As a leader in workforce development throughout the state, the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation regularly receives requests for a listing of internship opportunities for young adults. Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough internship opportunities to go around, and those that do exist often don’t allow the interns to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty in meaningful projects.
That is why the Chamber Foundation created the Remote Internship Experience, in which teams of young adults serve as “remote interns” for their communities.
The teams launch social entrepreneurship projects that they conceive, plan, execute and present to a panel of business judges.
Recently, the program was incorporated into the Career and Community Studies Summer Honors program at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). The program was customized to complement TCNJ’s plans for its honors students to visit New Orleans and assist the St. Bernard Project, a nonprofit disaster relief organization, with rebuilding homes demolished by Hurricane Katrina.
Each team was tasked with developing a marketing video designed to raise awareness of the St. Bernard Project’s mission—to shrink the time between natural disasters and recovery. Students worked together to create a team name, design a logo, develop a tagline, plan the video content and shoot the video. The planning required team members to reach a consensus and learn to compromise for the greater good of the project.
At the end of the 5-week project, one team wins the competition and each member receives a prize.
In the most recent competition, Danielle K., a fourth-year student of Career and Community Studies at The College of New Jersey, was selected as the most valuable player by her peers, facilitators and Chamber staff. Danielle enjoys working with children in educational and recreational settings, and she is interested in working in an office environment. Through this experience, Danielle feels that she developed better listening skills and learned the finer points of compromise.
If your company has internships or employment opportunities for Danielle, please contact Donna Custard at