{"id":133600,"date":"2020-05-29T09:07:48","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T13:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=133600"},"modified":"2024-07-01T15:56:45","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T19:56:45","slug":"purposeful-work-summer-internships-go-virtual-and-include-graduating-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/29\/purposeful-work-summer-internships-go-virtual-and-include-graduating-seniors\/","title":{"rendered":"‘To give an edge’: Purposeful Work internships go remote \u2014 and include graduating seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a matter of weeks this spring, a promising job market for graduating college seniors lost much of its promise. With business going remote and shrinking due to the coronavirus pandemic, \u201cmany industries hit the pause button\u201d on hiring, while a few companies postponed or even canceled employment offers, says Allen Delong, senior associate dean for purposeful work and career development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was hard to predict what businesses would look like when we all grabbed our laptops and headed to our kitchen tables,\u201d Delong says.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Audrey
Project manager for a firm that develops utility-scale solar photovoltaic plants in Maine, Audrey Puleio \u201917 poses at Maine Audubon in Falmouth with three solar panels in the background. Puleio will supervise remotely two Bates interns that her firm hired this summer. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So the Bates Center for Purposeful Work \u2014 whose approach is based on a philosophy of exploration and reflection<\/a> in order to prepare Bates students for lives of meaningful work \u2014 moved quickly to help members of the Class of 2020 find postgraduate experiences, and to reassure students in all classes that the pandemic would not eradicate their ability to find purposeful work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, they opened the center\u2019s paid Purposeful Work internship program, which matches Bates students with summer experiences around the world and sometimes funds them, to graduating seniors. They helped employers envision flexible remote internships. And due to the response of Bates alumni, the center has been able to offer additional opportunities in a variety of industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"During<\/a>
Rebecca Fraser-Thill, a lecturer in psychology and director of faculty engagement at the Center for Purposeful Work, explains the importance of meaningful work to Class of 2020 parents during Orientation in 2016. The center is committed to expanding opportunities for that class, now graduating seniors. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As of early June, more than 90 Bates students have secured paid internships through the Center for Purposeful Work, one fourth of them graduating seniors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew that there was no stopping,\u201d says Beverly Vari, assistant director for employer engagement and internships at the Center for Purposeful Work. \u201cWe knew we needed to continue to offer the same caliber of opportunities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Purposeful Work staff reached out to its existing \u201ccore employers,\u201d a dozens-strong group of companies and hiring managers who prioritize hiring Bates summer interns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew that there was no stopping.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

They invited them to take part in experiential professional opportunities that included seniors, and they offered guidance on how to run internships remotely \u2014 anything from which technology is best to use, to conveying company culture virtually, to re-envisioning the tasks an intern could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe ask them, \u2018What are some of the roles you always wanted to have help with but don\u2019t necessarily have the capacity for?\u2019\u201d Vari says. \u201cAlso, in this time, \u2018What are some skill sets that might help you with your company\u2019s pivot?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Allen<\/a>
Allen Delong, leader of the Bates Center for Purposeful Work and pictured here in October 2019, says the center’s goal is to help students find summer opportunities without sacrificing the Purposeful Work philosophy of exploration and reflection. (Rene Roy for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Audrey Puleio \u201917 is a project manager at BNRG Renewables, which, in a joint venture with Portland, Maine-based Dirigo Solar, develops utility-scale solar photovoltaic plants in Maine. A former Purposeful Work intern herself, Puleio was prepared to supervise a Bates student for the summer when the pandemic altered plans both for the internship and for the rest of the company\u2019s projects, she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now working from home, Puleio, with the help of Purposeful Work, has redesigned the internship program. While she hoped Bates interns would be visiting construction sites and attending meetings, they\u2019ll now have computer-based tasks \u2014 researching municipal solar ordinances, for example, or helping build Dirigo\u2019s website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe scope of our work is variant and we\u2019ll give them the opportunity to sit in on calls about grids, permitting, finance, and engineering, while also having ownership of a project,\u201d Puleio says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe saw the lack of opportunities for employment for graduating seniors and felt really committed to helping out in any way we could.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Puleio\u2019s company made a second major change to its internship program: Dirigo will hire \u2014 and pay \u2014 not one but two Bates interns: one rising junior and one graduating senior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe saw the lack of opportunities for employment for graduating seniors and felt really committed to helping out in any way we could,\u201d Puleio says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two Dirigo interns will work for most of the summer, but Center for Purposeful Work staff quickly recognized that a traditional full-time, full-summer internship would not be feasible for many employers. They encouraged companies to rethink internships as projects that could take three, five, or six weeks rather than eight or 10, or to divide longer projects into pods that more than one intern can do over a shorter period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe supervisors are also working from home, and they\u2019re getting their heads around what it will be like to supervise an intern who is in another state and they\u2019re going to see on a computer screen,\u201d Delong says. \u201cThe \u2018chunking up\u2019 has been a really important move for us and has really resonated with employers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Adams \u201992, managing director of TM Capital, didn\u2019t need much guidance. The investment banking firm with offices in three cities has hired several interns per summer for more than a decade. It had recruited its 2020 internship class, including one Bates junior, back in the fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ladd<\/a>
\u201cTo give [Bates students] a little bit of an edge, an advantage, a helping hand during a difficult time \u2014 it\u2019s important to me and my partners” says TM Capital managing director Brad Adams ’92 (right), posing in 2013 with intern Zach Polich ’15 at TM headquarters in Boston. Polich now works in private equity in the Boston area. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In normal years, interns work in one of TM Capital\u2019s three offices, are assigned a senior investment banker as a mentor, take part in merger and acquisition transactions, complete a summer-long project, and go on social outings. If they are a good fit with the firm, TM hires them as full-time analysts after graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the pandemic has caused business to slow, meaning fewer meaty projects for the interns \u2014 not to mention the public health dangers of bringing people into the offices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Adams and his partners in the firm ensured that the internship program was still on, albeit in a shortened form. The interns will work remotely for five weeks, still attending meetings, taking part in transactions, working with mentors, and even, if they want to, coming to virtual happy hours. Most importantly, the summer 2020 interns will still have a shot at a full-time job at TM Capital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Interior<\/a>
Before Bates College sent most students home to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, student workers make themselves available at the Center for Purposeful Work to help their classmates with resumes, cover letters, and other aspects of job searching. These services are still available to students remotely. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese students are having a tough time, no doubt about it,\u201d Adams says. \u201cTo give them a little bit of an edge, an advantage, a helping hand during a difficult time \u2014 it\u2019s important to me and my partners.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with Bates for upwards of 20 years, even before TM Capital was founded, Adams knows that alumni \u201cgo out of their way to do what they can to help the students out,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s been especially clear in the last several weeks. With the help of colleagues in the Advancement office, the Center for Purposeful Work called on alumni and parents around the country to design internships and projects for Bates students who might otherwise have trouble finding a summer experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s perfect for a younger person, for a recent graduate who has the skills.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Alumni whose companies and organizations did not have a formal internship program reached out offering to create one. Companies at which remote internships are set to begin this summer include a Washington, D.C., law firm, an investment firm in Maryland, a consulting firm in the San Francisco Bay area, and a conservation organization in Maine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just one industry,\u201d Delong says. \u201cIt\u2019s people who looked at what they do and said, \u2018How can I add a Bates intern? Let me call Purposeful Work and have the conversation.\u2019 In some cases, these have turned from a conversation to an internship in 24 hours.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bates\u2019 offer to connect interns to companies \u2014 and, in many cases, to fund their internships \u2014 has made it possible for some organizations to work on projects they couldn’t consider otherwise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Macdonald Fox \u201981 helps run the Brownsburg Museum, a small museum in rural southern Virginia that showcases the small village\u2019s history dating back to the 1790s.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With funding from Purposeful Work, the museum has hired a graduating Bates senior with experience in museums to work remotely for five weeks \u2014 hopefully, Fox says, building the museum\u2019s website and social media presence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s perfect for a younger person, for a recent graduate who has the skills,\u201d Fox says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Interior<\/a>
\u201cIt’s really important, perhaps especially this summer, to reflect on how your experience ties into the bigger picture,\u201d says Allen Delong. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The intern will be a boon for the museum, which is run entirely by volunteers. \u201cWe feel like we can learn from her,\u201d Karen Parker, the museum\u2019s treasurer, says of the incoming summer hire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though internships themselves are taking different forms, the Purposeful Work model underlying the internship program has stayed the same, Delong says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funded internships are only one piece of building a meaningful career. The Center for Purposeful Work encourages students to explore and reflect on work by working with professors to tie real-world applications into their courses, offering practitioner-taught courses during Short Term, and asking students to submit written reflections during their internships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection is still crucial \u2014 and perhaps more important than ever \u2014 for summer internships, in whatever form they take. Interns can join industry-specific groups and meet for video discussions and workshops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can really engage with students one by one \u2014 what is the opportunity they\u2019re looking for; what are their strengths, interests, and values; and how can we align those with the world of work?\u201d Delong says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s really important, perhaps especially this summer, to reflect on how your experience ties into the bigger picture.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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