He created a middle-school program to teach low-income students to play the guitar.

She started a reading club to keep the children of prison inmates focused on school.

Charlotte teens William Barry and Olivia Stinson had never met before this summer.

But their desire to help others now has them working side by side in one of the nation's more unusual high school internships: Bank of America's Student Leaders Program.

Created in 2004, Student Leaders is equal parts summer job, community service and leadership training, as teens experience hometown nonprofit work ranging from executive board meetings to soup-kitchen food preparation.

Five Charlotte students won internships this year, along with more than 230 youths nationwide and in London. The bank expects to have invested $1 million in their work by summer's end, including a weeklong Student Leader Summit in Washington, D.C.

The money is also considered a financial boost to the participating charities, most of which were forced to trim their staffs during the economic downturn.

Unlike many internships, Student Leaders is not solely based on great grades, nor do students have to declare a career goal in charity work.

It's about something else, says Charles Bowman, Bank of America's North Carolina market president.

"They all have some spark, some inclination to be part of solving problems of the future,' he says. "It's a broader vision that you don't often see in high schools."

Intern Samantha Singer, 17, puts it more simply: "I realize the world does not revolve around me."

Of the Charlotteans, William and Olivia are spending the summer at the YWCA, while Samantha, Ryan Carter and Andrew McDonald work at Freedom School Partners, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce the dropout rate among at-risk children.

Olivia came to the program's attention after working with her church, Greenville Memorial A.M.E. Zion north of uptown, to start PENPals, a reading club and support group for area youth with incarcerated parents. Statistics show such children are at greater risk of dropping out and for getting in trouble with the law.

As many as 40 youths have attended the club's monthly meetings, including kids as young as 2.

"If you meet them, hear their stories, and see how they struggle, you realize just how much the rest of us take for granted," says Olivia, 18, the daughter of an associate music minister for a Charlotte church.

"I guess what makes me different is that I'm willing to stand out. I'm comfortable saying: 'This isn't right. Let's take action.' "

William, 17, also took a stand, when he heard that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools were cutting dollars for extracurricular activities in middle schools.

He pitched the idea in the spring 2010 of teaching guitar at Alexander Graham Middle School, and then recruited five friends to help him. Twenty students eventually signed up for lessons, he says.

"It was tough to get it sanctioned (by the district). At first, I taught only one student. The next semester, I set up a meeting with the principal and he was all over the idea." says William, a rising senior at Myers Park High.

"I feel a sense of pride in it, because it takes kids off the streets, so they are less likely to end up doing the wrong things with the wrong crowd."

In addition to that program, he helped create a teen-advocacy group for children with cystic fibrosis, a condition that affects his 15-year-old brother. The effort has included going to Washington three times, to advocate for legislation helping people with the rare disease. On the last trip, 48 teens went with him.

William and Olivia say they feel a similar sense of accomplishment at the YWCA, where one of their tasks is to work with at-risk students as part of a summer camp.

Meanwhile, at Freedom School Partners, the interns have taken on roles that range from mentoring to preparing nearly 300 sandwiches for the Urban Ministry Center's soup kitchen.

Ryan, 17, a rising senior at Charlotte Latin School, says he has learned many things, including how children in even the most desperate circumstances still have hope.

Helping them is an obligation, rather than a choice, says Andrew, also 17, a recent graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. He says his parents taught him that.

"If you know of a social injustice, it would be shameful to sit home and not act to try and change it," he says. "If we're not taking care of our children, we're not taking care of our community."