The George Washington Carver High School student was an intern last summer through a program sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. She worked for six weeks at Pennoni Associates Inc., a Philadelphia consulting engineering firm, on all sorts of projects.

It gave her real world experience for what she hopes will be a career as an engineer or lawyer. Nicholson, a senior, will be going to Bennett College for Women in North Carolina this fall to study engineering and pre-law.

“All young people have talent,” Nicholson told a conference room packed with media, chamber officials, and job training experts. “We just need a little push and support.”

The business community needs a little of that too. The push is coming not only from the chamber, which has pledged to find 2,000 internships at area employers this summer, but also from Mayor Michael Nutter, who has said the private sector needs to step up to help change “life expectations” for the city’s youth.

This is the third year the chamber has made summer internships a priority. Last year, it found paid internships for 1,049 students. It is asking employers to offer an internship at about $8 an hour for at least 20 hours per week for six weeks in July and August. That’s a cost of $1,600 per internship.

“We recognize as employers, large and small, a responsibility and accountability to make sure we create opportunities for young people in our workplaces,” said Joseph A. Frick, chairman of the chamber and CEO of Independence Blue Cross.

Think back to a summer job or internship when it first clicked for you. Maybe you realized this is how the world works, or this is what my dad does all day, or this is why my mom is so exasperated when she comes home from her office.

Then realize there are a whole bunch of young people in Philadelphia who never get that break. Sons and daughters from all sorts of families for whom the concept of office work is as foreign as a black-tie fund-raiser.

The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania says 70,000 people ages 16 to 24 in Philadelphia and its four western suburban counties do not have a job. The Philadelphia Youth Network, through the WorkReady program, placed about 8,000 young people in work settings last year, but turned away at least 3,000 who applied because there were no jobs for them.

The city itself has interns — 990 last year. Nutter said his goal is to add 100 this year. “We will not ask the business community to do anything we will not do ourselves,” the mayor said.

Frick said Independence Blue Cross hosted 50 interns in 2007 and has committed to doing so again this year. In addition, the insurer will also fund 62 interns at other nonprofit groups or small businesses.

The chamber says it has identified 401 paid internships for this summer. Four of them will be at Pennoni Associates, which doubled its commitment after being impressed with Nicholson and another Carver High student. In a letter to the chamber, CEO Anthony S. Bartolomeo says the firm has even met with Carver’s principal to discuss an ongoing relationship with the school and its students.

More of that needs to happen. Economic slowdown or not, in a city where the high-school dropout rate is alarmingly high, the business community would do well to reach out to those 11th and 12th graders who will be knocking on their doors for jobs.