A lot of my mom’s asian friends are telling her that it is important to do research and internship projects over the summer, but I’m not really sure if I want to do chemistry or biology in college and if I’m even advanced enough. Do I have to be at a prestigious level for a professor to even want to work with me? My interests are math, and science.
If you aren’t sure what you want to major in college, or ultimately do for a living, internships in a field you might be interested is a low commitment way to try things out! both my daughters, with completely different interests were able to find things that helped them. They found someone to mentor them, and those experiences were really rewarding. But DONT take something you have no interest in. The whole point is to try things you might want to do to see if you like it. After all, there are lots of people who, as adults, realized they took the wrong path in life. It is hard to make a career decision at 17-18, when you know so little about what opportunities are available.
If you want some low pressure (as in, I’m not your mom, so you can feel free to disregard my suggestions) ideas on how to proceed, say so here. I saw what both my daughters did to look for internships that suited them, and they had really different styles. I would be happy to offer some possible ideas.
I definitely know that I want to do something in science or engineering but I’ve only taken regular Chemistry and Calculus so I feel as if I might not be any help to the professor. What were your daughters interested in and how did they find mentors?
Well, D1 was interested in science and engineering. She wanted to get some experience in areas she was interested in, so she looked up professors in the local research university that were doing things that sounded interesting to her. She emailed seven of them, ones who had kind faces that looked as though they be able to tolerate high school kids ( she did this on her own - so used her own criteria for deciding where to apply). She also emailed a professor who had come to career day at her school and said she was interested in helping her. She received three positive responses. She went to interviews with two of the professors because she could do both of them that summer due to the schedule of each. One internship was volunteer, doing some data work for a few hours a week. The other was paid in a lab with the best mentor any kid could hope for. She didn’t teach, and every summer had a high school kid working for her. My D did two summers with her. It was the best job ever. She gave my D real things to do, she got to go out on the research vessel with the research team, she learned how to do PCR, and care for bacterial colonies and so many fun things. It really shaped her career plans.
The email she sent was quite simple, was a polite inquiry about whether the professor might be interested in having a high school student help in the lab, and listed some qualifications, listing the science and math classes she’d taken and expressed that she’d be open to any work the professor had available. She expressed what she was interested in that the professor was working on. You would want to have a resume ready as well.
One of the things that seemed to create this opportunity is that there are professors whose undergraduate students go home over the summer and they need some help in the lab. This is at a research university.
The other thing to consider is if there are firms (maybe biotech) in your area that have paid internship programs for high school kids? Those have rather early deadlines, so you would want to get on that.