You ask your friends.

We had neighbors in our building that got home from a trip later than expected. While they were gone, our building had upgraded the key fob door locks on ever unit. Our son was walking the dog and when he came back up the elevator, the wife was complaining that she had to wait two hours for the on-call maintenance person to get there. Our son offered to help them with a device, he programmed, Videoed them saying that they wouldn’t press charges. Got them in about a min.

The husband told his brother who worked at a tech company the story. His brother reached out and offered our son an internship.

Employers like when teens show the initiative to reach out and ask for something.
At the same time, having connections are beneficial.
I know. They are total opposites.

Some easy jumpstarts are

1.googling summer internships for high schoolers in your local area.

2. check in with school guidance department.

DC has the Mayor Youth Summer employment program. There are definitely some finance related jobs in there.

Open to any DC resident. Application portal opens in January.

MCPS has the RISE program that matches rising jrs and srs with local companies.

Have a bigwig daddy

My current hs senior had a regular summer job but also got a summer “internship” with a small firm through a connection. To be clear it was strictly a favor/learning experience for him, there’s nothing at 17 he was offering them. But it was structured and allowed him to learn a bit which was great.

My kid (now a college freshman) got her internship through the hospitality academy at her school (Jackson-Reed). They work with the American Experience Foundation to set up hospitality internships for students across the city Worked for 6 weeks at the Omni-Shoreham in the sales office. Made really good money.

My child landed an internship with a subsidiary of NASA. She reached out and called the researcher and setup a Starbuck's meeting. They met and shared goals and laid out a schedule for the summer and she landed the internship.

Ignore the toxicity and do what's best for your DC. True, fims like Goldman and Guggenheim won't take HS interns unless they are related to the CEO. But smallish firms/banks may be persuaded. Your DC should start cold calling/emailing until someone says yes. It may take 300 emails, but someone will say yes. (It's called the law of big numbers and I learned that at Stern.)

Your 17 yr old should be looking for a summer job, not an internship.

Most internships are for rising juniors and seniors in college, not high school. But maybe if you have a connection, your son could get a shadow for a week.

My DS would like to have an internship this summer (rising senior) but isn't sure where to start. He likes math, possibly finance, but I can't imagine those firms having a high schooler? But maybe I'm wrong? Thanks for any tips.