Going remote: Recommendations for normalizing virtual internships

Abstract

AbstractResearch internships provide students with invaluable experience conducting independent research, contributing to larger research programs, and embedding in a professional scientific setting. These experiences increase student persistence in ecology and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and promote the inclusion of students who lack opportunities at their home institutions and/or are from groups that are underrepresented in STEM. While many ecology internship programs were canceled during the 2020 COVID‐19 pandemic, others successfully adapted to offer virtual internships for the first time. Though different from what many researchers and students envision when they think of internships, virtual ecology internship programs can create more accessible opportunities and be just as valuable as in‐person opportunities when research programs and advisors develop virtual internships with intention and planning. Here, we highlight six ways to structure a virtual intern project, spanning a spectrum from purely computer‐based opportunities (e.g., digital data gathering, data analysis, or synthesis) to fully hands‐on research (e.g., sample processing or home‐based experiments). We illustrate examples of these virtual projects through a case study of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's 2020 Virtual Internship Program. Next, we provide 10 recommendations for effectively developing a virtual internship program. Finally, we end with ways that virtual internships can avoid the limitations of in‐person internships, as well as possible solutions to perceived pitfalls of virtual internships. While virtual internships became a necessity in 2020 due to COVID‐19, the development and continuation of virtual internships in future can be a valuable tool to add to the suite of existing internship opportunities, possibly further promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in ecology and STEM.