15 Entrepreneurship Summer Programs in Pennsylvania for High School Students
If you’re a high school student interested in business, finance, or entrepreneurship, summer programs can be one of the most impactful ways to explore those interests early.
What do entrepreneurship summer programs involve?
Entrepreneurship summer programs give you the chance to move beyond theory and experience how ideas turn into real ventures, how markets work, and how leaders make decisions. Many programs incorporate case studies, simulations, and project-based challenges that mirror how businesses actually operate.
How is pursuing entrepreneurship programs in Pennsylvania helpful?
If you’re based in Pennsylvania, these programs will be especially valuable because they give you access to nationally recognized universities, nonprofit organizations, and business ecosystems without leaving the state. These programs are also useful because they help you build entrepreneurship skills you can use long after the summer ends. Whether you want to launch your own venture one day or simply become more innovative in any career, these skills transfer across industries and disciplines.
Additionally, you can consider economics summer programs in Pennsylvania, or explore online entrepreneurship programs for more options.
Here’s our list of top entrepreneurship summer programs in Pennsylvania for high school students.
15 Entrepreneurship Summer Programs in Pennsylvania for High School Students
1. Bank of America Student Leaders® Program
Cost: Paid internship (students are compensated); all expenses covered for the Washington, D.C. leadership summit
Location: Pennsylvania (local nonprofit placements across eligible PA markets)
Program Dates: 8-week summer program (includes a 1-week national summit in Washington, D.C.; dates vary by market)
Application Deadline: Typically January
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors who permanently reside in an eligible Pennsylvania market and are authorized to work in the U.S.
The Bank of America Student Leaders Program gives you the chance to step directly into a paid, real-world professional role while exploring how business, nonprofits, and government intersect. You gain hands-on exposure to how organizations operate day to day, experience that’s especially valuable if you’re interested in business leadership, social entrepreneurship, or public-impact ventures. A defining feature of the program is the all-expenses-paid Student Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C., where you join peers from across the country to learn how large institutions collaborate to drive economic opportunity. You’ll network with civic leaders, nonprofit executives, and fellow high-achieving students, gaining perspective on leadership pathways that extend beyond traditional startups.
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. The program is an excellent opportunity to delve into the world of business in high school and have a space to explore multiple theoretical as well as practical frameworks that lead to a successful business. You can check out the brochure for the program here.
3. Business Opportunities Summer Session (BOSS) – Penn State Smeal College of Business
Cost: $350
Location: University Park, PA (Pennsylvania State University – Smeal College of Business)
Program Dates: June 14–June 26
Application Deadline: October 20–March 20
Eligibility: High school juniors from the U.S. and Puerto Rico interested in pursuing business in college
In BOSS, you spend two weeks immersed in college-level business academics while living on Penn State’s campus. You take introductory business and college-prep courses taught by Smeal faculty, gaining exposure to core areas such as management, finance, and organizational operations. The program emphasizes applied learning through group-based business pitch presentations, site visits to real business environments, and structured discussions around how businesses function beyond the classroom. Alongside academic work, you develop professional readiness skills like team collaboration, presentation, and navigating a college academic environment, making BOSS especially well-suited if you want early clarity on whether a business or entrepreneurship pathway fits your interests.
4. Ladder Internship Program
Cost: Varies by placement
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, you work closely with your managers and a Ladder Coach on real-world projects and present your work to the company.
5. Wharton Global Youth – Essentials of Entrepreneurship
Cost: $8,299; need-based financial aid is available
Location: Philadelphia, PA (on-campus at University of Pennsylvania / Wharton School)
Program Dates: June 7–June 19; June 21–July 3; July 12–July 25; July 26–August 8
Application Deadline: Priority: January 28; Final: March 18
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9–11; no prior business coursework required
In this intensive two-week entrepreneurship program, you work in collaborative teams to simulate the early stages of building a startup. The curriculum emphasizes structured problem identification, market validation, and venture design using clearly defined analytical frameworks rather than open-ended brainstorming. The program introduces MVP development through customer interviews and basic A/B testing, followed by low-fidelity prototyping and brand positioning exercises. Your work culminates in a formal pitch presentation, where you communicate a clearly reasoned problem–solution–business model narrative supported by evidence and market logic.
6. Accounting Finance Business Initiative (AFBI) Summer Residency – Drexel University
Cost: Free (full scholarship provided to all accepted students)
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Residential on campus at Drexel University – LeBow College of Business)
Program Dates: June 22–June 27
Application Deadline: February 28
Eligibility: High school students (minimum 2.5 GPA); first-generation and/or low-income students interested in accounting, finance, business, or related fields
The AFBI Summer Residency is a one-week, residential program designed to build foundational business knowledge and professional readiness for students considering business-related career paths, including entrepreneurship. During the program, you explore how accounting, finance, and business functions operate in organizational settings through firm tours, case study–based teamwork, and direct interaction with professionals from public accounting firms and corporations. AFBI emphasizes understanding how businesses manage resources, evaluate financial decisions, and collaborate across teams, skills that underpin entrepreneurial decision-making. The residency also integrates college preparation, networking, and exposure to long-term career pathways, making it a strong option if you want to ground future entrepreneurial ambitions in solid business and financial fundamentals.
7. Wharton Global High School Investment Competition – University of Pennsylvania
Cost: Free
Location: Online (Global) with optional in-person Global Finale at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Program Dates: Registration opens June 30; trading runs start in September
Application Deadline: Advisor registration closes mid-September
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9–12 worldwide; teams of 4–6 students must participate with a teacher or school-affiliated advisor
The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition is a highly respected, entrepreneurship experience that builds strategic thinking, financial literacy, and decision-making skills central to entrepreneurial success. You’ll work in a team to manage a $500,000 virtual investment portfolio using real market data, analyze companies and industries, assess risk, and develop a long-term strategy for a real client case. Rather than focusing on short-term gains, the competition emphasizes how clearly you can explain and defend your reasoning, mirroring how entrepreneurs and investors evaluate opportunities in practice. Along the way, you strengthen collaboration, communication, and analytical skills that translate directly to startup thinking and business leadership.
8. Leadership in the Business World (LBW) – Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Cost: $11,899; need-based scholarships are available
Location: Philadelphia, PA (University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School)
Program Dates: Session 1: June 7–June 27; Session 2: June 28–July 18; Session 3: July 19–August 8
Application Deadline: Priority: January 28; Final: March 18
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors (current 11th graders) with a minimum 3.5 unweighted GPA; international students welcome
Leadership in the Business World is a highly selective, three-week residential program offered by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Designed for students seeking a rigorous introduction to undergraduate business education, the program focuses on leadership, organizational strategy, teamwork, and communication through Wharton-style case studies, simulations, and debates. You’ll learn to analyze companies using professional frameworks such as SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, and value chain analysis, culminating in a capstone case competition. LBW emphasizes analytical depth and structured decision-making, making it especially valuable if you’re interested in management, consulting, economics, or business leadership at the collegiate level.
9. Rising Starters Summer Camp – Drexel University
Cost: $500
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Drexel University – Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship)
Program Dates: July 14–July 18
Application Deadline: June 30
Eligibility: High school sophomores and juniors interested in entrepreneurship, innovation, or business
In the Rising Starters Summer Camp, you spend a focused week developing an entrepreneurial project at the intersection of business strategy and applied industry context. The program is structured around hands-on workshops where you work in teams to design venture concepts, analyze market demand, and think through revenue models. You explore practical tools such as consumer research methods, digital commerce strategies, and branding fundamentals, with a specific emphasis on how entrepreneurship operates in real-world industries. The program concludes with a formal team pitch presentation, where you articulate your problem, solution, and go-to-market logic to an external panel, reinforcing skills in analytical thinking, collaboration, and professional communication.
10. Camp Business – Drexel University
Cost: $2,000 (Residential Blue Session); $950 (Commuter Session); $2,000 (Residential Gold Session); limited need-based alumni scholarships are available
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Drexel University – LeBow College of Business)
Program Dates: July 13–July 17 (Residential Blue Session); July 20–July 24 (Commuter Session); July 27–July 31 (Residential Gold Session)
Application Deadline: Priority deadline: May 1 (may close earlier if full)
Eligibility: Rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors; international students are eligible with proof of English proficiency
Camp Business is a week-long, intensive introduction to college-level business education designed to help you understand how organizations function in practice, knowledge that directly supports entrepreneurial thinking. You rotate through core business disciplines such as accounting, marketing, finance, management, and business law while also developing professional skills in leadership, strategy, teamwork, and decision-making. The program emphasizes applied learning: interpreting financial documents, understanding market dynamics, and analyzing how technology supports business operations. Faculty-led sessions and collaborative activities mirror undergraduate coursework, making this a strong option if you want a structured business foundation before pursuing more venture-focused entrepreneurship programs.
11. Teen Entrepreneurship Challenge – Lehigh Valley LaunchBox (Invent Penn State)
Cost: Free
Location: Reading, PA (hosted at Penn State Berks; programming by Penn State Lehigh Valley / Invent Penn State)
Program Dates: July 26–August 1
Application Deadline: Interest form required; rolling follow-up
Eligibility: High school students interested in entrepreneurship and innovation
The Teen Entrepreneurship Challenge is a week-long, immersive program where you work in teams to design, develop, and pitch a product or service idea from scratch. Throughout the program, you build core entrepreneurial skills across opportunity identification, marketing and communication, financial literacy, economics, ethics, and teamwork. You learn directly from Penn State faculty, guest speakers, and past pitch competition winners while participating in hands-on activities such as logo creation, presentation design, and venture storytelling. The program culminates in a formal pitch presentation to judges and a live audience, reinforcing how entrepreneurs synthesize ideas, data, and communication into a compelling business case.
12. Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week (PFEW)
Cost: Free (program is fully funded; housing and meals typically included)
Location: Pennsylvania college campuses (varies by session; statewide program)
(Hosted by Foundation for Free Enterprise Education)
Program Dates: Summer session (one-week program; exact dates vary by campus)
Application Deadline: Spring (varies by session; rolling until filled)
Eligibility: High school students in Pennsylvania (typically rising juniors and seniors)
Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week is a one-week, immersive program where you participate in a large-scale business simulation that mirrors how companies are formed, managed, and scaled. You work in teams to operate a simulated company, making decisions related to production, pricing, marketing, finance, and workforce management while responding to changing market conditions. The program emphasizes systems thinking, how individual business decisions affect an entire organization and economy, rather than isolated skill drills. Alongside the simulation, you attend workshops on leadership, economics, and personal finance, and interact with volunteer business professionals who act as advisors and mentors.
13. Summer High School University (HSU) – Business & Entrepreneurship Pathway
Cost: Free (paid work experience included)
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (college campuses including CCAC and Carlow University)
Program Dates: June 16–August 7
Application Deadline: Opens March 17 (rolling, space limited)
Eligibility: Rising grades 10–12; ages 14–18; low-income students in Pittsburgh or Allegheny County
Summer High School University (HSU) is an eight-week, full-day program that combines college coursework, paid work experience, and career exploration, with a dedicated Business & Entrepreneurship pathway. You enroll in a college-level business course while building professional skills through tutoring, workshops, and real workplace exposure. Alongside academics, you participate in paid placements where you learn how businesses are started, managed, and scaled, gaining firsthand insight into operations, customer engagement, and decision-making. Through interactions with local business owners, startups, and corporate leaders, you develop workplace confidence, financial literacy, and an understanding of how entrepreneurial thinking translates into viable careers.
14. Business Bootcamp – Drexel University
Cost: $325
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Drexel University – LeBow College of Business)
Program Dates: February 14–February 15
Application Deadline: January 11
Eligibility: High school sophomores through seniors
Business Bootcamp is a short, intensive program designed to give you a structured introduction to how businesses operate, knowledge that underpins entrepreneurial work. Over two full days, you explore core business disciplines such as product development, accounting, analytics, and business ethics through faculty-led sessions and interactive activities. You focus on understanding how real organizations make decisions, allocate resources, and evaluate trade-offs. This makes the program especially useful if you’re interested in entrepreneurship but want a clearer grasp of foundational business mechanics before tackling venture creation. Exposure to Drexel faculty, simulations, and college-level coursework helps you contextualize entrepreneurial ideas within real operational constraints.
15. Entrepreneurship Institute – Susquehanna University
Cost: $1,075 (includes housing, meals, and all program materials); limited need-based scholarships are available
Location: Selinsgrove, PA (Susquehanna University – Sigmund Weis School of Business)
Program Dates: June 21–27
Application Deadline: June 5
Eligibility: Students entering grades 9–12
The Entrepreneurship Institute at Susquehanna University offers you a fast-paced, immersive introduction to entrepreneurial thinking through a week-long, on-campus boot-camp experience. You’ll work in teams within a simulated startup environment to identify a real problem, develop a viable business idea, analyze competitors, and test feasibility. Along the way, you’ll build a prototype and create a basic website, gaining hands-on exposure to how early-stage ventures take shape. Throughout the week, you’ll learn directly from experienced professors and entrepreneurs while strengthening leadership, collaboration, and communication skills. Site visits to local businesses add practical context, helping you connect classroom learning to real entrepreneurial operations.