in teams to tackle a real business challenge while learning how successful companies and founders approach innovation. The curriculum introduces you to human-centred design, helping you understand how empathy, user research, and inclusive design principles shape strong business ideas. You’ll move from identifying user needs to prototyping solutions, testing ideas through feedback, and refining them using structured innovation frameworks.
7. Suffolk University’s Summer Entrepreneurship Program for High School Students
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Cost: Free
Program Dates: July 7 – July 24
Application Deadline: Registration opens in January
Eligibility: Designed for rising high school seniors; rising juniors may be considered on a space-available basis. Applicants must have a minimum 2.7 GPA.
Hosted on the downtown Boston campus of Suffolk University, this three-week summer entrepreneurship program is built for high school students who want practical exposure to how new ventures are created and scaled. You’ll explore how entrepreneurs think, identify opportunities, and create value, while developing the mindset and toolkits used in real-world startup and business environments. You’ll work to develop your own venture concept, learn directly from business leaders and founders, and apply what you’re learning through structured activities such as pitching ideas, designing crowdfunding campaigns, and refining business models. The experience culminates in a final presentation where you showcase your concept.
8. Northeastern University’s Experiential Entrepreneurship Program
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Cost: $7,095
Program Dates: July 12–24
Application Deadlines: February 27
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors
Experiential Entrepreneurship is a two-week summer program hosted on the Boston campus of Northeastern University that focuses on learning through practice rather than lectures. You work in teams to build a startup idea and move it through the early stages of venture creation. During the program, you develop a business plan, think through product design, build an audience, practice negotiation, and prepare a pitch. The experience ends with a final presentation to a panel of entrepreneurs, where you see how startup ideas are evaluated in real settings.
9. Boston Leadership Institute’s STEM Entrepreneurship
Location: Olin College, Greater Wellesley, Massachusetts
Cost: Not stated
Program Dates: June 29–July 17
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: High-achieving high school students with strong academic interest in STEM and entrepreneurship
STEM Entrepreneurship is designed for high school students focusing on turning technical ideas into viable businesses through structured, hands-on learning. You’ll work through the full startup process, from generating innovative product ideas to analyzing markets and evaluating business opportunities. The program introduces core entrepreneurship frameworks, including industry analysis tools like SWOT and Porter’s Five Forces, along with foundational concepts in company valuation, capital raising, and early-stage financial management. As you progress, you’ll build a sales pitch and business plan, culminating in formal startup presentations.
10. Young Business Leaders Summer Program
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Cost: $4,460
Program Dates: June 28 or July 12
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: High school students ages 14–17
The Young Business Leaders program introduces you to entrepreneurship and leadership through a structured, project-based curriculum. You’ll explore company creation, product design, and pitching for investment using real-world case studies and applied business theory. Throughout the program, you work in teams to develop a business concept and deliver a final pitch presentation, building practical communication and leadership skills. You also learn core entrepreneurial fundamentals such as marketing strategy, competitive analysis, project management, and professional presentation skills. The experience is enriched by local business visits and guest speakers, offering insight into how businesses operate in real market environments.
11. Bentley University’s Social Entrepreneurship Pre-College Program
Location: Waltham, Massachusetts
Cost: Commuter: $2,450 | Residential: $3,380
Program Dates: July 13–17
Application Deadline: Rolling admissions; applications open January 15 and remain open on a space-available basis until June 1.
Bentley University’s Social Entrepreneurship pre-college program is a one-week, immersive experience designed for high school students who want to understand how entrepreneurship can be used to create measurable social impact. You’ll learn directly from Bentley faculty and practitioners working in social innovation, while collaborating in teams to brainstorm, design, and refine a mission-driven venture. You’ll also learn to apply frameworks such as stakeholder analysis, the triple bottom line, and the theory of change. The program culminates in a final pitch, where you present your social enterprise idea and receive feedback on both impact and execution.
12. Summer Springboard’s Business & Entrepreneurship
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cost: Residential: $6,798 | Commuter: $3,498
Program Dates: June 21 – July 3 | July 5 – July 17 | July 19 – July 31
Application Deadline: Enrollment available until sessions fill
Eligibility: High school students
Hosted on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Summer Springboard’s Business & Entrepreneurship program offers an immersive introduction to startup creation and business growth. Over two weeks, you’ll focus on a single course, working in teams to develop a startup idea from concept to investor pitch. The curriculum covers core entrepreneurial building blocks, including business model design, customer engagement, revenue models, marketing strategy, operations, and basic financial analysis. You’ll learn to use the Business Model Canvas framework to structure and refine your ideas while understanding how different business functions work together in real companies. A key highlight of the program is its exposure to the startup ecosystem. You’ll hear directly from experienced entrepreneurs and business professionals, and explore different career paths in business and entrepreneurship.
13. Introduction to Entrepreneurship Harvard Secondary School Program
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cost: 4-credit course: $3850; 8-credit course: $7700
Program Dates: July 7 to August 7
Application Deadline: June 17
Eligibility: High school students; must be at least 16 years old by program start.
Offered through Harvard Summer School, the 4-Week Secondary School Program allows high school students to experience college-level entrepreneurship in a focused, accelerated format. Within the Economics & Entrepreneurship track, the Introduction to Entrepreneurship course is a hands-on, venture-focused class that walks you through the full startup creation process. Using human-centred design principles and lean startup methodologies, you’ll work in teams to identify problems, test ideas, iterate solutions, and ultimately pitch a venture to angel investors and venture capitalists. You’ll develop practical skills in venture design, customer discovery, agile execution, communication, and pitching.
14. Frontiers Program - Entrepreneurship
Location: Worcester, Massachusetts
Cost: Not specified
Program Dates: Session I: July 5 – July 17 | Session II: July 19 – July 31
Application Deadline: April 30
Eligibility: Rising grades 10–12
The Entrepreneurship track within the Frontiers Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute introduces you to how entrepreneurship works across different settings, including startups, established companies, and social ventures. The program is exploratory and hands-on, with a focus on recognizing opportunities and solving problems rather than exams or traditional assignments. You work in teams through interactive activities, discussions, and sessions with entrepreneurs and industry professionals. Over the course of the program, you identify real-world problems, develop possible solutions, and apply entrepreneurial thinking with attention to sustainability. The experience ends with a final pitch presentation where teams present their ideas and explain their reasoning.
15. UMass Amherst’s Entrepreneurship: Becoming a Game-Changer
Location: Amherst, Massachusetts
Cost: Residential: $3,907 | Commuter: $2,262
Program Dates: July 27 – August 9
Application Deadline: Check website for latest updates
Eligibility: Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors in high school.
Offered on the UMass Amherst campus, Entrepreneurship: Becoming a Game-Changer is a hands-on summer program that introduces you to entrepreneurship as a practical, real-world skill rather than a purely academic subject. This two-week experience is designed to help you understand how new ideas turn into products, ventures, or organisations that solve meaningful problems. You’ll work in teams to develop a product, business, nonprofit, or new organisational concept while learning how entrepreneurs gather real-world insights, validate ideas, and refine solutions through feedback. The program walks you through each stage of the entrepreneurial process, from problem identification and early research to pitching ideas and exploring funding strategies. A key highlight of the program is its strong connection to local and campus-based startup resources.
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