Since its beginning in 1975 at the West Charlotte High School in North Carolina, the Academic Internship Program has joined over 6,000 high school students in partnership with sponsors from the business community. The program, created as a supplement to formal classroom instruction, is intended to: (1) provide opportunities for high school students to explore areas of academic, career, or service interests through the development of internship programs within local governmental and civic agencies, businesses, industries, and individuals; (2) establish a positive relationship between the internship program, the school, and the community; and (3) enable students to earn extra credit for extracurricular experiences of an academic nature. This handbook was prepared to help the student intern understand the objectives and organization of the program, his or her responsibilities as an intern, and how to have a successful internship. Additionally, forms are provided for the academic internship student commitment, intern time sheets, evaluation of the intern, the internship journal, and the internship project. Examples of how three community sponsors scheduled their student interns are appended. (KM)