From: Jennifer Wilkins
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 4:45 PM
Good afternoon students, internship site supervisors, and Fredonia faculty sponsors:
The Career Development Office at Fredonia will remain open and available for in-person, phone, or email appointments and questions during our regularly scheduled hours, 8:30am – 5pm, Monday – Friday.
In support of the decision to reduce social-density at SUNY Fredonia to ensure your safety, and the adjustment to distance learning, the credit-bearing internship program is offering opportunities for adjustments of the learning contract originally completed between the student, site supervisor and faculty sponsor. With health and safety the number one priority, we encourage everyone to mitigate the effects of the virus, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Coronavirus web page.
Preliminarily, please confirm contact information originally listed on the learning contract; the email address, cell phone or other contact information or directives regarding alternative communication that might be necessary to continue communication remotely. Organizations and students should agree on clear, detailed position descriptions, which cover all expectations and outlines what will constitute a successful internship. This should include regularly scheduled virtual meetings regarding project planning, progress review, feedback, and mentoring.
Students/Interns
- It is vital to remain active and professional in your communication. You will need to discuss next steps with your internship site supervisor directly, and keep your faculty sponsor informed. If you need assistance on how to address this with your site supervisor, please reach out to Jennifer Wilkins, Internship Coordinator, at 716-673-3327 or jennifer.wilkins@fredonia.edu.
- Contact your site supervisor as soon as possible to discuss your ability to complete the remaining weeks and hours of your internship in-person or remotely.
- Consult with the site supervisor regarding projects you are currently completing, and brainstorm possible solutions to finalize your internship hours.
- Keep an electronic record of your completed hours to date and a tentative plan to finalize the internship hours, as possible. Be sure your site supervisor has access to this information, and will be able to confirm.
Site Supervisors
- Inform the intern of decisions/activity taking place with regard to a potential emergency at your place of business that might affect your ability to respond, or to continue to offer this internship opportunity. Consider training, projects, conversations, mentorship or meetings that your intern might complete remotely through email, phone conversations, or other video resources.
- If your organization is creating new protocol for workplace health and wellness, please include your intern on these conversations. Always feel free to reiterate your organizational policy to the interns as part of their professional development and understanding of workplace operations and guidelines.
- We encourage collaboration to ensure that the intern will continue to participate in progressive learning for the remainder of the semester and/or until all of their required hours are completed.
- Please review Fredonia’s Virtual Internship Policy, and consider the following with respect to your intern.
- How will you communicate with your intern electronically (email, phone, video, or other teleconferencing system)?
- How will your intern track hours? (i.e., Excel document, email, shared Google document)
- How will you be able to check the quality of the intern’s work (i.e., using a shared cloud-based applications such as Google documents)?
- Does your intern have the required technology to complete off-site work (i.e., laptop, access to software, internet access, broadband, etc.)?
- How often do you expect to be able to contact your intern? Will you continue to have regular hours where you can text/call/email and expect a timely response?
- How can you continue to work towards the original goals included in the learning contract with this alternative work arrangement?
As always, your feedback is welcome, and I appreciate your understanding as we navigate these new procedures, exceptions and alternate assignments together. For most students, the internship opportunity is an integral part of their graduation plan and we would like our collaborative efforts to continue to support them as they pursue their professional interests.
For further information regarding SUNY Fredonia, and communication about the coronavirus, please click here.
Thank you for your time, flexibility and understanding.
Jenn–
Jennifer Wilkins
Internship Coordinator / Career Counselor