Summer Activities and Virtual Volunteer Ones too
You can get into college without an internship or a summer program. Summer jobs are just as good on your transcript, and often better than a program you need to pay for yourself. That said, spending the summer simply playing computer games does not look good. Consider some of these options.
Internships OR Exchange Programs (most of these are limited to US citizens)
AFS Intercultural Programs - Opportunities to spend a year of high school studying abroad or a shorter time period or even virtually in a variety of countries. Some offer need-based scholarships, others do not.
American Youth Leadership Program - in a variety of countries for rising freshmen-seniors, ages 14-17
Benjamin Franklin Summer Institutes - in the US (North Carolina recently) with students from other countries, ages 16-18
National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) - programs to learn languages (e.g. Korean, Russian, Hindi, Bahasa, Arabic, Chinese, Persian/Tajiki, etc.) in a variety of countries around the world for ages 15-18 - deadline usually in November
Congress-Bundestag Youth Institute for High School Students - Spend a year at a German school, living with a host family - ages 15-18 (no German proficiency required)
Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study (YES) Abroad - spend an academic year attending high school in a Muslim country (only Morocco and Senegal have a French language requirement) deadline in early December
Youth Ambassadors - 3-4 week exchange programs to Latin American and Caribbean countries
Read this first:Views on Summer Programs?
Place to look for government jobs (better than flipping burgers on your resume):
USA Jobs - have to create an account
Virtual Volunteer Activities (if you can't read cursive, maybe it is time)
Library by the People - Working with the Library of Congress - transcribing from cursive in English and Spanish
Smithsonian Digital Volunteers Transcription Center - women's history, science, African American History
Zooinverse - bunch of opportunities - observing science and transcribing including weather in Australia
Letters of Encouragement Campaign (MCPS .net emails needed)
Science Starter - including one to look at the shapes of cyclones!
iNaturalist - A community for naturalists
Lists of possible programs (including free ones and ones with stipends):
STEM SUMMER PROGRAMS
NIH - biomedical
NEI - Eye institute
NSA and even work study
Smithsonian - internships and programs
Courses - no need to take for credit, but if you can why not? Those in MC2 know of those options, those that don't there are plenty.
Others