On-the-job, Online: Bucknell Helps Students Continue Internships Virtually

Rebecca Ofri '21 is on the job with the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender this summer.

As a legal intern, she performs intake interviews for the office's mental health and drug court divisions, gathering facts from clients about their cases and walking them through what to expect in the arraignment process. It requires a sensitive hand to ensure clients feel heard at a stressful time, while also ensuring the lawyers Ofri works with have the facts they need to provide the strongest possible defense.

And in the age of COVID-19, all this hard work is happening through a screen.

For Ofri, a sociology major from Forest Hills, N.Y., who's on the pre-law track and also works as a pre-law intern for Bucknell's Center for Career Advancement, the experience is as real as can be and offers a valuable opportunity to prepare for law school after graduation.

Internships, virtual or otherwise, "are really important to help you get used to the day-to-day experiences of a job and immerse yourself in what you're interested in, to see if that's a lifestyle that you could imagine yourself living," she says.

Bucknell believes in the transformative power of those on-the-job experiences to help students explore their futures, and guides students through the process of finding and securing internships and externship job-shadowing opportunities as early as their first year of college.

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted internship plans for many this summer, the University stepped forward with innovative solutions to help students pivot their plans and continue to gain valuable experience while maintaining social distance. That included helping students whose internships were canceled find new ones, remotely continuing programming that supports internships and networking and offering advice to help students prepare for the idiosyncrasies of remote work.

To view these students click here: https://bucknell.meritpages.com/achievements/On-the-job-Online-Bucknell-Helps-Students-Continue-Internships-Virtually/125050