Interns Making it Work from Home

In a perfect world, summer interns come in and learn what it’s like to work in a professional environment. We were far from a perfect world in the summer of 2020, so CSC adapted to provide the best possible experience for 22 interns during a pandemic.

“Nineteen of us worked remotely this summer and three were in the office,” said Grace Slate, a talent acquisition intern in the Human Resources department and coordinator of the internship program. “We were just happy we were able to have an internship program because of the pandemic. So many companies canceled because of the virus. We’re really fortunate.”

When organizing everyone to work from home, Grace said it was a challenge to make the intern program as similar to an in-person experience as possible. “I had to get creative with the different events that we would do to keep them engaged in a remote setting.”

The interns received all the resources that they needed for their first day well in advance so they could make sure everything was ready to go. “We all had a virtual orientation and everyone was able to introduce themselves and talk. So I think that was great,” she said.

Grace, who is entering her senior year at Wilmington University in Delaware, completed her second summer as a CSC intern. In the past, interns would have events in conference rooms and eat lunch together. “We found ways to adapt to be able to do some of those things in a remote setting. We had presentations and events held on Zoom. All of the interns met virtually every Monday to talk and see how everyone was doing.”

An internship with CSC includes a community service team project, and this year the interns helped The American Red Cross, Feeding America, and the Special Olympics. “And while they did this, they had to think about how what they did connects to CSC’s values and how they could apply what they learned from their community service to their everyday,” Grace explained. “In the past, they’d go to these places and volunteer, but they had to figure out how to raise funds and do community service in a remote setting. Some of them have held different raffles and fundraisers. One came up with a survey.”

Alexis Heritage is one of the interns who worked in the office during the pandemic. “It’s usually me, the other intern (Alphonso McKenzie), my team leader, Toine Stewart, or one other person from my team in the office. I talked with Toine at least three times a week, so there was a lot of interaction. If I had questions I could go to them or use Microsoft Teams if I needed to hit them up quickly,” said Alexis, who graduated from the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology in the spring with a degree in IT.

She said her internship with the Technology Team confirmed she chose the right career path. “It’s cool to see how what I learned connected to what this job is and how much it clicks. And it solidified that this is actually what I want to do. I came into this a little scared because I thought the work might be too hard. But it’s not. It’s everything I wanted, if not more.”

Brian Gilardi split his customer service internship between working from home and the office. “The best part of the internship was my leader, Morgan Sweede, and how much she communicated with me. She was supportive with me since day one. She constantly updated me on new information and new tasks that I might be able to accomplish,” says the University of Delaware student. “She walked me through her day and I learned what she does on a day-to-day basis for the business license department. And, she kept me updated on things I can improve on. She helped me set a clear career path. And I just love how she constantly introduced me to new team members, so I see what they do as well.”

Another intern from the University of Delaware, Emma Gogol, worked exclusively from home this summer. “My leader, Peter McCurdy, says the internship has been much different this year because I’ve been doing more administrative work, because that’s just easier to do virtually. This was my first internship and it was great.”

Emma, who worked with the Legal Team, says her leader did a good job of keeping her in the loop. “The Legal Team likes to keep in touch because they miss working with each other. They have a call with the whole team every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for half an hour where everyone catches up and says hi. They also keep each other updated on what they’re working on because everyone on the Legal Team has different responsibilities,” Emma said. I got to work with everyone on the Legal Team and gained a sense of different aspects of law. I spoke to most of the people on the team about their experience in law school, which was fantastic, because I’m still debating whether I want to go to law school.”

“But it’s been really cool to be exposed to something completely new. And, the whole Legal Team was super supportive and they’re all very nice. It was a really cool, interesting summer,” she says.

Grace, who interned at CSC’s Headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, last year and interned from home this year, says the experience was the same. “It was just a different environment, which took some getting used to. Leaders still gave their interns the same quality of work and the same work that they would be doing in person. So other than the work environment, the work content was the same and was still just as meaningful and impactful,” she says.

CSC is currently hiring for a variety of full-time positions as well as for our 2021 summer internship program. While we’re not sure what summer 2021 will bring—we’re excited to “make it work” no matter where our interns are! The application deadline for the 2021 summer internship program is Nov. 15, 2020.