Goddard Welcomes Summer Interns

Summer Interns Check-in on their first day of work

It that time when we start seeing younger faces with temporary badges, yes those summer interns are back again! Each summer NASA sponsors summer programs in an effort to give interns an opportunity to gain experience and exposure to a career in the science and engineering fields.

The University Programs Office has two groups of students working at Goddard under the Directors Discretionary Fund for innovative research (DDF). One program is the NASA Academy (16 students) and other is the Student Internship Program (SIP--22 students). Each NASA Center Director manages this fund and monies are allocated to scientists, engineers and IT personnel for high-risk, high pay off cutting-edge research related to the Center's mission.

In addition, the Education Office here at Goddard is offering many students exciting learning opportunities this summer. There are 25 students participating in this summer's Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) programs. These high school students will work for 10 weeks with scientists and engineers on enterprise related projects. The Summer Institute in Science, Technology, Engineering and Research (SISTERS) Program will host 22 middle school girls during the week of June 24-28 to expose them to careers in science. National Space Club Scholars will offer 23 high students the opportunity to gain researching experience beginning June 24th-August 2nd.

Associate Director, Bill Townsend conversing with interns.

The Equal Opportunity Programs Office also has 12 different summer intern programs that have the ultimate goal of expanding the pool of candidates from underrepresented groups in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering. This summer there are approximately 90 students participating in these programs.

For some information on the EEO summer programs, visit: http://eeo.gsfc.nasa.gov/programs.html#stu. For more information on the DDF program, go to: http://university.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html or email Summer Internship Program Manager, Dan Krieger at Daniel.A.Krieger.1@gsfc.nasa.gov

Photos by Chris Gunn/293