<p>construction,</p>
<p>Hi, I am definitely NOT Suze. She posted as a student here who went to prep school. </p>
<p>I have been on CC for five years and am a parent and have only posted as SoozieVT and I am the person who Cheers was referring to when she wrote "soozie's D".</p>
<p>You are in high school, yes? I think for a high school student, if you want an internship, it is more likely to be either unpaid or with a stipend as you don't yet have the background for a regularly paying job in this field. The objective would be to learn all you can on the job, to observe what architects do, and to learn and apply new skills, and to see if this is the field for you before committing to further studies or to get a sense of direction as you map out your college education. Seek paying jobs outside of this but the internship has another objective.</p>
<p>It is a little late for this summer, in my opinion but see what you can do. Be aware that some advertised internships in the field of architecture are referring to the internships/apprenticeships for those who have their arch degree in hand. It can be confusing in some listings when you see the word "intern" in this field, in my opinion. You want to make sure you are applying for jobs seeking a STUDENT Intern. But a high school student may not be what they mean even then. </p>
<p>When my D was a junior in high school contemplating the field of architecture, she took a year long independent study for credit to learn some arch skills under the supervision of a teacher in the school (basically the Industrial Arts teacher). She also had part of her summer available to undertake an internship to explore the field further and to gain experience. She was in a program unrelated to this in Europe for a month and then had lined up an arch internship for when she got back (summer prior to senior year). The way she secured that internship is she blindly wrote several architects in our rural community. While we live in rural area, there happens to be many architects who live here (their projects are not confined to this area, however). She explained her interest and skills in a letter. Several offered her an opportunity to be an intern, even though they were not seeking interns. She ended up interning in a small office and the architect (a woman architect, by the way, though her husband is also an architect) gave her actual architectural work to do, not busy work. She got a bunch out of this experience and was paid a small stipend. Pay was not her objective. She has done other jobs to get pay. You also could, for instance, intern for an architect during the day, and be a waiter at night to save up money for the car. </p>
<p>Now, she is a rising senior in college in a BA in Architecture program, and will be applying in the fall to grad schools for a MArch degree. She is interning this summer in an arch firm. Even as a college student, these are not that easy to get, particularly if not in a BArch or MArch program. The job she did get was one she applied to blindly without any notice of any internships or openings. She had found an internship online for a firm in NYC (with offices in a few other major US cities) and was applying to that internship but noticed when visiting the website that the firm has an office in Paris. She blindly sent off a letter, in French, and her resume to the office in Paris asking if they would consider an intern. They were interested and asked for her portfolio. She sent it and they hired her and she leaves to go there in about a week. So, some internships, like both of hers in either HS or college, can be obtained by writing blindly without even hearing of an opening. </p>
<p>As well, you have to look for listings online too. But as rick said, often young people get their first break or summer internship through some sort of networking or connection, though that was not the case with my daughter. I notice that is the case for many young people, however. In the case of her summer internship in high school, however, while there was no connection or favor involved, it is a small enough community that the architect knew who my D was, though not very well. In the case of her summer internship in college, it was very blind, and in fact, in another country all together! </p>
<p>You could ask around in your community and who knows architects, etc. or do like my D did at your age and write the ones in the phone book (granted our phone book is quite small in a rural area).</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>PS, I don't know that "Suze" was a "true chancer" on CC. Frankly, I am not into the "chances" posts on CC as in many cases, the person asking for chances isn't sharing nearly enough information and the person offering the evaluation is a lay person or even another student, as Suze professed to be. I am a "true chancer" so to speak in that I am a college counselor and evaluate a prospective students' chances at colleges as one facet of my job. :D</p>