High Schoolers Can Apply For Paid Summer Internships At DDC

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS -- High schoolers citywide can now apply for a paid summer internship with the NYC Department of Design and Construction in a variety of programs, which may even include a virtual reality option this year.

The DDC is accepting applications for its High School Summer Internship Program, designed for students interested in architecture, engineering, building, administration or information technology careers. Each year, the DDC and the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development select 30 students for the paid six-week internship, said Lee Llambelis, director of the DDC's Community Partnership and STEAM Initiatives.

High school students work out of the department's Long Island City office during the summer internships, where they'll attend structured career workshops, take field trips DDC construction sites and work on a long-term project to display by the end of the summer, Llambelis told Patch. One of those projects last year was creating a bioswale - landscaping designed to remove silt or pollution from runoff water, she said.

"They get paired up with a professional in the office working in their field," she said.

The high school internships are part of the DDC's's STEAM Initiatives - short for Science, Technology, Art/Architecture and Mathematics - which launched in 2014 to get young New Yorkers interested in those career fields, Llambelis told Patch. The program gives young people exposure to STEAM curriculum as early as middle school.

"We've engaged over 1,800 students from middle school to college in the STEAM programming since it started," Llambelis said

Middle school programs make up the largest chunk of those students. The DDC works with the city's DYCD and education department to offer STEAM curriculum in DYCD's after-school programs for middle school students.

The high school summer internship is a more focused version of that program, Llambelis said. Students apply to the program through the city's Ladders For Leaders or Summer Youth Employment programs. The DDC and DYCD then select 30 participants from public and private schools across NYC in an application lottery.

Students are then sorted into various curriculums under the STEAM program and paid for their work over the summer through the DYCD, Llambelis said. Since the initiative began in 2015, 82 students have completed its programs, she said.

Llambelis said the department hopes to add a virtual reality curriculum to its list of programs by this summer, which would teach kids the basics of coding and how virtual reality can be used in different architecture and building trade careers.

"It gives them the opportunity to see a building before it's built and identify problems, which eliminates the cost of finding out something is a problem after its built," Llambelis said.

The six-week internship program runs from July 5 to Aug. 10. The DDC is accepting applications for its 2018 high school summer internship program through Jan. 5. Visit the department's website to submit an application or learn more about the program.

Lead photo via NYC Department of Design and Construction. Interns take a field trip to a DDC project.