High School Internships in NYC: Working in the City that Never Sleeps
For many students, New York City is a clear destination for their internship, whether they live there or not. This can be due to a variety of reasons - it is reputed as the Digital Media capital of the world, many Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the city, or simply the fact that it seems like a nice place to live for an extended amount of time.
In this blog, we will introduce several reasons about why students may or may not want to live in NYC, and some internship opportunities, broken down by sector.
Should I go to NYC?
One of the most important things to look at before you even consider the internship type is whether you want to intern in NYC in the first place. Here, we compile several reasons why you will wish to (or not wish to) go to NYC for your internship.
Advantages of NYC
Transit
New York has an extremely robust transit system that can take people to a variety of places very quickly.
If you don’t want to deal with the endless and erratic flows of New York traffic, you can take some of its subway or train systems to get to where you want without being stopped in traffic.
Spots for Relaxation
Sometimes an underrated need for an internship is ample space to relax or be productive. Central Park is a great green space for students to relax or work, and it is in the center of the city, making it relatively close to every work location.
If you have free time, you can also visit many of the art museums in New York, where you can take a break from work by looking at their vast collection of paintings and sculptures.
Food
New York boasts many great restaurants, where you can find every type of cuisine in many different locations. You can taste a variety of different cultures in your time interning in New York. However, be prepared because some food may be expensive.
Disadvantages of NYC
Prices
As the most populated and the most densely populated city in NYC, new interns will find themselves competing with a large number of people for resources and places to live.
This creates one of the biggest problems for interning in NYC: the prohibitive prices for everything, from food to housing. It will be difficult for interns to find liveable space if they wish to work in person.
Climate
Located close to the coast, this means that NYC’s weather is extremely erratic. It features hot summers and cold winters, with consistent light winds and precipitation. In winter, you can often see a lot of snow, but sometimes it can also get unseasonably warm due to the influence of the ocean winds. If you want to go to New York, be prepared for both sides of the weather spectrum.
Fields of High School Internships in NYC
NYC has a lot of top-tier companies in many different fields, and as such opportunities are plentiful. The city itself is also very involved with internship opportunities, promoting them both in its government agencies and for other companies. You can find a list that they compiled about these internships here.
Of course, there would be little value in making a trip to NYC if you were to intern in a more nationwide company. As such, we will focus on the companies based in NYC, who will likely look for more interns who can work in person at the place of their headquarters.
Finance and Banking
Since the creation of the Bank of the United States in 1801, New York has always functioned as a center for all the great financial and banking companies. Companies from JPMorgan Chase to Goldman Sachs are all based in New York, providing a great financial landscape that offers these companies great opportunities for competition in the banking and financial sphere.
It is possible to find internships for many banks by going to their websites. For instance, you can find internships for JPMorgan Chase here.
Science and Technology
Although New York is not famous in terms of technological or scientific development, you can easily find many companies in these spheres. For instance, the NYC Science Research Mentoring Consortium provides a lot of options for research here, where they list many options for students to conduct research or intern at a variety of locations in New York.
For a good alternative (maybe if you do not want to go to New York or work in person), check out our online internships at Inspirit AI!
Government Internship
What’s impressive about NYC is the large amount of GDP that the Government contributes to the economy. Its significant and robust government departments cover every need of its citizens and keep the city a great place to live. As such, it is an excellent opportunity to give your hard work back to the city by interning for its government.
If you wish for an internship at the government, the city itself provides some useful links for interning at a variety of different departments. For instance, they offer an internship maintaining the myriad of city vehicles from many different departments: the New York City Police Department, The Fire Department of New York, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Sanitation, and DCAS. Interns who have an interest in engineering can get an awesome opportunity to help in a public service internship and give back to their society while learning about the inner workings of automobiles.
You can find them all at this link.
Arts and Entertainment
Last but definitely not least is the most famous industry in the city - the Entertainment Industry. New York City is home to Broadway and a bustling Theater industry, full of the best playwrights, actors, and crews in the world. If your major touches on entertainment, it will be very valuable to intern at the famed Big Apple. A quick search can reveal many more internships in the websites of these famed theaters and companies. For example, Apollo Theater’s internships can be found here.
NYC’s museums also have a large amount of internships, where you can help educate the public on the subject of the museum. Examples are the Museum for African Arts, Brooklyn Museum, and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Contrary to other volunteering opportunities at museums, these internships are also paid, which offers a way to earn money while learning about education and helping the public.
Many more internship opportunities and application locations can be found here.
Conclusion
Pursuing internships before heading into regular employment has many benefits, especially in a competitive environment like NYC. From preserving the past in its variety of museums to securing the future in its technological and scientific research institutions, NYC is undoubtedly a city that will play a huge role in the development of the world. Becoming a part of that development and the future is something that we all want to do while gaining experience to improve ourselves and secure our own futures. At Inspirit AI, we are excited to see what changes you can make during your internship and how this experience will help you!
For more internship opportunities in New York, make sure to check out this article!
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
