The Lockheed Martin paid internship is once again available for high school students in the Palo Alto Unified School district through the Work Experience program. 

The internship, which is open only to current juniors, requires those interested to submit their transcripts, a letter of recommendation from a teacher, and a resume to an online form.

In order to be eligible, students must have the following: a “strong” ACT or SAT scores, a grade point average above 3.5 and an American citizenship, according to the Work Experience website.

If selected, students must work a minimum of 8 hours a week during the school year and 40 hours a week during summer break from the summer before senior year to the summer after senior year.

The Work Experience website states that selected interns can expect to work in a variety of fields ranging from data analysis to image processing.

According to current Lockheed intern and senior Nicolas Padmanabhan, who studied changes in the sun’s magnetic field as part of his internship, the internship has been a rewarding and novel experience. 

“The internship has been a valuable experience, ” Padmanabhan said. “I’ve learned a lot about the sun and about the many ways in which scientists conduct research and it’s definitely has helped me prepare for the independent research I’ll be doing in college.”

For juniors hoping to be selected for the internship, Padmanabhan recommends that they be genuine and demonstrate a honest interest in the research.

“The people reading your applications are post-doctorates who love what they do, so they want interns who feel the same way,” Padmanabhan said. “You don’t have to be obsessed about astronomy, but you should definitely be interested in studying the natural world with big data, and be driven to do independent research.”

According to Work Experience teacher Theresa McDermott, students can expect to see similar partnerships with other companies in the future.

“We are within walking distance to so many amazing companies here at Paly, so we’re looking to take advantage of that fact and expand on partnerships with large companies similar to the Lockheed internship,” McDermott said.

Instructions to apply can be found here, at the Work Experience website. The deadline for applications closes 3 p.m. March 3rd.