Research internship for a senior?

I am a senior. For the past two years, I have been trying to get a research position for solar cell nano research. I have contacted professors at Penn State and a local university with no luck. I stopped trying to find one after COVID hit in March. In terms of qualifications, I have spent the past few semesters taking college courses in physics, nanoscience, chemistry, and calculus. Does anyone have any out of the box ideas on how to approach finding a research internship?

Do some research. Find out companies within a reasonable distance of you as well as universities and take down the emails of the necessary contacts from each institution. Make a short but convincing email template and email each one of them and wait to hear back.

Something like:

Dear _______,

My name is _________ and I am a Senior at _______ High School looking for an apprentice or intern position that allows me to learn about and research Solar Cell Nano research. I have been eager to learn about the subject and have taken _______ classes at _____ college to further my knowledge.

I’ve done some research on you and your company and I would love to know if you had any sort of opening for some extra help. If you have some time, I’d love to take you to coffee (if your areas covid situation permits) or talk to you over the phone about this.

Thank you,


Follow up after a week if you hear no response. Give that a try and see how it goes!

Thanks! I have heard about people sending 100+ emails to get a response. I will try this out regardless.