High-school internship programme opens next phase

After passing the pilot phase, the new programme will now open up to five more countries

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High-school internship programme opens next phase

A student from Norway working with her CERN supervisor as part of the High-School Student Internship Programme (Image: CERN)

2017 marked a success for the newly adopted High-School Student Internship Programme (HSSIP), organised by the CERN Teacher and Student Programme (TSP) section, targeting 16- to 19- year olds.

From each of the participating countries, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Norway, and Portugal, 24 students were selected by a national committee to visit CERN, for a two week-long internship held in their national language.

During their stay, the high-school students got an introduction to the Organization and its technologies and worked closely with their supervisors on assigned projects. The variety of projects included understanding the correlation between raindrops and muons, quench protection systems for the LHC accelerator, science communication in an international laboratory, setting up RFID systems and many more. The results were then summarised by the students during their final presentations.

In total 116 high-school students – 68 boys and 48 girls from the five piloting countries – were the first students in the HSSIP Programme to discover STEM in the CERN context, to strengthen their understanding of science, and develop their skills in a high-tech environment.

“We received excellent feedback from the students, selected countries and involved colleagues and are delighted to have this High-School Student Internship Programme now officially included as part of our educational offer” says Sascha Schmeling, Head of Teacher and Student Programmes at CERN.

Preparations for the next round of HSSIP is already in full swing and the TSP team is looking forward to welcoming high-school students from the Czech Republic, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden for their internship later this year.

The High-School Student Internship Programme aims to complement the education programmes at high-school level, bring students at an early age into close contact with research work and scientists, give them a better understanding of the wide spectrum of career opportunities in a big scientific laboratory such as CERN and allow the students to gain practical experience in science, technology and innovation.


HSSIP is an educational project that can be enhanced within the CERN & Society programme of education & outreach projects, supported by individuals, foundations and commercial entities.

More information about the upcoming programmes and call for applications can be found at: http:// cern.ch/HSSIP