Summer Internships at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Skip to main content
Internships

Summer Internships at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

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Are you a college or graduate student interested in gaining work experience? We offer paid internships in a wide array of disciplines. You'll learn from knowledgeable mentors in a variety of fields, from curatorial research to administration, all in the dynamic atmosphere of Washington, DC. You'll work with distinguished scholars, accomplished professionals, and iconic artifacts in an immersive experience as multifaceted as the Museum itself. APPLY BY JANUARY 31.

Our structured summer internship program provides firsthand experience working in a museum. It's a great introduction to museum work or an opportunity to expand on previous experience. Our 10-week program provides unique professional development opportunities and enrichment activities.

Below are some of the internships available for summer 2025. Visit https://airandspace.si.edu/get-involved/internships for more internships, information, and to apply.

Communications: Communications and Social Media

The intern will work with the Museum’s Office of Communications on a variety of projects related to social media, press, marketing, and digital communications. The intern will work closely with the social media and digital content teams to develop compelling content to promote the museum and share the museum’s collection and expertise with an ever-expanding digital audience. Based on the intern’s individual interests or strengths, the intern will have the opportunity to craft long-form written content (blog posts), written social media content (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), and social video (Instagram Reels, YouTube). The intern will also work with the larger Communications team on marketing museum programs, media and press relations, and filming projects. This will be a hybrid internship, with the intern working at least two to three days in the office at the Museum in Washington, DC. 

Communications: Museum Intranet & Internal Communications

Be a key player in the internal communications processes at one of the nation's most visited museums. As an integral part of the management of our newly redesigned Intranet site, Skynet, this intern will be in a unique situation to learn about internal communications at a large and diverse organization. They will learn about best practices for web management and content creation, gain insight into policies and procedures in all departments of a museum, and become familiar with user experience principles and basic user research.

Education: Teaching Collection Inventory and Policy Review

The National Air and Space Museum’s Education department maintains a teaching collection of objects acquired as surplus from other government agencies such as NASA, received as donations from private entities, or deaccessioned from the Museum’s main collection. These objects are intended to be used in teaching settings but require a higher level of care than other teaching materials and often resemble “traditional” artifacts. In the summer of 2025, the Education department is seeking an intern to help update the existing teaching collection inventory and migrate it to a specialized database. Additionally, the intern will be asked to help develop lending policies to make tracking the use of teaching collection objects in the future more efficient and to help codify the acquisition and disposal process for items.

Education: Gallery Education Programs

Interns will support the research, development, prototyping, and evaluation of new drop-in education programs for the museum’s galleries. Intern projects may support activities designed for a variety of audiences, including families, school-aged, and early-childhood learners, on diverse STEM topics, including astronomy, aviation, human spaceflight, and engineering. Gallery Programs must be designed to be differentiated for audiences of varied ages, backgrounds, and levels and should employ best practices in informal pedagogy, including object-based close-looking; dialogic teaching; opportunities for intergenerational learning; and “hands-on, minds-on” interactions. Intern will work closely with the museum’s cohorts of on-the-floor facilitators, the Explainers and volunteers, and will participate in a variety of departmental programs throughout the summer including special events, reserved programs, and family days. 

Education: Public Programs

Under the supervision and training of the Adult Learning and Digital Content Program Specialist, the Public Programs Intern will assist in the administration, coordination, development, and implementation of public programs at the National Air and Space Museum, including the Museum's mission-driven lectures (Exploring Space lecture, Glenn lecture, and Aviation Adventures lectures), Solstice Saturday, Innovations in Flight, Sally’s Night, among other digital and on-site educational programming. 

NOTE: Being accepted into one of these internships may qualify BYU students to participate in BYU's Washington Seminar.

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