Land a Summer Internship as a High School Student

Summer internships are often sought after by college students, but recently there's been more incentive for high school students to get professional experience.

Out of 362 companies surveyed, 90 percent agreed that high school internship programs can help students get into better colleges, according to a report released in February by Millennial Branding, a research and consulting firm. The report also says 70 percent of companies believe high school students who complete their programs are either very or completely likely to eventually land a college internship within their company.

For college-bound teens, an internship in high school can help pave the way for higher education.

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"I think having an internship on your resume when you apply for college really shows that you're thinking about your future," says Lauren Berger, author of "All Work, No Pay: Finding an Internship, Building Your Resume, Making Connections, and Gaining Job Experience." "Those are the students that are going to succeed in the classroom."

Teens who are interested in getting this kind of work experience have a variety of ways to find internships, and can usually expect to learn some important life lessons while interning, experts say.

High school students can start by searching within their networks. "Really dig into personal relationships and connections," says Berger. Family members or the guidance counselor's office at school, she says, may be able to put teens in contact with an internship opportunity.

Teens should write down nearby companies where they would like to intern, the companies' internship coordinators, application requirements and deadlines, among other details, when getting ready for their search, Berger says. But there may be an advantage to targeting smaller companies.

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Larger companies, she says, often only accept college students. Smaller companies, however, may have more flexibility. "They're more willing to look outside of the box," she says.

Once teens have decided which companies they would like to work for as an intern, engaging with these organizations through social media sites, such as LinkedIn or Twitter, can be a direct way to express interest.

Often an opportunity to intern may be right around the corner. The California Science Center in Los Angeles, for example, has an internship program for local high school students only, though there are opportunities for other students to volunteer and work at the center. Teens can spend seven months during the school year or eight to 10 weeks during the summer working, for example, with the ecosystems gallery where they explain to guests how the life cycle works for different animals.

Interns typically return year after year, each time learning something new, and also learn about their options for college as part of the program, says Gretchen Bazela, director of public and community programs at the center.

Internships can give students a leg up in the college admissions process, she says, because other applicants may not have had an internship to put on their resume.

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At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the internship opportunities attract highly motivated students -- in high school and beyond -- from across the nation with strong interests in science, technology, engineering or math, says Dean Kern, the deputy director for education at Goddard. High school students can apply online to work on projects at Goddard that range from modeling spacecraft dynamics to analyzing data for a solar event.

Students often come back to intern again once their initial internship is complete, Kern says. "This is NASA's opportunity to build its own pipeline for its future workforce," Kern says.

College applicants can use an internship at NASA to show their commitment to the subject they would like to study, Kern says. It demonstrates "they have not only the interest but practical experience in the field that they're looking to major in."

High school students can get a stipend that ranges between $1,800 and $2,000 for the six-week summer experience at Goddard, but experts say many internships for high school students pay nothing. But even those that don't pay can be very beneficial, says Sandra Berger, author of "The Best Summer Programs for Teens: America's Top Classes, Camps, and Courses for College-Bound Students."

"You get skills, make contacts, learn what the business world is like, learn how to interview," she says.

Above all else, experts say, the experience gained from an internship can't be measured in dollars. "You're doing this internship to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your career," says Lauren Berger.

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