Le Moyne offers virtual interns to area nonprofits and businesses

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Le Moyne College on Wednesday announced a community internship initiative to place mostly first-year and second-year students in virtual internships at area nonprofits, government agencies, and businesses.

“The impact of COVID-19 on campus and on the local nonprofit and business community was one reason we decided to create the community internship initiative,” Meredith Tornabene, director of career advising and development at Le Moyne College, said at a morning press conference at the college.

It’s a program that Le Moyne says allows its younger students to “immediately” contribute to the community and provides them a “meaningful, career-exploration opportunity at the beginning of their college experience,” Tornabene added.

Reporters and press-conference speakers gathered for the announcement at the southern entrance to the Le Moyne campus off Salt Springs Road.

The program’s goal is to work with organizations to “create and promote” internships that address their most immediate needs. The projects are designed to allow freshman students or sophomores to make contributions to the community from the Le Moyne campus.

“And students will earn college credit for completing them,” said Tornabene.

Juniors and seniors at Le Moyne can also be involved, but the program seeks to get freshmen and sophomores involved early in their academic careers.

The projects will include data collection and analysis; research; and creating digital-media content.

The City of Syracuse and the Office of Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon are Le Moyne’s first partners in the internship initiative. Since then, others have joined, including the Erie Canal Museum, the ArtHouse, Peace Inc., and the Everson Museum of Art, Tornabene noted.

In the coming weeks, Le Moyne will be contacting area nonprofits, local governments, and small businesses to offer assistance.

“Jesuit education is at its very best when what transpires in these buildings and laboratories and the library make points of contact with the community in which we reside,” Le Moyne President Linda LeMura said in her remarks.

Classes will begin Aug. 31. First-year students — both residential and those who commute — have been on campus for more than a week attending orientation activities and taking an accelerated Core 100 course, which will conclude in September, per the school’s fall-semester plan announced in June.