Photo by Ben Hensley | Marisa Moore of Bank of America introduces the two winners of the Bank of America Student Leaders program, Steven Sanchez and Ella Lee. They spent eight weeks with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Fresno County.

While many high school students spend the final days of summer enjoying trips to the coast, catching the new Jurassic Park movie or just spending the last days of freedom with friends they’ll call classmates this fall, two Fresno County students spent their summer gaining hands-on experience working in the nonprofit sector and showing the community that the future is in good hands.

Steven Sanchez (18) and Ella Lee (17) were among just two students selected locally from a pool of 70 applicants to take part in Bank of America’s Student Leaders program — an eight-week paid internship geared toward developing future community leaders.

The program pairs incoming high school seniors and incoming college freshmen with nonprofits in their community — in this case, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Fresno County — to offer real-world work experience and leadership training.

Now in its seventh year in Fresno County, the program is highly competitive and nationally recognized.

“It’s one that I know we look forward to every single year because it’s so tangible, it’s hands-on,” said Marisa Moore, market executive for Bank of America in Fresno. “We get to actually make an impact not only on their lives but also helping shape their professional development.”

Participants work 35 hours per week — spending half of that time on administrative tasks including marketing, finance and project development, and the other half working directly with the children the club serves.

Interns also join in field trips and club activities, including visits to Monterey and local campsites.

“It was super interesting to have the dual dynamic of working both in the administration office but also being in the grassroots and working with the kids as well,” said Sanchez, an incoming freshman at Columbia University in New York City studying computational biology. He added that his exposure to management team meetings gave him insight into how nonprofit finances and grants are managed.

Sanchez said he plans to use that knowledge to one day enter the nonprofit sector, aiming to reduce health disparities in underserved communities.

“Being able to help other people understand their health through technology, through computer science, would be kind of the skeleton framework of my nonprofit,” he said.

Lee, a high school senior, said the experience helped her better understand the inner workings of a nonprofit, as well as its outward mission. She hopes to study business in college and is also considering a career in medicine.

“Getting to work with the kids has just been an amazing experience,” she said. “I gained a lot of invaluable experience, learning what goes on behind the scenes at a nonprofit.”

Moore said that the program is designed to help participants gain practical and professional experience — with the added benefit of directly impacting their local community.

“They do projects within the clubs and it’s really tailored towards their professional development [and] their career pathing,” she said. “We pick [students] here locally and just see who we think is going to be the most impactful with the kids and who is going to get the most out of the experience.”

The program concludes with a weeklong trip to Washington D.C. where participants meet elected officials and work with fellow student leaders from across the country, tackling real-world challenges.

Moore added that the program helps highlight the value of partnerships between the nonprofit sector and private corporations — like Bank of America.

“People wear multiple hats [in the nonprofit sector] and they’re really giving all of everything to the work,” she said. “As a for-profit corporation, we have the ability to make financial investments into these organizations to make our communities thrive.”

Despite only two students being selected each year, Moore said the ripple effect of the program is noteworthy.

“Even though it’s an internship for two people, those two people are going to walk away with such a life-changing experience,” she said. “But more so, the impression that they’re going to make on all of the kids that they interact with.”

Recruitment for next year’s Student Leaders Program will begin in early 2026.