The Mayor's Youth Technology Corps (MYTC)--Creating Safe Communities through Information Technology Training in Homeland Security Applications (2008-2012)--offered a collaboration of resources, supports, and opportunities for strengthening science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education efforts in an underserved community, the City of Detroit. The MYTC internship program is an important form of student civic engagement and also the highlight of hands-on experiences for the MYTC trainees. The internship is the capstone and a true test of how the MYTC students were trained and whether the students were learning what was designed for them in this project. Moreover, the internship program aimed at advancing the participating students' motivation toward STEM careers. This paper examines the rationale for selecting the internship as the MYTC project's capstone and the lessons learned through the internship program implementation. The author believes that the municipal and business communities of major cities would find this model viable and rewarding with additional ties to service learning and workforce development. Future needs would require looking into how to build an organizational structure in order to provide sustained financial resources to support students' participation in civic activities in underserved communities.