Celebrating Future Leaders | National Intern Day

Next National Intern Day Thursday, 31 July 2025

National Intern Day is celebrated every year on the last Thursday in July, It recognizes people of all ages who are working as interns to try to get their foot in the door of their dream careers. Some of them will become the leaders of the future. Internships can be difficult, tiring, and don't often pay well, so today we honor those who are working hard for their dreams. National Intern Day also encourages companies to appreciate their hardworking interns and show them the recognition they deserve.

History of National Internship Day

National Intern Day was founded by WayUp in 2017 with the goal of creating a holiday to recognize and appreciate the hard work of interns. Since its inception, the holiday has gained recognition and participation from companies, interns, and professionals across various industries.

Over the years, National Intern Day has evolved into a platform that not only celebrates interns but also provides resources, tips, and guidance for companies to create meaningful internship experiences. WayUp, as the driving force behind the holiday, has expanded its efforts to promote internships as valuable opportunities for career development.

The facts behind hospitalization

In America, internships are a popular way of exploring potential career paths, in fact, it is estimated that anywhere between 300,000 and a million students enter internship programs each year.
The number has varied due to many factors, including Covid-19. It has been estimated that before the pandemic up to 60% of students entered internship programs, that number dropped to just 21.5% in 2021. This is no surprise since the majority of programs did not run during this time.
The average age of an intern is 17 years.
completing an Internship can increase the chance of you finding work by 16%
Internship programs are more popular with women, with 58.0% of interns being female as opposed to 42.0% being male.

Where to Intern

With internships becoming more popular, it can be challenging to decide where to work. To help you understand the opportunities available, the company behind National Intern Day, WayUp, produces a table of the best 100 internship programs each year, based on criteria that include inclusiveness, compensation, and career development potential.

Some of the highest ranking internship programs for the year 2023-24 are NASA Research, Google, Microsoft Engineering, Apple Summer, Goldman Sachs Global, Morgan Stanley, SpaceX, McKinsey, CIA, J.P. Morgan, Meta, Tesla, BlackRock, Dow Jones/ Wall Street Journal, Berkshire Hathaway, Deloitte, Disney Animation Studios, NFL, IBM, NBA, The World Bank, Amazon, Bloomberg, Intel, and Nike.

Success, Challenges, and Future Trends of Internships

Internships play a significant role in developing the careers of budding professionals, offering hands-on experience and industry insights. However, everything comes with challenges and many interns are burdened with unpaid roles, which is basically just exploitation.

Additionally, transitioning from a structured educational environment to the fast-paced and competitive professional world can be very challenging and requires adaptability and resilience.

There are several mentorship programs available now in navigating these challenges as they offer support, guidance, and valuable networking opportunities, helping them build necessary skills and confidence.

Companies prioritize diversity and inclusion in internships, creating inclusive environments. Tech trends like virtual internships and flexible work arrangements shape future internships, aligning with evolving needs.

Why do we celebrate National Intern Day

Although interns are usually young people just out of college, there can also be older interns who are trying out a change of career in their dream field.

In any case, interns are a big asset for companies as they offer a fresh set of eyes, and they arrive with big ideas on how to improve businesses. They are the leaders of the future, and as such, they are very valuable. When interns come into a company straight out of school, they have the ability to put their newly learned skills to use and implement changes and upgrades to the business, while also having knowledge of how the industry is changing and evolving.

Interns are crucial when it comes to bringing companies into the 21st century, but very often their work goes unrecognized and unpaid. National Intern Day aims to change that and give interns the honor they deserve.

Celebrating National Intern Day is also great for companies as a whole, as it helps keep employees happy, and strengthens employee relationships, which in turn can help improve productivity.

How to Celebrate National Intern Day

There are many ways to celebrate this day and recognize the internals in your life. You can check the WayUp website for resources, and tips, and to nominate your Internship Program for the Top 100 list. Here are some other tips on how to celebrate National Intern Day.

If you're an employer, you can,

Start by showing gratitude and appreciation for the interns in your company, and for everything they do daily to help improve your business, no matter how big or small their tasks are. By feeling recognized, they will be extra motivated to do a good job.
Nominate some of your most hardworking interns for the National Intern Day Awards.
Offer your interns some free mentorship sessions on how to succeed in your field towards a great future career.
Have an office party, in honor of your interns, with food and drinks for everyone.
Encourage your other employees to help out the interns, and to show them appreciation.

If you're an intern, have a talk with other interns you know about the work you're doing, and exchange tips on how you can make yourselves even more valuable to the companies you work for. Show your employers how motivated you are to work in the industry, and how you'd love to become a permanent employee.

If you know an intern who's been working hard, treat them to a meal out so that they can relax. Don't forget to tell them how much you admire them for their grit and determination.