Students stay globally engaged through virtual global internships

While COVID-19 has unfortunately brought most summer travel to a halt, Marymount Saints are not letting this stop them from staying globally engaged. 

Throughout the spring semester, the Center for Global Education (CGE) worked with students to help them plan their international internships in global cities like London, San José and Toronto. When the pandemic initially disrupted their plans to complete these internships abroad, CGE worked quickly with its partners at Global Experiences and Cultural Experiences Abroad to ensure that students could still receive valuable, real-world experience with a global company. These global internship opportunities will be available for the Fall 2020 semester and beyond as well.

This summer, junior Economics major Sibeso Mubonda is interning at Capitama, a London-based investment company with the mission of allocating capital more efficiently in the economy.

“Despite not being able to physically be in in London for my internship, I know I will gain a lot of global knowledge because of the many events and meetings where I get to interact with people from different cultures.”

IT major Lizi Dasig expressed similar sentiments in explaining why she pursued a virtual global internship. She said she needed to be challenged, and that she believes the experience of working with industry professionals will further refine her skills and prepare her for a career post-graduation.

Lizi is working as a UX/UI Design Intern at Lokafy, a travel company based in Toronto that connects travelers with locals who are passionate about sharing knowledge of their city. In her role, Lizi reports to the company’s CEO and collaborates with the development and operations team to assist with user experience and interface design for the company’s website and app.

Judy Ortega, a junior majoring in Health Professions, is getting experience interning with a company based in San José, Costa Rica. She is conducted research and aiding with social media for Ormoni System, a fitness community designed for women.

Judy’s goal is to eventually travel to every continent. While COVID-19 may have disrupted that goal temporarily, she said she still wants to immerse herself in another culture and language through this virtual internship.

“The entire world is becoming more tech-savvy day by day, and with this unique virtual experience, I not only can continue to practice my Spanish skills with my internship supervisors but I can become more well-versed in the technological world, familiarize myself with working through varying international time zones and ultimately network on a global scale.”

CGE is proud of all the Marymount students completing virtual global internships this summer, and encourages others who may be interested to reach out to its office at sabroad@marymount.edu, or to visit the CGE website.

“We are so proud of how students have responded to the challenges of COVID-19 and adapted to these new virtual formats for internships,” said Jennifer Crystle, Assistant Director of CGE. “Despite the restrictions on travel, we are confident that our students will still gain invaluable real-world and global experience from participating in these innovative programs. Our world is constantly changing, but our students are certainly rising to the challenge.”