I am 15 years old and I am very interested in the fields of Law and Political Science, and I am extremely zealous about obtaining some sort of relevant work experience. I was thinking about looking around for a law-related internship for several reasons as follows: 1. Sounds super fun. 2. I will have something to fill up my summer. 3. Work/Internship/Volunteering experience. 4. Put on college app.
However, looking around online, it is apparent that very few internships are even offered to high school students, particularly in the field of law, and particularly a high school student that is 15 years old. I understand that finding some sort of official, explicit “internship” opportunity in the field of law will be literally impossible to obtain as a 15 year old. So, I was wondering if it would be a good idea if I just went around to random law firms and asked if I could just help out around there. Obviously I would be unpaid and obviously the chances that any law firm would even accept me are slim.
Still, unless CC has some better ideas, suggestions, or reasons why I should not do this, I plan on touring the law offices of my area in a few weeks, asking if I could volunteer at their office and just help out around the place. I am conscious of the fact that I will be doing almost exclusively making coffee, making copies, printing, etc., stuff that I would most likely be doing at any internship at age 15, but I still want to attempt to land this type of role at a law firm.
Do you guys think this is a good idea? What do you think are the chances that any of them take me are? Do you have any suggestions on how to ask them, in terms of manner, wording, appearance, etc? Do I need a resume? Do I need a work permit. I have never worked officially before, or volunteered before. Will this affect me negatively? I mean I am 15 yo after all.
(Also, on the off chance that I get taken under the wing, would it be alright to list the work on college apps as an “internship?” If not, what would I even call it?)
I mean, I got an internship when I was a 14 (a week before my internship) that lasted a month. It was a medical internship so I only got that by contacting a doctors who would be willing and that my parents knew or could contact. It was really difficult to get that but the experience was unforgettable.
My GC said that “Internship” would truly be the only suitable word to put on a resume or college application…
I don’t know how you would find a law internship, as I can imagine those would be much more difficult to find. I gave up on online sources a week after starting my search for summer activities. Do you know a lawyer or do your parents? What about connections that your High School has made over the years?
I just started a paid internship as a 16-year old, at a dental lab, for the semester. I can imagine that many places would be hesitant to hire someone so young, and I’d assume it’d be difficult to find an internship at a law firm.
For the next political race, you can get an internship easily.
They always need more work to get done, especially since it would be free.
Maybe not 2015, but for 2016 you could easily get one for the summer, I know a few kids who have for the 2014 races.
You will definitely learn a lot, the only problem could be if you are running with a Democratic/Republic governor and the admissions officer is starkly on right/left wing.
I don’t honestly think colleges or employers consider “internships” by high school students to be much use/very interesting experiences. You are highly unlikely to be more than a coffee maker/copy maker at the age of 15. I do agree that for the next political cycle in 2016, you can definitely get some experience on a campaign – either for a candidate or for a ballot issue you are interested in. That will really heat up summer of 2016, though.
If you’re interested in political science, you should definitely volunteer at a campaign, as @intparent said. I know quite a few people who have done so as freshmen in high school or even younger.
Eh, I had an internship at my library’s tech dept. (I had done a lot of regular volunteer work there prior) and it was actually pretty good; while I did do a lot of tedious copying and labeling, I also did some interesting stuff like work with linux distros on chromebooks, generally screw around with google products, raspberry pi’s, web design stuff, and this really expensive archival-quality scanner, as well as general hardware solutions like cheapest way to incorporate software on PCs (we went all open-source), etc.
Alright. As I thought, work experience at a law firm is unlikely. I really do not mind just making coffee and copies, as opposed to not having an opportunity to be at a law firm at all though…
I will consider the advice regarding the campaign volunteering, however. That sounds very interesting and for some reason I just never considered. How do you even go about doing something like that though? I have never really heard about kids at my school, or anywhere near me, finding a way to go legitimately help during the political race. How do you go about doing that?
I harbor mightily far-left and democratic viewpoints, if that is relevant, in case anyone would do me the honor of pointing me in the direction of a website or something?