Any advice for a high school student pursuing research?

I completely understand that this is a bit selfish, as the professor has to deal with training and getting me up to speed

Not at all! Labs accept college freshmen all the time as RAs and they are probably only marginally more knowledgeable than you. Also - labs WANT younger people. They want to have someone they can groom and trust in the years to come instead of some junior sauntering in because they need some experience before they graduate.

I've tried emailing professors in my local city (New York) but no one is particularly interested. (or more specifically, replies)

Be mindful of how you are crafting your emails. Make them short and sweet, acknowledge your position but don't be overly humble, and ask them what you can do to prepare yourself to do research to show that you are setting learning goals. This will basically communicate to them that you understand that you are going to need to learn some things to be useful. It might also help to mention you plan on going to their university for undergrad (to capitalize on their desire to have someone they can groom and trust).

It might also be helpful to sidestep the whole research assistant thing, and just ask them if you can do an "informational interview" which is when you basically interview someone in a position you want to be in one day to learn what it is like. If the interview goes well, ask them if there is a way you can get involved in their work now.

/r/AskAcademia Thread