The first time I head about internships was in elementary school when my elementary school class recieved its first Work Experience student teacher.

The young woman that was a college student stayed with us for 30 days in the mornings until lunch, from Monday through Friday. She obnserved for the first few days and then began to help the teacher by doing small tasks. This included typing and copying handouts, passing out papers to the children, grading papers, answering our questions for help, and related activities.

A couple of years later, my class received another Work Experience student that returned as a Student Teacher afterward, for 1 quarter (~10 weeks) at the Ohio State University in the spring. During student teaching, this person handled more and more of the class room activities until they were teaching a full day at a time a couple of days out of the 5 per week spent with us. It was like having an older sibling that knew how to do advanced scince and geography and was a lot of fun. I recall a skit about Mars that was great hilarity in particular.

This Student Teaching Experience is what is known as an Internship outside of the medical field, where an Intern is an Intern for at least a year. The student teacher was practicing and being observed, encouraged, and evaluated by the working classroom teacher, just a doctors and residents observe and evlauate a medical intern.

An internship is a time of paid or unpaid practice at a job for a length of time that provides an opportunity to gather experience and expertise as well as resume material.

In the 21st century, there are also Vocation Vacations in which indiividuals arrange to work for a week or more in an occupation they think they might enjoy and successfully carry out. They do this during a scheduled vacation, usually anywhere form 1 week to 4 weeks in length. These experiences could be considered short internships. They are actually a Work Experience (like the Teaching Expereince mentioned above) and, as such, a part of the larger realm of CAREER EXPLORATION. This exploration is an overall researching and soem trying out of different lines of work in various fields of occupation at various employers.

Many occuational clusters or fields and job titles can be examined through Career Explorration and resume building via an Internship.

DICTIONARY DEFINITION:

in·tern·ship [in-turn-ship] - noun

• any official or formal program to provide practical experience for beginners in an occupation or profession.
• a position as a participant in such a program.
• any period of time during which a beginner acquires experience in an occupation, profession, or pursuit.

The videos and links below provide a wealth of Intership Opportunities and several perspectives on how to gain success on the job as an intern.

Check your local Unversities, Colleges, Community Colleges, and Vocational Programs for listings of Internships in your area. Other resources include your local Board fo Education, County Offices, and City Offices, as well as the Justice System in your areas.

The United National Headquarters, NYC, New York

OBJECTIVE:

1. "to provide a framework by which graduate and post-graduate students from diverse academic backgrounds may be assigned to United Nations offices where their educational experience can be enhanced through practical work assignments;
2. to expose them to the work of the United Nations; and
3. to provide UN offices with the assistance of highly qualified students specialized in various professional fields."

UN Headquarters Secretariat Internships are offered for two months, three times a year: Spring, Summer, and Fall.

The program is ~full-time (unpaid); interns are expected to work five days a week in the department of the Secretariat that selected them, under the supervision of a staff supervisor.

CONDITIONS

Applicants must be enrolled in a graduate degree program, e.g. Masters program level, at the time of application and internship; or

• "Applicants pursuing studies in countries where higher education is not divided into undergraduate/graduate must have completed at least four years of full-time studies at a university or equivalent towards a degree.
• Undergraduates...are not eligible."

LINK: http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/sds/internsh/index.htm

From the FAQ's:

Q:What kind of job will I be requested to do? A:Examples:

• Assistance in drafting and preparing official documents
• Attending and summarizing conferences and meetings
• Document, legal and internet research
• Assistance during conferences
• Working on the web-presentation
• Evaluation of projects
• Compiling statistics
• Media analysis
• Speech-writing