NIH Office of Communications and Public Liaison Summer Internship Program

The NIH Office of Communications and Public Liaison (OCPL) Communications Summer Internship Program is a 12-week program for rising undergraduate juniors and seniors, as well as graduate students, interested in the health and science communications field. Our summer interns learn how various communications programs function and receive on-the-job training for reporting on NIH events, communicating science to the public, and more.

This is a paid internship on NIH’s main campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

Possible areas of focus include:

  • Strategic communication planning and implementation
  • Management, content creation, and strategy for NIH.gov and Salud.nih.gov
  • Content creation and strategy for NIH social media platforms
  • Media relations
  • Writing and editing press releases and other media products
  • Content development, including biomedical graphics, for the NIH Director’s speeches and blog
  • Video production
  • Tours and management of special events
  • Internal communications
  • Responding to questions and comments from the public via Ask NIH
  • Management of Freedom of Information Act requests
  • Spanish language communications
  • Creation, design, and distribution of NIH OCPL publications:

The 2025 internship will be announced on USAJobs in early 2025 and promoted on Handshake. We recommend you create a USAJobs profile and prepare your resume in advance; the announcement is often open for only a few days, per government policy. You can also set up email notifications from USAJobs for certain search criteria.

Applications must be received via USAJobs to be considered.

With any questions about the internship, email odocplinquiries@nih.gov

This page last reviewed on September 23, 2024