The Community Teen Intern program is designed for high school students in grades 11-12 in the Science Center’s immediate geographic community, as a way for students who have graduated from our Hands-On Science Summer Camp Scholarship or Young Curators Programs to continue their science learning journey with the California Science Center.
This program asks interns to devote time to the California Science Center, so to make sure that this program does not detract from important class work from high school, interns and prospective applicants must maintain at least a 2.0 GPA. Additionally, because this program requires interns to become employees of the California Science Center Foundation, interns must be able to work in the United States.
The Community Teen Intern program is a job. Because of that, interested high school students will need to apply for this program. The program is really competitive—generally less than 10% of applicants are placed in the program.
Currently, applications have closed for the 2022-23 school year. Information on the next year will be available near the end of August 2023.
Effectiveness/evaluative efforts
Goals of the Community Teen Intern Program for our interns are:
- Maintaining a highly positive measured attitude toward science.
- Demonstrating a more complex definition and construct of science.
- Fostering self-esteem.
- Making science learning relevant to the interns’ lives.
- Using informal science education as a vehicle to build skills for academic achievement in all disciplines.
- Preparing students for the workforce and college by focusing on communication and leadership skills.
- Stimulating lifelong learning.