Summer Science Internships: A Firsthand Immersion in Science Careers

“The original and still most important goal of the program is to get kids into real labs, real businesses, real doctors’ offices and hospitals, doing real work,” says science faculty member Michael Schlenker, who oversees the program.

Applicants to the selective program submit material over the winter, including a cover letter and essay detailing their interests and their reasons for pursuing an internship. Once they’ve cleared that hurdle, they must sit for an interview with Schlenker. That process helps set the stage for the internship, letting students know that they will be working in professional, demanding settings and will be expected to comport themselves accordingly. Schlenker also uses the application process to help match students to internships; for the most part, students are placed in areas that reflect their interests.

Come fall, the summer science interns make presentations to the Rivers community about their experiences—a required element of the program. Students must also write a lengthy blog post reporting on their internships. 

The final presentations are brief, of necessity, but students have sufficient time to share what they’ve learned and convey their excitement about their summer placements. “On presentation day, it’s great to see the other students support the interns, as it’s a culmination of a process that started almost a year ago,” says Schlenker. “I’m so impressed with how each intern summarized and presented such complex science—in under three minutes.”

Rivers has offered the Summer Science Internships for more than two decades. But the program has expanded greatly over the past few years, thanks in large part to financial support from donors Kena and Michael Thompson P’22, Mark Klett ’71, Chris Ehrlich ’88, and Jeff and Connie Walsh P’20, ’26, which allows participating students to receive stipends. “That has really helped the program,” says Schlenker. “If kids are deciding between ‘I have to make money’ and ‘I want to do the internship program’—now, they don’t have to make that choice.”

Students experience many firsts in the course of their internships, but Schlenker says the new experiences begin long before the summer placements. “The internship program is important because it’s often the students’ first experience applying to and working in a professional science setting,” says Schlenker.

And, he says, a successful outcome can be measured in many ways. A student may discover that, say, they want to pursue a programming career—or they may learn that programming is not for them. “Both of those are positive experiences,” says Schlenker. 

A version of this story first appeared in the spring 2024 issue of the Riparian, The Rivers School's alumni magazine.