Though the COVID-19 pandemic has hit college students harder than ever, as it has taken away from their in-person college experience, many Sonoma State University students have found the silver-lining of the pandemic to be the endless remote internship opportunities nationwide. 

In March 2020, all California State Universities halted their on campus activities and have yet to reopen.

 However, There are, however, set plans for the CSU campuses to return in the fall. Former CSU Chancellor TImothy White said in an early December email, “In keeping with previous efforts to provide current and prospective students and families with information, clarity and time to plan, the California State University (CSU) has announced that it is planning for an anticipated return to delivering courses primarily in-person starting with the fall 2021 term.” 

Since 97% of Sonoma State’s classes, excluding various advanced art and nursing classes, are remote, internships are supposed to follow that same protocol. 

According to Communications Internship Coordinator Hillary Homzie, “All students who are doing Arts and Humanities internships are currently completing them virtually. This is to comply with SSU COVID-19 safety requirements.”

Sonoma State University Internship Coordinators are keeping a close eye on students’ internships ensuring that they are remote and following protocol. If students were to be completing in-person internships, they would not be able to receive units for their completed internship hours. 

“We are able to check-in with supervisors through a regular review process to ensure that everything is going smoothly and that students are following SSU COVID-19 safety protocol,” Homzie said. 

Overall, there is not much more SSU internship coordinators can do to ensure that students are interning remotely. Coordinators are instilling trust in their students that they are closely following the University’s regulations. 

This semester, a record number of Arts and Humanities students are interning remotely. This “virtual world” is creating a surplus of opportunities for students. 

With internships being remote, students can procure internships from all over the world from the comfort of their own home and still get the same internship experience remotely as they would in-person. 

“We have had students working on projects for PBS (out of New York), interning for a race car company (out of the Midwest), and apprenticing video-editing skills for LA based companies,” Homzie said. 

In addition to students interning remotely across the nation, many students are interning right here in Sonoma County as well. 

Sonoma State has students interning for PR firms in Sonoma County, for Santa Rosa City Schools, for the SSU Career Center, and beyond. 

Many SSU students feel as if they are getting just as good of an experience interning remotely as they would in person. In addition, students like the flexibility in schedule that interning remotely provides them. 

SSU Career Center’s intern Lily Frazier said, “I think that I am actually getting the same if not a better experience interning remotely as it works better with my busy schedule by not having to meet in-person.”

Other students also agree that they too are getting a similar experience interning remotely. 

“I think I get the same experience interning remotely as I would in person because a lot of the work I do for my internship are online based tasks such as managing social media accounts,” Senior Communications student Sam Walter said. 

However, for other SSU students, they feel as if they are missing some key learning experiences while interning remotely. 

“I don’t feel as if I am getting the same experience interning remotely because I can’t connect with my boss, coworkers, or clients the same in a digital platform,” Lauren Fernandes said. 

“I wish there was more of a sense of connection when interning remotely and I wish I were able to check in with my boss and coworkers more to see how I can assist them best,” Fernandes continued. 

Students and Internship Coordinators at SSU remain optimistic that even when classes return to being in-person there will still be as many remote internship opportunities as there are now and in-person opportunities for those who prefer it.