Page 32 - BusinessWest February 7, 2022
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manage that shift now because their classes are online and they are working more indepen- dently,” he told BusinessWest. “One of the silver linings is that they are more able and more pre- pared to work somewhat independently, some- what virtually, and it not being a big issue.”
A large part of this success was credited to the ability of students, professors, and employ- ers to remain adaptable during the continuously changing protocols throughout the pandemic. The willingness of employers to take on interns remotely and overcome that boundary, along with the determination of students to work through uncertain conditions, has proven to be a winning combination for successfully running internship programs during the pandemic.
New Normal
This is not to say internship programs have been running without their fair share of challenges.
Alan Bloomgarden, director of Experiential Learning at Elms College, spoke of how, even though his students have shown remarkable suc- cess at obtaining placements at various intern- ship sites, constantly evolving safety concerns impacted some student internships and experi- ential-learning experiences.
“The employers themselves are, I think, not necessarily prioritizing construction of intern- ships, where their employees are really required to do an additional amount of work to supervise students,” he said. “That is difficult under nor- mal circumstances, and it may be a bridge too far for some employers under the current pres- sures of staffing and adapting to changing health
and safety conditions.”
Bloomgarden noted that students in the
social sciences and humanities have been encountering a greater degree of difficulty in internship placements because of changing circumstances. Even though the internship pro- gram at large is functioning well, some students have still found themselves in a place where
the pandemic caused certain internships to fall short, when they might have been successful in
benefit of the recent shift to online internships has been the newfound ability for students to be placed at sites whose far-away locations would have typically eliminated them from being real- istic options. The normalization of remote work has opened up opportunities for students in Western Mass. to intern at businesses in larger cities like Boston and New York without hav-
ing to spend an entire semester away from their university.
“Just as we’re seeing a changing workplace as a society, we’re seeing changes in the face of what internships look like.
  a normal year.
Layng echoed this sentiment, remembering
a particular instance with a student seeking an internship that highlights the recent limitations of certain internship placements caused by the pandemic.
“I had a student who I was trying to place at Baystate [Health] in the public relations depart- ment, and he had experience in healthcare pub- lic relations and marketing,” Layng noted. “He would have been an excellent candidate to take the next step ... but the person at Baystate said they were just so busy, there’s so many cases, they just can’t really work with interns in the way that would really help them. That’s one clear way the pandemic lessened the opportunities for interns.”
On the other hand, one perhaps unexpected
”
“I have seen students develop some creative adaptations to the circumstances that we’re all facing,” Bloomgarden said. “Just as we’re seeing a changing workplace as a society, we’re see- ing changes in the face of what internships look like.”
He spoke of how Elms College’s teacher-licen- sure students had been conducting their expe- riential learning in a hybrid format but are now being placed at schools in-person. The students in the college’s social-work program have also found themselves returning to in-person intern- ship sites, Bloomgarden said.
While most students have been gradually returning to in-person internships, some stu- dents have been doing internships in this fash- ion throughout the course of the pandemic. This has been especially true for students who are
  New Year, New Goals.
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