Smithsonian Internships
Sorry; Smithsonian doesn’t offer any internships in piloting aircraft. But people may not realize that
there are a lot of other opportunities on offer for students with an interest in air and space, spanning a wide range of educational backgrounds and future career interests.
From now until January 31, 2025, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) is accepting applications for its PAID summer internships for college and graduate students. All the information is available here: https://
airandspace.si.edu/get-involved/internships.
These are 10-week-long, full-time positions with the museum, providing a $7,500 stipend to recipients. They run the gamut from projects in planetary geology and spectroscopic analysis to social media communications, graphic design for marketing and publications, military archival research to support new gallery exhibits, and developing education programs. Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway!), work experience with the Smithsonian looks very good on a resume when students apply for future real-world jobs – possibly including permanent museum positions!
The museum also has its Explainers Program, offering longer-term, part-time positions for both high school and college students. Full information on the Explainers Program is available here https://airandspace.si.edu/getinvolved/student-jobs. Explainers engage museum visitors of all ages with
hands-on activity carts and interactive demonstrations on such aerospace topics as how airplanes fly, how being in space affects humans, and how gravity affects light. Trust me, the best way to reinforce your own learning on a subject is to try teaching it to someone else!
College-level Explainer positions open for applications on the first day of each month, closing on the fifteenth. High school-level positions recruit seasonally, with the next batch of applications opening February 15, 2025, until March 15, 2025, for positions tentatively scheduled to begin this summer. Explainers need to be at least 16 years old and enrolled in a degree-granting or diploma program, maintaining a GPA of at least 2.7. Once hired, they must maintain active status by working at least 15 hours each month. Positions are available at both the museum in DC and at the
Udvar-Hazy Center. The moral of the story here is that educational and job opportunities are everywhere; be creative when you look for them!
Mary Dominiak
