How to Get a High School Congressional Internship

To get a high school congressional internship, contact the office of your U.S. Representative or one of your U.S. Senators directly and ask for their internship application. There is no central portal, no shared deadline, and no minimum age set by Congress itself. Each office writes its own rules, picks its own interns, and posts its own instructions, so the work of applying starts with figuring out what a specific office wants.¹

Which Office to Apply To

Every Member of Congress runs two kinds of offices: a Washington, D.C. office on or near Capitol Hill, and one or more district offices for House members or state offices for Senators. High school interns most often end up in the local offices, where the work centers on constituent services and community outreach rather than legislative business on the floor.² D.C. internships for high schoolers do exist, but they are harder to land and raise practical questions about housing and supervision for minors.

A local office is often the better fit anyway. You interact directly with constituents, see how federal decisions land in your own neighborhood, and get to know staff who work in your area year-round. D.C. offices tend to give the heavier research and committee-related work to college students.

You are not limited to one application. Apply to your Representative, apply to both of your Senators, and, in the Senate, you may apply to any Senator’s office regardless of your home state.² House offices more commonly prefer or require constituents, but it is not a blanket rule. Applying to a Member who represents you gives you a natural connection to point to, and offices that prioritize constituents will weigh it.

Whether You Qualify

Congress sets no universal eligibility criteria for interns, so the answer really is: it depends on the office.¹ A few common thresholds are worth knowing before you start.

Age

No minimum age is mandated. The Congressional Research Service advises offices working with anyone under 18 to “carefully evaluate the job-related skills and maturity of the prospective intern.”¹ In practice many offices set their own floor at 16 or 17. A few take younger students for limited roles. The only way to know is to check the posting or call and ask.

Citizenship

Whether you must be a U.S. citizen depends on whether the position is paid. Federal appropriations law generally prohibits using appropriated funds to compensate noncitizens, with narrow exceptions for lawful permanent residents who have applied for citizenship and certain other categories.¹ Unpaid internships are not subject to those restrictions, though individual offices can still apply their own policies. If you are not a citizen, ask the office directly before you invest time in a full application.

GPA

Neither the House nor the Senate mandates an academic standard for interns. Some offices ask for current high school enrollment and a minimum GPA, often around a B average when one is stated at all. A slightly lower GPA is not a reason to skip an application, especially when you have strong extracurricular or community service to point to.

What Your Application Needs to Include

Materials vary by office, but most ask for the same core pieces.

A One-Page Resume

Paid work experience is not expected. Volunteer positions, school clubs, leadership roles, academic projects, and community service all count. Anything connected to government, politics, or organizing belongs near the top. Keep it to a single page.

A Cover Letter or Short Personal Statement

Most offices ask for a paragraph or short essay on why you want to intern in that specific congressional office.³ Generic statements about loving democracy do not help you. A specific policy issue you care about, a local problem you have seen up close, or something the Member has actually done that caught your attention will carry more weight. Reviewers read hundreds of these and can spot a form letter quickly.

Two or Three References

Most offices ask for reference contact information rather than sealed letters of recommendation.⁴ Choose people who can speak to your reliability and maturity in a professional way: a teacher, counselor, coach, or community leader. Let them know before you list them, and tell them what the internship involves so they can speak to the right qualities if they get a call.

How to Find the Application

Because there is no shared portal, your first step is locating the right web page.

For your Representative, go to house.gov, use the “Find Your Representative” tool, open the Member’s official site, and look under “Internships” or “Services.” For Senators, check each Senator’s own website, and also check the Senate Employment Office directory at employment.senate.gov, where some offices post openings.² If you cannot find an internship page, call the office. Some smaller offices accept interns without advertising the fact.

Most offices use an online form where you fill in personal details, indicate your availability, and upload documents in common formats such as PDF or Word.³ Check the file format requirements before you upload anything. Applications get delayed or flagged over the wrong file type more often than you would expect. Submit at least a few days before the deadline so you have time to fix any technical problems.

When to Apply

Summer is the most popular and most competitive season. Deadlines for summer internships often fall between January and April, and some offices close applications earlier than that. If summer is your goal, begin researching offices and pulling materials together no later than November of the preceding school year.

Semester and school-year internships run on different schedules and are sometimes accepted on a rolling basis. Part-time positions during the academic year face less competition and can be easier to land, especially in district offices. Missing the summer window is not the end of the road. A fall or spring internship in a local office is a strong alternative.

What the Work Looks Like

Day-to-day tasks vary, but common ones include sorting and logging mail, answering phones, greeting visitors, entering data, and helping with constituent correspondence. In D.C. offices, interns sometimes lead Capitol tours for visiting constituents. If you are asked to draft a letter, you are writing on behalf of the Member of Congress, not yourself, and the tone should reflect that.⁵ District office interns tend to spend more time on casework, tracking constituent requests, and helping with local events.

The work is largely administrative early on. Offices want to see whether you can handle routine tasks reliably before trusting you with anything more substantive. Interns who take phone duty and mail sorting seriously tend to get more interesting projects as the internship progresses.

Pay

Whether an internship is paid depends entirely on the office and its budget. The House Paid Internship Program funds Member offices, and under current rules pay is at the Member’s discretion within an annual range of $1,200 to $38,500.⁶ The Senate also allocates internship funding, and some Senate offices advertise hourly rates. Plenty of positions, especially part-time and short-term slots typical for high school students, remain unpaid. If pay matters, ask before you apply and do not assume a listing is paid unless it says so.

Academic Credit

Neither the House nor the Senate requires interns to receive school credit, and neither grants credit itself. Whether you can earn credit depends on your school. Some schools have independent study or internship programs that make it possible; others do not. Talk to your guidance counselor early, because your school may require specific documentation, a minimum number of hours, or a faculty sponsor.¹

Interview and Selection

After the deadline passes, staff review submissions and contact a shortlist of candidates. The Senate Employment Office notes that not all applicants will be contacted because of the volume, so do not read silence as rejection until the office’s stated timeline has run.²

Interviews are usually conducted by the internship coordinator or a senior staffer, often by phone or video call. Expect questions about why you are interested in that specific office, what policy issues you care about, and how you manage competing priorities or handle disagreement. For a high school applicant, interviewers are gauging maturity and communication more than policy expertise. Honesty about what you do not know yet, paired with genuine curiosity, tends to land better than rehearsed talking points.

Final decisions typically arrive several weeks after interviews wrap up. Offers come by phone or email. Respond promptly if accepted. If you are not selected, a brief thank-you note to the coordinator keeps the door open.

After You Accept

An offer is not the end of the paperwork. Most offices require some form of parental or guardian consent for interns under 18, and your state may require a work permit or age certificate for anyone under 18 in a work setting, which your school guidance office can help you obtain. Ask the internship coordinator what documentation the office needs before your start date. Both chambers also require interns to complete workplace training, including antiharassment training in the Senate and workplace rights training in the House, before you begin substantive work.⁶

1
Congressional Research Service. Internships in Congressional Offices – Frequently Asked Questions
2
Senate Employment Office. Student Opportunities
3
U.S. House of Representatives. Internships Application – Office of Congressman Maxwell Frost
4
U.S. House of Representatives. Internships
5
Committee on House Administration. Intern Guidance
6
Congressional Research Service. Internships in Congressional Offices – Frequently Asked Questions