Micro-internships becoming new norm for students in very abnormal summer

The school year might be over, but students, faculty and staff from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University are still learning a new term for something that has been around for a long time.

Micro-internships.

When CSB and SJU suspended in-person classes on March 13 and both campuses closed not long thereafter because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students saw their summer internships suddenly crumble away, or have the hours reduced significantly. New school policy required online internships for students earning credit or receiving school funding.

That’s where micro-internships come in.

They are flexible and shorter in length, can be done online and are good for both the student and external partners. A five-hour a week internship works. Ten hours? That’s fine, too – although XPD, the Experience and Development Office at CSB and SJU, strongly encourages organizations to create micro-internships of 40 hours and about one month, aligning with the one-credit internship requirement so students can earn credit for their major or the campus experiential learning designation.

For students, the goal is to refine and showcase skills, explore career paths and build their networks.

“Micro-internships are an emerging national trend,” said Laura Hammond, associate director of XPD, said. “It’s a really new approach to conducting internships.”

Here’s a look at three ways micro-internships are being utilized at CSB and SJU.

LinkedIn note drives SLF to new internships

Matt Lindstrom is co-director of the Summer Leadership Fellows (SLF) program at CSB and SJU, as well as the Edward Henry Professor of Political Science and director of the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement.

Normally, SLF program students apply for full-time summer internships in nonprofit and government organizations across the country. Thanks to several generous program endowments, every participant in the SLP receives a $6,000 stipend for the summer.

All that changed in March.

“It was a free-for-all. The old rules and expectations got tossed right out the window,” said Lindstrom of the struggle to find online internships for students late in the spring.

When some of those internships went away, Lindstrom posted a note on LinkedIn asking employers to consider creative partnerships and online internships for 5 to 40 hours.

The response, Lindstrom said, “was quite amazing.” As of May 22, approximately 60 organizations had responded. There were over 8,000 views of Lindstrom’s LinkedIn post.

“I pitched it to everyone as potential partnerships, but there are no guaranteed placements or commitments. The response indicates an impressive willingness to consider creative solutions and possibilities to create win-win outcomes,” Lindstrom said.

XPD launches new micro-internship initiative

Hammond said XPD needed to create a “new approach” to internships when it became clear that students were clearly being affected by COVID-19.

Enter the CSB/SJU Micro-Internship Initiative, which partners students with employers and alumnae/alumni for a short-term, remote project.

“It’s a focused way for students to refine and showcase skills, explore career paths and build their networks despite all the unforeseen changes brought to light by the pandemic,” Hammond said.  “Leveraging our generous alumnae/alumni network, as well as committed employer partners, we hope to create a repository of projects in Handshake, so that students can connect with organizations and engage in projects that showcase their liberal arts skills and training.

“From critical thinking-oriented research projects to analytical skills put to use for companies who haven’t gotten a chance to evaluate a data set, CSB/SJU students and their skills are numerous and accessible online through CSB/SJU Micro-Internships,” Hammond said.

CSB/SJU micro-internships are intended to be mutually beneficial for alums and external partners as well.

“Our talented CSB/SJU students can complete a wide range of projects to help meet organizational needs. We know that all organizations have been thrust into unknowns during the pandemic and they’re quickly pivoting toward new and unknown ways of operating - often with fewer human and financial resources,” Hammond said.

“Our hope is that micro-interns serve as cost-effective talent, requiring minimal training, who can help organizations meet their ever-evolving mission and market needs,” she added.

Meet COVID-19 Consulting

Steve Schwarz is the summer internship coordinator for the Global Business Leadership Department at CSB and SJU.

“When (COVID-19) hit, we knew that was going to be hard for students,” said Schwarz, an instructor of GBUS who normally oversees between 55-70 students interning at various companies each summer. “You have to do a (four-credit, 160-hour) internship in our department. We said, ‘What can we do? How can make sure they still get their credits?’ 

“So, we created a student group called COVID-19 Consulting. It’s kind of like what they do with a micro-internship, where a company may have some smaller projects the students to do,” Schwarz said. “In this case, I will find those companies, figure out what the project should be and bring the project to the students.

“We’ll go (to the business) and say, ‘How has your business changed? What challenges are you facing?’ Then, I’ll have students working in different teams to develop a marketing plan, maybe some sort of logistical plan, different things they could be selling or different ways to sell their product.”

Each project will last approximately two weeks, covering roughly 25-30 hours with teams of three students.

“This will be designed in a way that students can do some of the work (remotely) in the evenings,” Schwarz said. “This is also designed to give students experience working as a consultant which is one of the more popular career paths for our graduates.”

Schwarz said the focus will be on small alumnae/alumni businesses in Minnesota.

“The point of this is to take the burden off (businesses),” Schwarz said. “They don’t have to find the intern and explain the project to them. I’ll come to them and try to make it real easy, and then our students will get a rich, meaningful work experience over the summer.”