Students in the 2019-2020 Pay It Forward cohort tour the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. At the end of the tour, Miquel Moe '03, Payload Commodity Risk Assessment Engineer at NASA, spent time with the students talking about his career path, the importance of internships and how Poly helped prepare him for success. Poly is grateful to those who support the Pay It Forward program and help make experiences like this possible for our scholars.

Creating Students for the Workforce and Preparing the Workforce for our Students!

Having the experience of an internship not only helps students discover their career aspirations, but it undoubtedly offers access, exposure, and opportunity! Typically college students participate in internships, but here at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute High School we are maintaining our pioneering reputation by providing internships in no other than STEM and business related fields to our students.

Per the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute Foundation, Inc.’s new program, Pay It Forward, several Poly students were placed this summer at notable companies such as: BG&E, Whiting Turner, CMR Engineering, EN Engineering and the Baltimore City Health Department. Pay It Forward’s creator Mike Chesser (class of 1966) explains, “Pay it forward has strong support from Poly alumni who are so appreciative of the head start the school gave us in our own careers. We are investing time and money - including mentoring and recruiting companies.”

This past summer interns learned the process of project planning, how to operate a CAD system, and other valuable life and work experiences. In fact one of our interns explained “During the summer, I analyzed hundreds of drawings of how a building is going to be built. I saw the civil engineering drawings, plumbing drawings, architecture drawings and other drawings involving engineering. I love working in this professional environment. It is so much fun, and I am being exposed to so much that will help me in the future!”

The internships provide hands-on professional experiences as well as expose future generations to 21st Century careers thus continuing to deepen and strengthen Poly’s legacy of feeding a pipeline of young people interested in STEM. Pay It Forward knows that providing real opportunities and access to our city’s young people empowers them to set higher goals, take risks, explore diverse career options, and ultimately innovate and achieve with excellence!

Pay It Forward Program Director: Kevin Armstrong '05

Contact: Email Kevin Armstrong

Application timeframe: Applications for 2022 are due by January 17, 2022.

Thank you for your interest.