It's been happening for a quarter century now: Each summer, hundreds of Baltimore high schoolers and college students land internships across Johns Hopkins, gaining new mentors and on-the-job experience.
As the season returns, the Johns Hopkins Summer Jobs Program is again seeking departments and work units that can hire young people for eight-week assignments. The program also matches the interns with faculty and staff mentors to aid in their professional growth, and it partners with the Enoch Pratt Free Library to make software courses available to all participants.
Commitments to join this effort are due by May 10, and mentors are asked to attend information and training sessions on May 28 or May 30.
The internships, available to Baltimore City students ages 15 to 21, will run from June 24 through Aug. 16. Johns Hopkins fully funds the paid positions, with no costs involved for the participating departments.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Johns Hopkins' Summer Jobs Program. Last year, 461 local students participated, with assignments at 200-plus sites across the university and health system. Their work included assisting IT staff, entering data for Human Resources, processing invoices for Facilities and Real Estate, and supporting lab techs in the Pathology Core Lab.
And this year, even more students are expected to participate.
"To ensure the program's success, we need broad participation across Johns Hopkins Institutions," wrote university President Ronald J. Daniels and health system President Kevin Sowers in a recent letter to the Johns Hopkins community to enlist added support.
Pointing out the value of the internships, Lorraine Wilson, the Summer Jobs Program's youth programs coordinator, says, "The Summer Jobs Program offers students in our community a chance to learn and grow, not only through their responsibilities and interactions on the job but also [through] the various professional development sessions our program provides, such as Microsoft training.
"What makes the program unique," she says, "is that it combines real, paid work experience with soft skills education that will help these interns prepare for their future careers, hopefully right here at Hopkins."
More information is available on the Summer Jobs Program website.
Posted in News+Info
