Does NASA offer internships?

Responsible for aeronautics, aerospace research and the civilian space program, NASA is a federal part of the United States government. This independent agency’s mission is to break new ground in the future of space exploration and scientific discoveries. It has been a huge platform for encouraging young minds and giving them various opportunities to come up in their field of interest, especially in aeronautics and aerospace.

Internship programs are a means of generating opportunities, spreading knowledge and work life experiences by creating real work life situations for the learning students. While many grab the chance to learn a lot more about their field of interest through internships, others see it as an opportunity to rise above rather quickly in their career, as these days experience is equivalent to qualifications. No one hires a newbie!

NASA believes in breaking new grounds, as aforementioned. The agency has always made sure to stick by it and thus, has multiple internship programs and grants to provide to skill hungry students all across the globe. It also has fellowships to offer and later, absorbs the dexterous ones out of the lot as employees.

Each internship, fellowship or grant that they offer for research all have their own individual eligibility requirements, including education qualification. In 2018 so far, NASA has brought about the Applied Physics Laboratory Summer Internship, Fellowship in Aerospace History, Fellowship in History of space technology, etc. Pathway Programs by NASA are for recent graduates to be taken into Federal employment; like NASA Pathways Intern Employment Program (IEP), NASA Pathways Recent Graduates Program (RGP), NASA Pathways Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program.

Grants and internships are grouped based on the age group or the education qualification. There is the Undergraduate Student Researchers Program, the largest internship program of all, offering undergrads mentored internships at their centres. Graduate student researchers program on the other hand, grants fellowships and scholarships for master’s and doctoral degrees in the field of science, mathematical and engineering related courses. Furthermore, the Ames Academy is the educational program by NASA emphasizing on the need of group activities, research, creativity and teamwork.

People who have interned here have high work life satisfaction and have put in a good review. There is a day to day standard of work with a lot of opportunities to attend lectures and tour. Make the most of the NASA facilities. The biggest advantage is lots of networking. NASA always provides a paid internship and the amount is pretty hefty for an intern. Through the supervisors, they get immense opportunities to learn and travel around. It is not only for the STEM people but as a whole, NASA is the best place to learn and work. However, the work environment is fast paces and at times, the interns are expected to pick up on the things and work without proper training. Most importantly, it is passion that drives work at NASA. People always look forward to learning new ways of doing things and reaching beyond their current knowledge base!