Ask HN: Opportunities for a high school student ready to get an internship?
Hi! Does anyone know of any tech startups or companies around silicon valley that are willing to accept qualified high school students for internships?
I love CS, but I am the type that more than anything wants to build a company and help people. I understand if he/she is not the same way, but if I would have recommend not jumping into the workforce so immediately.
The day quickly approaches where I have to make a decision to either start my own thing or get a job somewhere. A job takes a majority of your time which would really put a damper on my dream. There are stories of people doing both, but if it happened all the time, it wouldn't be a story. I'm not using that as an excuse, I am using it to bring home the point to enjoy and take advantage of the time you currently have without responsibilities.
Bottom line is have fun. Experiment with different ideas. Try to make something cool that people want. There are more than enough resources to get started. Just do it.
You're going to have to expand on that. If by "qualified high school student" you mean someone who has built at least one impressive and non-trivial project that real people are using and brings as much as if not more to the table than a college intern from a top school, then maybe (but it will be an uphill battle, especially at a larger company). Otherwise, I suspect they'd be out of luck.
Since it sounds like you're in the south bay, you might check out NASA Ames; they may have something similar.