The High School Apprenticeship Challenge facilitates and funds paid internships for underrepresented and low-income high school students throughout Massachusetts. The program creates more than 150 new internship opportunities each year by subsidizing intern wages for research institutions and small life sciences companies to enable them to hire paid interns. The program also offers pre-internship training programs that provides rigorous biotechnology/biomedical and professional skills development.

The MLSC reimburses eligible host organizations up to $4,080 per intern, based on $17 per hour for six weeks of full-time work. Internships can be part-time or full-time and must take place between May 1, 2026 and April 30, 2027.

The program seeks to create paid work-based learning opportunities for underrepresented youth, supplement life science education with pre-internship training, foster relationships between economically disadvantaged schools and life sciences employers, develop students’ professional workplace skills, increase awareness of life sciences careers, and build a diverse STEM workforce pipeline.

Funding is available on a first-come first-served basis, and allocated only after offer requests are approved by the MLSC within the organization application.