^^Just a note for those parents who are thinking of having their kids ref soccer games-the parents can be absolutely awful to these kids. They don’t like the call, they don’t care that it’s a 14 year old out there. They will scream and holler at them like they’re heckling an umpire. It’s loathsome. There’s a reason refereeing soccer games pays so well, and in cash.
My 13 year old has been volunteering as a junior teacher/counselor for younger kids at both a martial arts center and at a community chess program. Maybe your son could do something similar with an existing hobby or interest? It has been a great experience for my child to share activities that she already loves with others.
If he has an interest in medicine, he also might be interested in taking some basic courses with your local chapter of the Red Cross.
I don’t know how long ago this was…but times have changed around here. All hospital candy stripers must have a security background check with fingerprinting. And around here, there are so many who want to be volunteers who are over 21, that the hospitals start with these folks first.
Also, many hospitals hope for a longer term commitment than just the summer. There is training involved…which also takes time.
And please don’t worry about your son’s resume building. Anything he does, including house sitting, will build his resume at this point as it shows responsibility.
There are some special programs for youth in the medical field. Highly competitive, and require minimum age 16.
14 is too young for our local hospital and most jobs, however I like the ideas being thrown out for camp counselors, kids league assistants, especially if he is has a sport he’s good at, and some of the other ideas. I particularly like the camp idea because at 14 he’s still pretty much a young kid and would he, himself, have supervision. If he has his lifeguard certification he might be able to do something around pools or lakes. He might be able to help tutor elementary kids through your school district, although many teachers in our area snap those things up for extra pocket change in the summer. ANYTHING 14 year olds do in the summer is enriching…at that age they are rarely fully formed, although in our state at 14 years 9 months, they take drivers training…those were scary mom milestones!
I’m in the Boston area, and yes you need a background check, but when I looked into hospital volunteering recently for my high school aged daughter, you can still volunteer at age 14. Some of the things that were available to her was giving out Easter baskets on the peds ward, and similar stuff for other holidays, putting away toys in the playroom, transporting patients and more.
Soccer ref’ing is a good activity, and around here it’s paid, but I wouldn’t advise a kid to coach unless he knows the game very well. I just can’t see a kid who doesn’t play having the knowledge and confidence to stand up to an irritated parent on a tough call. The exception would be if his town hires kid refs for K-1 soccer. By 2nd or 3rd grade the parents of a lot of kids are already invested in soccer to an extent that they may not tolerate bad calls by even a kid ref.
Although many places won’t take volunteers younger than 16 there are often ways around the rules. For instance, my son wanted to volunteer in middle school, but neither of his top choices, a food pantry and a nonprofit farm, took 12 year olds. He started baking breads for the food program on his own time and delivering them before the doors opened, and I volunteered beside him at the farm until the farmers got comfortable with him coming on his own. Because they saw him around a lot the managers of the food pantry started to ask him to chip in on other things and over time he assumed more and more responsibility. Eventually the pantry’s volunteer coordinator asked him if he wanted a college recommendation, as she assumed he was entering his senior year, and he had to confess that he was a freshman. 
Both jobs went on his resume when he was looking for paid work and the pantry’s volunteer coordinator served as a job reference.
If there aren’t a lot of good opportunities in your community you can always create your own. Mow the lawn of an elderly neighbor. Get some friends to help you on a neighborhood beautification project. Knit hats for chemo patients.
Which reminds me…when I was undergoing chemo I arrived at the infusion center to find a series of paintings lining the windowsill. They were pretty and cheery and imagine my happy surprise when one of the nurses said, “Take one. Every chemo patient gets a free painting today!” It turns out they’d been painted by a local adult painting class who’d donated them to help cheer up people like me… They weren’t great works of art but I took one and it sits in my study today, a reminder of the generosity of strangers during what was a tough time. “Painting for chemo patients” isn’t exactly a standard volunteer activity but it turned out to be a well-appreciated one.
You have to be 15 to get certified as a lifeguard, and obviously be a strong swimmer.
@mathyone agree.
My suggestion to this OP…son should get some experience working with people…camp counselor…or any of the other suggestions given which a 14 year old could get.
Then at age 15, take that lifeguard course…get certification, and also first aid certification and CPR. That will be good for life guarding jobs the summer after his 15th birthday.
Then at age 16, take an EMT B course. I’m not sure what age you need to be to actually ride as an EMT B, and this might vary. Around here, the mbukamce services in the large cities are paid, but the more rural and suburban areas have volunteers with a paid paramedic.
But regardless…anything done NOW…will not be considered at all in medical school…or law school admissions…not at all.
I agree with much of what’s been said already-at 14, and for a kid who doesn’t know what they want to do later in life (and that’s totally normal!), finding a career-goal internship isn’t likely. But depending on where OP lives, there are some options. My city has several organizations that offer career exploration programs, or academics mixed with field trips (one even PAYS kids to attend), or outdoor exploration groups that offer trail repair volunteer options, community centers with free teen classes, and so much more. Anytime a young teen gets to explore new ideas or learn new skills is a plus, because you never know when it might lead to a job, internship or later career choice.
One nephew joined the Civil Air Patrol and is now in the Air Force. My older D had a summer job at a hot dog stand and is now in the restaurant business. My younger D created a volunteer position at a summer camp when she was 13 and is now in college to become a teacher. Her friend did one of those medical exploration classes when she was younger and is working on applying pre-med to top schools this year. My niece tutored and took art classes as a young teen-now she’s a teacher. So many options. None have to be “better” or resume building at 14.
P.S. Around here on,y hospital employees are allowed to transport patients now. Too much liability of something happens.
I also have not seen volunteers transporting patients.
Your 14 year old may or may not eventually pursue a career in medicine. After all, he’s only 14 so who knows what the future holds? However, assuming he does follow the path to medical school, what will differentiate him as an applicant and make him stand out from all those other candidates with great MCAT great and GPAs? The same things that will appeal to undergrad schools as well: unique experiences, interesting hobbies and ECs, volunteer experience, a track record of leadership and responsibility, foreign language skills, etc. None of these equate to an internship in the medical profession at the age of 14, 16, 18 years of age, if you could find a meaningful one anyway. But, volunteering for a community based program servicing local refugees or the Special Olympics or your local food bank or senior center will, working as a junior counselor at a camp will, working on increasing knowledge of Spanish will, perfecting that artistic or musical ability will, starting a odd jobs or lawn mowing or pet sitting business for you neighbors will. The other beauty of doing age appropriate activities like these are that the experiences and skills one gains are transferable to other careers should your child decide that a medical profession doesn’t fit their interests or skill set and they decide they want to aim for one of the thousands of other careers out there that they don’t even know about at the age of 14.
Good Grief!
hes only 14 years old! Relax…
Since he qualified perhaps you could send him to 2 CTY camps, or to a computer camp to learn coding .
If he is not already in HS, no college cares about what 14 year old does during the summer, and “volunteering” at that age in order to have it show up on a his resume is a ridiculous concept.
patience…
Actually, he’s currently 13. Mom’s looking for opportunities for next summer when he’ll be 14.
Your kidding me, how did I miss that, I thought he was 14 right now…13 is an even younger boy. If 13, I’d say dog walking, lawn mowing, that sort of thing. At 13 I helped a ballet teacher with her 8 and unders class in exchange for dance lessons and at 13 my H swept halls and did yardwork at an apartment building owned by his parents, so there are outlier ideas, but 13 is just really too young for much that is meaningful in the “work” genre.
My kids did pet sitting in middle school.
OP, please don’t pressure your kid by thinking he needs to “build a resume” at age 13-14. Seriously, relax. Let him explore things he enjoys and enjoy still being a kid. And don’t turn him into one of those kids who post on here desperate and absolutely miserable because parents are pressuring them to become a doctor and they hate the idea. Here’s the latest one: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1912359-i-dont-want-to-be-a-doctor-p1.html
Thank you so much for all your responses. I took careful note of every suggestion you gave me and have almost a year to go though all the information so he can take the right decision next summer. My son is the one that says he wants to go to medical school mainly because his aunty is a cardiologist in California. But I don’t know if he’ll stick with that when he applies to college. He can choose anything he wants. Is his life.
I’ve been looking for a STEM camp or research where he could work with a science teacher at his school, as kac425 suggested. My son says he would like to participate as a helper in a Chemistry lab. I’ve emailed several science and STEM teachers in our school district with no success. The school counselor has no idea and the principal doesn’t care…
Some of you say that his 9th grade camp will be irrelevant when he applies to medical school(if he applies). I disagree. Going to college is like a ladder. You go step by step. If he’s able to participate in a STEM project or camp, then for the summer of 2018(his 10th grade) he may be able to qualify for a summer science or STEM camp at a university. There are several summer science programs here that are very difficult to qualify. One of them accepts only 10% of applicants for summer research. But if he’s accepted he can participate in advanced research with a professor. Then he can present his research at a local science fair or any of the other state science fairs. This of course if he wants to. I don’t pressure him. He wanted to do 2CTYs as menloparkmom suggested, but I told him 6 weeks of intensive studies is too much for the summer. So if we have money we’ll send him for only 3 weeks next summer.
Teen Court is another option. The minimum age is 14 so he qualifies. These are for class C misdemeanors. They start by being jurors but then they can become teen prosecutors and defense attorneys. Its a great experience. twogirls mentioned this.
PR, first aid, EMT are great suggestions. Thank you thumper1.
Red Cross! Thank you mamaedefamilia
Tutoring elementary kids. Thank you momofthreeboys
Candy Striper, I learned a new word! Thnk you preppedparent
Painting for chemo patients. Beutiful story. Thank you Sue22. Hope you get well.
Natural history museum. It’s good that the kids decided by themselves they wanted to work at a museum, but it doesn’t happen all the time. Sometimes they need some guidance to choose.
Computer lab, thank you mnm111
Bakery story, thank you.
Civil Air Patrol, thank you sseamom
sadd, key clubs
CIT at day camps
Day care
Senior center
life guard
“I don’t want to be a doctor”, great thread. Poor boy 
Thank you mathyone
soccer ref. This is great. My son did lines man but on close calls the parents would get upset with him.
Maybe using the word “internship” in the subject was the wrong word, but english is my second language and that’s the first word that came to my mind.
You might disagree, but more experienced posters here are saying that a 14 yo’s STEM camp isn’t going to get him into college, and it’s probably not going to make or break an internship at Jax labs either.
If you have a family friend who is a doctor or a lawyer, they might be open to letting him “shadow” for a day or more.