EARLY YEARS: Back to School season a great time for high school students to consider internship opportunities

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - ”If you wait until your junior year in college to realize you hate something, you’ve lost a lot of important time,” says Julie Lammers with American Student Assistance, a non-profit that helps students make informed choices to achieve their education and career goals.

She says there are four main questions for students to consider:

“We really like to have those conversations about what you love, what you’re good at, what does the world need, and what you can get paid for, starting as early as middle school,” says Lammers.

Yes, Lammers says middle school isn’t too soon to start thinking about a career. Internships can help ensure students seek out the right level of higher education for them.

“Allow young people the opportunity to try something while they’re in high school, determine the things that they love, determine the things that they hate and pivot and make a plan for post-secondary education based on those learned experiences,” says Lammers.

An internship can also help school work more relevant to the real world.

“I really think it is a great opportunity with school starting to think about the fact that these types of activities really do help young people stay engaged with what they’re learning in the classroom, and it’s a great opportunity to connect what they’re learning in the classroom with real-life experience . Why do I need to know math? Because at my internship, I need to calculate things,” says Lammers.

There are plenty of good resources online to find that perfect internship, including the Virginia Talent and Opportunity Partnership and Internships.com.

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