RALEIGH — Lauren Wetmore of Rowan County will be among 85 students representing 28 North Carolina counties, will embark on a 10-week educational internship experience at North Carolina state government agencies. This year, the program features 80 projects from clean energy to instructional design.

Wetmore, a Gray Stone Day School graduate and UNC Chapel Hill student, will intern as a District Court management guide for the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC).

“For more than half a century, the state of North Carolina internship program has been a fundamental source for nurturing the interest of our state’s best and brightest students in the area of public service,” said North Carolina Department of Administration Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell in a news release. “This program is instrumental in laying the foundation for future careers in state government.”

Interns will begin the program in a virtual orientation with Cashwell and members of the Internship Council where they will learn about job expectations, enrichment opportunities and have a chance to ask questions of previous interns. To allow for more hands-on learning experience, many of the internships this summer will be in a hybrid work environment that offers both in-person assignments as well as remote work.

Seventeen state agencies are sponsoring internships this year ranging in a variety of careers from wildlife rehabilitation, photography, volunteer services and historical research to communications and public affairs, network security, policy and advocacy, enterprise mapping and aquarium animal husbandry among others. The agencies are in administration (NCDOA), Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), Adult Correction, Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS), Commerce, Environmental Quality (DEQ), General Assembly, Health and Human Services (DHHS), Information Technology (DIT), Judicial Branch, Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR), Office of State Human Resources (OSHR), Office of the Governor, Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Public Safety (DPS), State Budget Management (OSBM) and Transportation (DOT).

The NC Department of Administration acts as the business manager for North Carolina state government. Under the leadership of Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell, the department oversees government operations and advocacy programs. The department’s advocacy programs help to promote and assist diverse segments of the state’s population that have been traditionally underserved. The North Carolina Council for Women and Youth Involvement is a division of NCDOA. Their mission is to advise the governor, state legislators and state leaders on issues impacting women and youth.