Our students have had some pretty spectacular internships. We’ve had students work in labs conducting scientific research, join the engineering team at ground-breaking start-ups, and serve at nonprofits. They’ve spent their summers contributing to published papers and working alongside well-known artists. These activities and opportunities grew their interests and augmented their applications. As usual, we helped our clients line up some pretty awesome internships for the summer of 2020.

Now, the internships of nearly all of our students have been canceled— and they’re not alone. Any internships that aren’t canceled yet will likely be canceled soon, leaving thousands of students across the country without something to do this summer.

If things get better, and programs are reinstated — awesome. Do we think that is likely? No. Do we think you should plan as if that will happen? Absolutely not. We are advising students to act as if all of their summer plans are canceled. This means taking that students with canceled internships need to take action now to ensure that their summer is purposeful, productive, and fulfilling.

Any alternative summer plan needs to fulfill the two core things that students derive from internship experiences. 

To become more engaged and knowledgeable in an existing area of interest

If this sounds boring and academic, think of it as pursuing a passion, plus a little more. Students look to internships as a way of furthering their interest in something that they are passionate about, or that they feel they could be excited about if they had the opportunity to experience it in the field. Studying biology in a classroom is very different than practicing biology in the field, and an internship offers the opportunity to get that practical experience. Wrapped up in all of this, of course, is also the assumption that an internship should be fun. It might not all be smiles and roses all of the time, but it should be enjoyable and fulfilling for everyone involved.

To boost their application

It should go without saying that a central purpose of an internship for a high school student is to boost their resume for their college applications. A well-planned internship is as strenuous and demanding as employment, and to succeed in an internship shows commitment and a willingness to work hard. Beyond the resume, internships are perfect fodder for essays and supplements. They also offer the opportunity to get an additional letter of recommendation from your supervisor, which can make a significant difference in the application review process if your internship is relevant to your prospective major (which it should be).

Assuming that there is no way to do your internship from home (if there is, do it!), the question is: How can students with canceled summer plans accomplish both pursuing a passion and boosting their application from home?

Self-Directed Learning

If you had an internship lined up that is now canceled, try (respectfully) asking the person or team who were supposed to supervise you for a list of learning resources you can pursue from home. These could include books, articles, online courses, or TED talks. Together, they can form the curriculum for a self-directed course that will help you dig deeper into the subject that you love and prepare you to share that passion with colleges in your applications come fall.

Research Project

If the subject you are interested in lends itself to independent research without needing a lab, we recommend designing and executing a research project focused on your area of interest. Don’t worry that you’re not doing it for a grade. You’re pursuing it because you love the subject, and you’re interested in learning more about it (and, yes, because it’ll look good on your application). If your subject of interest requires a lab, consider doing a literature review: pulling together academic papers and studies on a particular subject and outlining the similarities and differences between their findings and processes. Ask someone that you know who is in the field you are focusing on to review your work and provide feedback on your final product.

Creative Project

If you are planning to pursue a subject in the arts or humanities, focus your time around a creative project that will result in a work or body of work that can stand alone. This could be a series of short stories, a poem chapbook, a multimedia project, a sculpture, a series of drawings, a painting, an album, or anything else you can dream up. The most important thing is to create something cohesive that can be presented as a project with a central theme. 

The moral of the story is that if your internship is canceled, there is still work to do. Pursue your passion, further your interests, and do what you need to do to present the strongest application possible in fall. 

If your scrambling to plan your summer, send us an email. We help students find purpose, pursue a passion, and gain acceptance to the best colleges in the country.