Unless you ' ve got something already lined up for PCE right now and you ' re debating between the two , I would take it . That internship sounds like a great way to get involved in your community and give you an interesting perspective in a future personal statement about what you learned and how you later applied it . I didn ' t start getting PCE until the summer after my junior year , applied this summer postcollege graduation with ~ 7501000 PCE at that point from the jr year summer and PT work during my senior year followed with 600 more hours to update with later from working FT . I spent my freshman and sophomore year getting HCE doing research and volunteering , which helped my application because it was interesting stuff to talk about . I got multiple interview offers and was accepted at my top choice . Just my two cents !