I got a lot out of interning (my background is physics) in high school and college--and in many cases, it was just learning what I didn't want to do.
Now, I work at a government lab--but I like to give back by serving as a mentor for internships. If anyone is interested (it may be a bit late), here is a link:
http://nist.gov/surfgaithersburg/
I have taken on students from CS, physics, math, EE, etc. One student is applying for grad. schools in robotics, another is looking to join a startup in Alaska (if anyone has any pointers for him, let me know--he was a math/CS major and really good--we did some work on using comet to do web-based data analysis and to display live data from instruments)--others have gone on to physics grad. school, and one is working in industry. So, some of my interns have also learned what they don't want to do ;> My projects often involve a combination of science and programming--but there are other groups that have been working on android apps, cryptography, etc.
Generally, my goal (and for my colleagues) isn't to crank work out of students, but rather to give them exposure to research. I try to think of projects that my interns can own--I usually have several possibilities and try to match the students with the project. For our particular program, we pay for housing and a stipend of $5500 for the summer (11 weeks).
For high school students in the area, we also have a summer internship program (which doesn't pay--sorry), but again, I try to provide the students with projects that they can own.
Now, I work at a government lab--but I like to give back by serving as a mentor for internships. If anyone is interested (it may be a bit late), here is a link: http://nist.gov/surfgaithersburg/
I have taken on students from CS, physics, math, EE, etc. One student is applying for grad. schools in robotics, another is looking to join a startup in Alaska (if anyone has any pointers for him, let me know--he was a math/CS major and really good--we did some work on using comet to do web-based data analysis and to display live data from instruments)--others have gone on to physics grad. school, and one is working in industry. So, some of my interns have also learned what they don't want to do ;> My projects often involve a combination of science and programming--but there are other groups that have been working on android apps, cryptography, etc.
Generally, my goal (and for my colleagues) isn't to crank work out of students, but rather to give them exposure to research. I try to think of projects that my interns can own--I usually have several possibilities and try to match the students with the project. For our particular program, we pay for housing and a stipend of $5500 for the summer (11 weeks).
For high school students in the area, we also have a summer internship program (which doesn't pay--sorry), but again, I try to provide the students with projects that they can own.
One final thing--we are limited to US citizens...