After AP exam season and finals, sophomore Sahana Kumar won’t laze all day during summer vacation. Instead, she will commute almost daily to George Mason University as part of an internship program where she merges her two interests: art and computer science.
An internship is a work-based learning opportunity that can be remote, in-person or hybrid and provides the student with work experience. Paired with the extra time during summer break, an internship could serve as an opportunity to gain work experience and life skills, as well as explore interests in a realistic setting, according to U.S. News.
“I’m interning for how machine learning technologies can be used to speed up 2D animations, so I’m really excited about that,” Kumar said. “I hope I can learn more about actual lab work and learn more about machine learning. I also just want to be in that lab environment and see what it’s like.”
As students advance through high school, many begin looking for productive ways to spend their summer. According to U.S. News, there are 2,937 students enrolled in CHS, which means there is no shortage of competition, contributing to an environment where students actively seek out opportunities and in turn increase the competitiveness of opportunities.
“I know that internships can oftentimes be really competitive, so students aren’t always able to grasp the opportunity,” college and career specialist Margarita Rodriguez said.
However, an internship does more than boost resumes and college applications. According to U.S. News, it can offer students the opportunity for meaningful work with career exploration and development and teach them new skills. Junior Kira Stoll, passionate about medicine, participated in a health science mentorship program at George Mason and completed a research project on disparities in the South Asian population regarding skin cancer.
“I worked with a lot of PHD students and other students in the program,” Stoll said. “Now I better understand my personal health and how the government works with that. I think sometimes you’re going so fast in classes that you don’t get to enjoy the experience or you don’t get to look at what you really want, so the program really offered me a chance to look into both health and also for my own background and the people that I know about.”
An internship doesn’t have to be directed towards a specific subject, topic or angle. According to Rodriguez, an opportunity in any area could be useful and provide valuable experience and rewarding skills, such as learning how to write research papers like Stoll. Rodriguez also says internships can help with exploring different interests to pursue in the future.
“Students can always go into their post-high school education undecided and live through the experience of their own college to see what fits for them,” Rodriguez said. “It’s nice to have an idea of what you would like to do. And that’s why we always encourage experiences or internships or getting yourself out there just to kind of see what you would like, but it’s okay to always change your mind.”
The prime time to apply for internships is long past, which is between December and March, according to OnCampusNation, but there are various resources to help students find positions. Kumar learned about her upcoming internship from an older friend. Stoll talked to teachers and entered key terms into Google regarding her criteria, digging around until she found one that fit her plans.
“I would definitely take a look at the newsletter that I post out every Friday [to help with finding internships],” Rodriguez said. “ Seniors will tend to have first dibs on paid internships, but the ones that are unpaid are usually open for ninth grade or the beginning of sophomore year all the way to senior year.”
After finding an opportunity, there is the process of applying and being selected. According to a 2020 study by American Student Assistance, only 2% of high schooler students had completed an internship.
“My key piece of advice is to be really genuine,” Kumar said. “I would always try to read the papers of the professors in the internship in advance and see if their lab actually aligned with my interests. Only if I reached that point where I was like, this is something that I really want to do, would I email them.”
Stoll agrees, emphasizing that applying for an internship is valuable regardless of the outcome. Even without gaining work experience, she has confidence that rejection can still lead to growth.
“Since it’s a competitive area, there’s a very good chance that you could either be accepted or not accepted,” Stoll said. “So applying and diversifying your activities really expands your diversity as a student, your willingness to be optimistic and things like that.”
