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 partnerships with more than 600 sponsors from the business community. The program 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. Although some sponsors have completely outlined excellent internships in advance, others have had success in "feeling their way," especially in first-time situations. In response to many sponsor requests for guidelines and suggestions, this handbook was compiled containing an outline of the objectives and organization of the program, ideas for developing the intership, and hints on preparing for the student intern's arrival. 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)