Blog: City Blog

Summer in the City Internships: 'Great Opportunity for Young People to be Empowered'

This summer, look for a lot of fresh faces and fresh ideas throughout City government.

The 30 Summer in the City paid interns - ages 17 to 22 - are offering their talent, insights, brain power and muscle to 16 departments. It's a win-win for the City and for the interns.

Welcome, 2022 Summer in the City interns!

"The Summer in the City paid internship program is a great opportunity for young people to be empowered - that's our whole aim," says Kathy D. Mack, Community Engagement Manager in the City's Office of Community Empowerment.

"Engaging high-performing and high-potential youth over the summer provides them with uncommon opportunities that will promote personal and professional development. The transferable skills they learn this summer will be beneficial to them, no matter what they want to do in their next job experience.

"But, uniquely, Summer in the City introduces young people to ways to serve the public through local government, and it places them in the pipeline for City employment if that appeals to them as a career choice."

Besides the summer pay, and the door-opening potential... does the internship help the young people in other ways?

Meet Jamar Coach, who interned in the City Communications Department in 2017.

City Social Media Manager Paige Travis and 2017 Summer in the City intern Jamar Coach connected at the 40th anniversary World's Fair Park celebration last month.

City Social Media Manager Paige Travis and 2017 Summer in the City intern Jamar Coach strike a pose at World's Fair Park; they reconnected at the 40th anniversary World's Fair Park celebration last month.

Coach worked with Communications Department staffers Paige Travis, Eric Vreeland, Traci McDonell and others. He wrote blog posts for the City website and handled fact-gathering assignments that summer five years ago. It affirmed his interest in news, writing and communications.

Now, he's a photo intern at knoxnews.com, about to graduate from the University of Tennessee with a degree in journalism and electronic media.

"The internship definitely helped confirm I was where I wanted to be, doing what I wanted to be doing," Coach says. "As a teenager, there's not a lot of opportunities to get experience related to journalism, but as an intern I was able to go do interviews out in the field. It was hands-on experience."

This summer's 30 interns will work 30 hours a week for eight weeks, getting paid $10 an hour.

While this summer's program is full, applications will be accepted next spring for summer 2023 internships. More information is available HERE.

Posted by evreeland On 09 June, 2022 at 3:19 PM