Internships are a great way for teens to explore careers, and some high school students may be able to earn credit for these experiences.
“Participating in an internship gave me freedom and responsibility, direction, and experiences that I will never forget,” Olivia Tseng, an 11th-grader at Wakefield High School in Raleigh, North Carolina, said in an email. The 16-year-old completed an internship at an internal medicine office in the fall and is now interning at a veterinary hospital, both for high school credit.
Many high schools, like Tseng’s, offer programs that give teens the chance to intern for credit – usually during the school year in lieu of class or possibly during the summer.
To participate in the internship program, students at Wakefield High must meet a minimum GPA, supply teacher recommendations and fulfill additional requirements, says Sarah Joyner, a career development coordinator at the school who oversees the internship program.
Teens often find their internship placement and sponsor themselves, though Joyner will offer assistance in finding one, if needed. They then spend at least 135 hours at their internship, complete weekly journals, submit timecards weekly and complete a final project to earn credit, she says.
The time requirement “sounds like a daunting number,” said Tseng, but it is the same number of hours students log in a typical high school course.
Teens will spend quite a bit of time at their internships, so they should have some passion or interest in what they will be doing, says Dana Pagliaro, business teacher and internship coordinator for a similar program at Barrington High School in Rhode Island.
Even if students end up discovering a certain career isn’t for them, they have learned more about themselves while gaining valuable skills, says Joyner.
For example, following an internship, one of Joyner’s students decided selling insurance wasn’t for her. But through the experience, the student learned phone and email etiquette. Internships allow teens to develop soft skills they may not learn otherwise, she says.
Tseng says that observing veterinarians and technicians opened up her mind to the veterinary field. “Staff members happily let me pick their brains about veterinary school, college, tech school and why they love their jobs. My internship has given me direction as to where I want to take my life.”
Teens need to show maturity and motivation – not necessarily high grades – to thrive at high school internships, Joyner says.
“I am a student who struggles a little bit focusing in normal classes because of the chaos and distraction,” Tseng said. She says she may spend hours studying for assessments in her usual classes to get the grades she wants.
But in her internship, she says she retained new information – such as anatomy, surgical procedures, patient profiles – with little effort, even with many barking dogs around. She also enjoyed the midday break from her usual classes.
With an internship, students may have to sacrifice other activities or elective courses. Tseng, who interned during the school day, took a 15-minute lunch instead of eating with her friends at school to make the most of the experience.
She says there were other times when she had to stay for school meetings instead of interning and then had to make up that time elsewhere to complete her required internship hours.
Still, Tseng encourages other high schoolers to jump on these opportunities.
“My current internship has exceeded all expectations,” she said. “I can only hope to find another one just as good.”
