Summer internships don't have to involve fetching doughnuts and making coffee - not if you know where to look. They can be paid, highly relevant and eye-opening.

Take 17-year-old Shannon Sullivan, who's spending her summer at a Bowie pastry shop called The Cakery. There, she works under the wing of a pastry chef trained by a former White House chef.

"Experience is everything," said Miss Sullivan, a Gambrills resident who attends the Center for Applied Technology North in Severn. "No matter what you do in school, you're going to have to go out there and really do it after you graduate."

Tammy Diedrich, a work study...