Hurrah for the Youth Movement!

Every summer, a team of enthusiastic high school and college student interns bring their energy, brawn and fresh ideas to the City County Building, the Public Works Service Center, KAT's Knoxville Station, and other workplaces. 

The youngsters benefit with pay and meaningful work experience. The City benefits from new perspectives and helps shape an abundance of budding talent.

A hearty welcome to the 21 Summer in the City 2024 interns, who will be billowing the sails of 19 City departments and partner agencies!

"The Summer in the City intern program offers Knoxville youth a paid opportunity to work and spend time in City government," says Emily B. Norris, Youth Engagement Coordinator in the Office of Community Empowerment. "They will hone skills that they will use in the future - either with the City as a future full-time employee, or with another employer.

"We love embedding the Summer in the City interns. They exude joy and excitement, so they're great to have as co-workers. But they're also innovators and problem-solvers - they bring us so many great ideas each summer."

The 16- to 22-year-olds will work 30 hours a week for eight weeks, getting paid $15 an hour.

Meanwhile, the Community Empowerment staff works hard to assure that the hosting departments are well-prepared to make the interns' experiences impactful and memorable. And a key part of that is collectively sharpening employee groups' listening and communications skills.

After all, young teenagers might naturally communicate their thoughts and ideas much differently than, say, a 25-year-old college graduate.

Here are some photos from a staff training session for the Summer in the City mentors. In this exercise, one person had to communicate about shapes and designs, and his or her partner, without seeing the visuals or being able to ask questions, had to recreate a sketch of it.