Paid Internships, Courtesy of the Government

While cruising around to see what Ohio's Department of Development has turned into under the new privatization program, this caught my eye: paid internships through the Third Frontier Program.  Third Frontier is Ohio's attempt to nurture high-tech industries in the state.  For those majoring in the sciences or math, who are at least college sophomores and carry at least a 2.5 GPA, there may be paid internships at Ohio firms in high tech. 

For further fun and games, I did a google search with "paid internships" and site:.gov (the site restriction keeps out all those ads from commercial services), and found a passle of programs, if you are willing to do your internship with the government.  If you are interested in law enforcement, the FBI offers paid internships.  The Department of Energy has a few programs--some for law students, and one, the Mickey Leland program--for minorities and women in the sciences.  The CIA has undergraduate internship and co-op programs.  The Agriculture Department has several paid internship positions, including some for Native Americans and Asian Americans. The National Parks Service has paid internships, too, especially in the fields of conservation and history--and they link to a page with even more paid internships in non-federal positions.  The U.S. State Department has a lot of internships and student work opportunities.

Making the Difference, an organization dedicated to public service, has a page with some good tips for searching for federal internships.  As they point out, some agencies will not post on general websites like usajobs.gov.  You should look at the website and job postings of every agency in which you have a subject interest to see if they post internships.