This summer Priscilla Agyemang, unlike many of her friends with summer jobs, isn’t working for minimum wage. Some would say the recent Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School graduate isn’t working at a “summer job” at all.

Ms. Agyemang, along with four other New York students, was chosen as a student leader by Bank of America, which awarded her an eight-week paid internship in the nonprofit sector. Bank of America’s Neighborhood Excellence Initiative, which is in its fifth year, selected 230 student leaders from 44 states, as well as from London, to participate in the program this summer.

“These students are the leaders of today, and we expect that they’ll be the leaders of tomorrow,” the New York president of Bank of America, Alan Rappaport, said.

Ms. Agyemang, who will go to Boston University as a freshman this fall, and Sadik Uddin, a student leader who will be a senior at Townsend Harris High School at Queens College in September, are working at the Public Theater for the summer.

As part of the program, Ms. Agyemang and Mr. Uddin were given a choice of employment with two local community organizations. Both received their first choice, while other New York student leaders, Yekaterina Nurik, Jose Moran, and Paris West, were chosen to work at Common Ground Community, which aids the homeless.

“We normally have college or postcollege interns,” the press manager at the Public Theater and Ms. Agyemang’s supervisor, Sam Neuman, said. “She’s totally at their level.”

The interns spend their time working on projects and learning about the nonprofit sector, and attend an expenses-paid leadership training summit in Washington, D.C., where they participate in workshops on leadership development and public policy.

“We did a lot of leadership workshops about what we can do in our communities,” Ms. Agyemang said of the Washington summit. “We had a couple etiquette lessons, how to eat, what to wear.”

The student leaders said learning about what other students are doing for their communities was inspiring. Many student leaders have started their own nonprofit organizations. Ms. Agyemang and Mr. Uddin, like many of their peers in the program, were involved in volunteer work throughout high school while also maintaining high grades and other extracurricular involvement.

Ms. Agyemang kept up a 3.85 grade point average while also volunteering at her church, the New York City Marathon, and Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, among other places. Mr. Uddin also volunteered extensively, including at his mosque, a local library, the March of Dimes, and Bellevue Hospital Center. He was hired for his first minimum-wage job at 14.

The fact that the student leaders are paid is “an added bonus,” Ms. Agyemang said.

“If I hadn’t had this job, I would have worked two jobs,” Mr. Uddin, who does research on weekends, said. Their internship pays $10 an hour, and they work 35 hours a week.

Ms. Agyemang and Mr. Uddin have kept in contact with many of the other student leaders they met in Washington: One of the many lessons they have learned, they said, is the power of networking.

“One person can make a big difference with the right friends,” Mr. Uddin said.

“We believe we are part of the community we serve,” Mr. Rappaport said. “Healthy communities are a healthy place to do business.”

Ms. Agyemang and Mr. Uddin said they were happy to have been chosen, noting that there is a 2008 Bank of America Student Leaders Program Facebook group with 112 members and three other related groups.

“We argued that [the bank] didn’t need to choose another group for next year, they could just bring us back,” Mr. Uddin said.