Certifications for High School Students: Resume Boosters
There are various certifications available for high school students to obtain in a variety of areas. These certifications can help qualify students for competitive internships, beginner-level jobs, and be beneficial on college applications. High schoolers can get a head start on career-necessary skills that will prepare them for advanced topics and college classes. We have compiled a list of certifications for various fields of interest.
Medical
Students can become certified in CPR, First Aid, Basic Life Support, and as a paramedic or EMT. Other than emergency preparedness, there are more specialized opportunities. Students can become certified and work as Medical coding specialists, Certified Clinical Medical Assistants (CCMA), Dental assistants, Certified EKG Techs, Behavioral Health technicians, and more. Most certifications require students to be over 16 or 18 years old, and available certifications can be dependent on the student’s location.
Once certified, even high schoolers can start to work in hospitals and shadow health professionals. This is a huge bonus on applications for pre-med programs and med schools. It demonstrates early interest.
Computer Science
There are so many online and in-person certifications available for high schoolers interested in computer science. Ranging from mentor-led projects to programming crash courses offered by sites like Coursera, Kaggle, and Udemy, students can easily gain experience quickly. Most certification opportunities are readily available to students and are free with a subscription. Others that are more hands-on with live instruction may have tuition fees.
Other than programs, students can participate in coding competitions that offer certificates for awards and participation. These are great extracurricular additions, especially if you win. Some popular competitions are the American Computer Science League, USA Computing Olympiad (USACO), Google Code Jam, and hackathons. Websites like Kaggle also post regular competitions with cash prizes.
Engineering
Engineering is a broad field, with many subdivisions, yet there are many engineering courses and programs that offer a certification upon completion. This includes online courses for robotics, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, and more. These are usually offered by universities and have prerequisites to enter into the program. A few universities offering such certifications include Cornell, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Pennsylvania.
Students can get certificates for Engineer in Training Certification (EIT)
Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Audio Engineer (CEA), Certified Planning Engineer (CPE), and more. However, most require completion of algebra, calculus, physics, etc.
Once students gain experience by taking courses and obtaining certifications, they can apply to competitive internships and summer programs offered by companies, colleges, and more like NASA. This makes students incredibly competitive applicants for selective colleges.
Arts and Humanities
Courses offering certificates dealing with areas of the arts and humanities are also commonly offered by universities inline. Some websites partnered with colleges include class central, Coursera, and more. Institutes like Sotheb’s Summer Institute often offer summer programs for high school students as well.
For more local programs, students should be encouraged to explore their nearby community college’s summer programs. If offered, students can dual enroll to complete college-level courses during the school year and obtain more credits.
Law
Many universities offer pre-college programs for high schoolers interested in law. Some notable ones include the High School Law Institute offered by NYU and the Penn Law Pre-College Academy. Once again, there are various online programs accessible to all.
Students can obtain certificates for Business Law, Intellectual PropertyLaw, Victim Advocacy, etc. They can also become a paralegal assistant.
And More
This is a limited list of opportunities and there is an immense number of programs and such open to interested students. High schoolers should look online for nearby and virtual courses that can help them gain knowledge and qualify them for higher-level experiences.
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
