The Future Workforce Is Already Getting to Work — Virtually
This spring, 37 Arizona high school students participated in a 6-week virtual internship supported by the U.S. Department of Labor Workforce Pathways for Youth Grant, coordinated by CFA’s Arizona Pathways to Prosperity initiative in partnership with the Work-Based Learning Alliance.
Real Projects, Real Companies
Interns worked with organizations across engineering, higher education, economic development, nonprofit, and life sciences, including the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp., The University of Arizona, Heartled, and Faye Innovations.
Projects included designing a social media campaign for a nonprofit, where interns reviewed existing marketing assets and created a social media strategy to improve audience engagement to build an online community. Other projects focused on reimagining alternative college admission applications that reward skills and experiences rather than test scores, creating more post-secondary pathways for students.
“My confidence grew because I was able to succeed in an environment with unfamiliar people. I had to quickly adapt, learn, and execute while trusting and communicating with my teammates.”
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— Cara Masterson, Virtual Internship Participant |
One project, in partnership with the Southwest Center on Resilience for Climate Change at the University of Arizona (SCORCH), focused on developing curriculum to engage youth in understanding the impact of extreme heat on local populations and community health. Grouped in teams, students researched how heat affects vulnerable communities, reviewed youth-focused health education best practices, and created impactful heat-related educational materials. They also developed a six-month implementation plan for how SCORCH should test and pilot this initiative and presented their findings at a virtual showcase.
Through this experience, interns gained skills in research, collaboration, and strategic thinking while translating their findings into a presentation. We’re inspired to see Arizona students contribute to a brighter, stronger future, one internship at a time.