High school students seek out internships to explore potential career pathways, gain real-world experience and prepare for college admissions and beyond. Internships are part-time, learning-focused work experiences that can be either paid or unpaid, offering students opportunities to expand their horizons and build a network of professional connections.

As a booming business hub, Nashville offers a wide range of opportunities for students with different interests and career aspirations. The city is a major cultural center, even sometimes called the music capital of the world (and the bachelorette party capital of the U.S.) Nashville’s diversified economy has historically been strong in entertainment and healthcare, and now has an expanding technology sector as well. Employment and economic growth have increased dramatically in recent years, with Regions Bank reporting that between 2019 and 2024, Nashville placed third for cumulative job growth among U.S. metro areas with populations exceeding 1 million.

This article highlights three motivated high school students who participated in internships in Nashville that shaped their unique passions – law, music, and medicine. The students answered key questions: How do people attain these jobs? What are the benefits of internships? And what can other students learn from these inspiring experiences?

Saray Carvajal

A senior at Hume Fogg High School, Saray Carvajal undertook a paid internship at the Nashville Public Defender’s Office in the summer of 2024. She found the internship through the POWER Youth organization, where Saray worked specifically under her assigned public defender mentor, Esperanza Yanez.

Saray became interested in the law because her family has had to go through legal processes as first-generation Hispanic immigrants. She was interested in an experience that tied into what her family had gone through and eventually found this through a school announcement for POWER Youth. The application process involved interviewing with the public defenders’ office. The internship was competitive, with only two spots available, and was only offered to those aged 16 and up due to the emotionally mature topics.

Saray explained that the Nashville Public Defender’s Office specifically helps indigent individuals, or people who receive government-assigned public defenders because they cannot afford a private criminal defense lawyer. A large component of her job was transferring physical paper records into a digital database, but what Saray loved most was watching her mentor, Esperanza, in proceedings. 

While she could not share specific details due to privacy, Saray described how she felt while Esperanza defended a wide variety of cases and listened when they talked through the case and their side of the story. Her mentor consistently made sure that her clients’ voices were heard.

When asked about her takeaways from the experience, Saray explained.

“It was just interesting to hear how there are multiple sides to one story. It really changed my perspective on the criminal aspect of the law in the sense that truly, everyone deserves a fair shot at being represented and telling their story.” 

She continued to explain the importance of having an open and unbiased perspective before actually getting to talk to the individual who’s facing the charge or in the circumstance.

“A lot of our previous judgments and biases are caused by social media. So, I think that the individuals who are charged with the crimes often face judgement before they’re even declared guilty. And that’s a foundation that the courts are highly based on: The rule is that you are innocent until proven guilty.” 

She emphasized the importance of compassion, saying “not everything is what it seems. A lot of these individuals are from poor communities and face some type of obstacle or something in their life that has caused them to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and unfortunately do something.”

Finally, Saray shared a profound piece of advice for other young people looking for internships. “Always be compassionate and always be caring no matter who the person is, and be yourself. Show genuine interest in wanting to expand your perspectives and horizons.” She emphasized how her own internship shaped her personal views, saying, “I do think I had a very different perspective of criminal defense before I went into the public defender’s office and came out with a whole new perspective, so just be open-minded.”

Anne-Marie Dougall

Anne-Marie Dougall has been a singer-songwriter since the age of 12. Now a junior at Harpeth Hall School, she is determined to become a professional musician and has concluded that the best way to learn about the music business is through publishing.

This January, Anne-Marie interned in music publishing at Reservoir Media, an independent music rights company with offices all over the world. She interned under John Ozier, who serves as Reservoir Media’s Executive Vice President of Creative and the president of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) chapter in Nashville. Harpeth Hall’s “Winterim” program encourages juniors and seniors to apply to an off-campus internship, either in Nashville or a different city, and Anne-Marie was able to submit an application and resume to Mr. Ozier through a school connection. She worked unpaid for three weeks from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day. 

While many of her classmates were eager to take out-of-state internships, Anne-Marie loved working in Nashville because, “I got to explore a new part of Nashville. And I got to see a whole different industry I’d never really been exposed to before and go to different parts of the city, even though I’ve lived here my whole life. It was almost like seeing Nashville as a tourist.”

Anne-Marie explained that every day was different as she shadowed Mr. Ozier. Some days, she sat in on meetings with different artists — she heard from established artists, up-and-coming pop artists, people who had not been signed yet and songwriters. She also had the opportunity to sit in on song pitch meetings and listen to demos, hearing decisions on what artist to pitch each song to. They left the building sometimes as well, visiting studios and exhibits at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Finally, while interning, Anne-Marie challenged herself to write one song per day.

Brimming with new knowledge, Anne-Marie shared information that she learned, including that the employees all had specific music business degrees. She also described the way the song demo process works — Reservoir Media owns the rights to unreleased songs from songwriters who have passed away and can pitch those songs to new artists. From other friends who took Winterim internships, Anne-Marie learned that every job setting is very different. Reservoir Media was very relaxed because a large part of the work setting is creating a comfortable place for artists to create songs, so the overall feel was not strict or harsh.

Anne-Marie’s most important piece of advice to people looking for internships is “always put yourself out there and do not be afraid to ask, because if you don’t ask, the chances of anything interesting happening are zero. If you ask, at least it could possibly happen. For example, I got to meet people in the industry that would’ve taken a miracle for me to meet otherwise, but I just simply asked, and my host was able to do it.”

Bea Robbins

Bea Robbins, a senior at Harpeth Hall, has long been drawn to both medicine and language. This past January, she found the perfect way to combine both passions through an internship at Siloam Health. She interned under Abby Chiles, the clinic’s Volunteer & Development Manager.

Siloam Health is a faith-based nonprofit clinic that provides healthcare to people who are uninsured and underserved, especially immigrants; their patients come from over 80 countries and speak more than 50 languages. Bea loves speaking Spanish and hopes to pursue a career in medicine, so the clinic felt like the ideal place to learn. 

Like Anne-Marie, Bea connected with Siloam Health through Harpeth Hall’s “Winterim” program and quickly immersed herself in all aspects of the clinic. As a nonprofit, the clinic offers many opportunities for individuals to become involved and volunteer. For nearly a month, Bea worked weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and each day brought new experiences and meaning. She rotated through clinic support, patient relations, and shadowing experiences with both doctors and Spanish interpreters, including Rich Moore, who has been volunteering at the clinic for the past three years. Bea gained a firsthand look at the many moving parts of clinical life.

What the internship taught Bea about herself was a big surprise for her. As she worked in patient relations, she realized she preferred being constantly active and interacting with people over sitting at a computer all day. She explained, “I’m glad that I learned that about myself: I would much rather be standing for eight hours a day than sitting for four.” The experience strengthened her excitement about pursuing a future in medicine, and she continues to hope that she can blend language into her future career as well.

Her favorite part of the experience was near the end of her internship when she got the opportunity to work as the interpreter herself under supervision from an adult; Bea described that interpreting Spanish in a real-world setting was much different than translating the language from a text in a classroom. She admitted that by the end of the month, she probably knew the Spanish word for every single body part.

Ultimately, Bea left Siloam Health with a stronger sense of confidence. Her advice to others was “don’t be afraid to go above and beyond, and ask lots of questions.” Thanks to the kindness of the staff and the meaningful connections she built with patients, Bea described the internship as an experience she will never forget.

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Saray’s, Anne-Marie’s and Bea’s internships gave them real-world experiences and shaped their opinions and perspectives on various industries. From her internship at the public defender’s office, Saray learned not only the complexities of criminal defense but also the importance of unbiased representation. At Reservoir Media, Anne-Marie followed her lifelong passion for music and took the initiative to ask for opportunities. Finally, Bea was able to speak Spanish, pursue medicine, and serve under-resourced immigrants at Siloam Health.

Internships are not limited to experiences in law and music; whether pursuing one’s longtime dreams like Anne-Marie, discovering the importance of open-mindedness like Saray, or combining multiple interests like Bea, any passionate student can discover so many opportunities in Nashville through organizations like POWER Youth, local institutions like the Nashville Public Library, or online sources like LinkedIn or job boards. If a student has a particular interest in mind, they should research local leaders in the field and not be afraid to reach out to them directly; as the three students have shown, many professionals in Nashville are eager to share their expertise with and mentor excited high-school students.