Summer Internships for High School Students

Internships provide incredible opportunities for high school students to gain significant work experience and make decisions about future career goals.

Although college students are usually first in line for internship opportunities, businesses and organizations are increasingly holding opportunities open for students currently in high school or those transitioning to college.

Why intern?
Going through the internship application process will teach you much-needed job search and employment skills. Preparing a resume, asking for recommendations, landing an interview, and understanding what it means to be a responsible employee are all skills that will give you a big advantage in college and beyond.

And it’s no secret that internships strengthen college applications, as these opportunities introduce students to career fields or potential majors and strengthen valuable research or lab skills.

An internship will help you understand how a professional organization functions in the real world. While learning and working, you have the opportunity to refine career goals. In fact, you’ll find that a summer internship can serve as a “trial period” to test ideas about professions and industries—entertainment, nonprofit, technology, health—without making you commit more than a few months.

Where are the internships?
Businesses and organizations sometimes have formal internship programs designed specifically for high school students. For the most part, these programs do not offer housing and are usually limited to students in the region.

For example, here a few of the many organizations making internships available to high school students in the Washington, DC area:

• US Department of State
  
• The Smithsonian Institution
• NASA
• Department of Defense
• Georgetown University
• George Mason University
• J. Craig Venter Institute
• National Cancer Institute
• National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
• National Genome Research Institute
• National Institute of Health
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
• Bank of America
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Johns Hopkins Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

Some of these are “salaried” positions and some are strictly volunteer. Note that they are all highly competitive and deadlines for applications can begin as early as November or December.

But many organizations don’t advertise the availability of summer internships. This is when you have to do a little investigative work on the internet and through newspaper listings. Use your networks—parents, relatives, family friends, teachers—anyone who may have contacts in businesses or organizations of interest to you.

It’s not too early to begin thinking about next summer. An internship, particularly for students at least 16 years of age, is a great way to get to know yourself a little better while building skills that will make you competitive for the future.