Getting Experience & Giving Back

Students Impact the Community Through Internships and Service Learning

By Gina Oltman

Stanislaus State students often consider their internships and service-learning projects to be the highlights of their educational journeys. These activities give students real-world experiences and leave them excited to start their careers and improve their communities.

For the Stanislaus region, internships and service-learning projects not only contribute to an enthusiastic, career-ready workforce, they also deliver an economic benefit. During the 2020-22 academic year, despite pandemic restrictions that set back many internships and service activities, the estimated value of Stan State student service in the region was about $2 million.

There are numerous internship and service-learning opportunities offered by the University, and they usually fit into one of three categories: academic internships for credit, paid internships through HIREStanState or another careeroriented program, and service-learning projects, which are often embedded in a class or offered through a focused program coordinated by the Office of Service Learning.

Service-Learning Project Shatters Misconceptions, Proves Invaluable

A good example of the power of service learning can be found in Heather Collins and Alex Massie, two anthropology majors who took Professor Richard Wallace’s ethnographic research methods class in spring 2022. They were among a dozen students in the class who participated in the second service-learning research project implemented by Wallace with the We Care shelter in Turlock. With assistance and support from the shelter’s team, the students interviewed 18 homeless men and reported on how they were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

First-generation college students who transferred from Modesto Junior College, Collins and Massie expect to graduate with bachelor’s degrees in May and December, respectively. Both recently spoke enthusiastically about the servicelearning project at We Care, saying it gave them an experience they could never have found in a classroom or lab.

“One of the unique aspects of this project was that it was actually in the field, and we were actually training,” said Collins. “Interviews are like the bread and butter of our profession, so it is really important that we get good at interviewing and reading people to know how to approach the next question. This was excellent training for us. We don’t usually get experiences like this in undergrad classes.”

But the training and real-world experience was only part of what they gained from the project. As they interviewed the men, Collins and Massie got a better understanding of what it’s like to be homeless, changing any misconceptions they might have previously held and fostering a sense of compassion for the homeless community.

“A lot of stereotypes were shattered,” said Massie. “This is an unknown and often misunderstood community. People tend to have assumptions about other people, especially those who don’t have a voice in our society. But you really don’t know what people’s lives are like until you put in the work to talk to them.”

Collins and Massie were surprised to find a significant number of homeless men at the shelter were new to homelessness or held steady jobs. They were also surprised to learn that a couple of MJC students were staying at the shelter.

“I tear up just thinking about it. It was one of the ‘whoa’ moments,” said Collins, who, as a former MJC student, could relate. “They were not the people we expected to see at a shelter.”

As the team of students transcribed, organized and coded their interviews using specialized software, another unexpected theme emerged: isolation.

“We started to see that the men were experiencing a lack of connectedness to others, and we just hadn’t thought of that,” Collins said. “There was a period when the shelter had to close, and the men had nowhere to go. They broke up their camps and spread out to social distance. If they had family who brought things to them in the past, those people stopped coming. The men just lost what little connection to other people they had, and that was what they really wanted to talk about.”

As the project came to a close, the team presented its findings to the We Care Board of Directors, staff and a group of Stan State faculty members that included Wallace.

Even after the project ended, Collins, Massie and other students from the class stayed connected to the We Care shelter by signing up as a group to cook and serve meals on occasion.

“We all live with a deep sense of empathy for this community,” said Collins.

Collins and Massie said they are grateful for the chance to participate in the service-learning project and praised Wallace for his work arranging it and his excellent teaching methods. They also spoke highly of the assistance they received from We Care manager Debbie Gutierrez and the rest of the shelter team.

“I’m really thankful for the opportunity,” said Massie. “It was my first semester at Stan State, and I went in and was like, ‘Dang! This is what I can do at Stan State? They are going to show me how to do real things with real people?’ And it was beautiful. I loved it.”

From left to right: Heather Collins and Alex Massie

STEM CareerReadyU Internship Builds Skills, Confidence and Relationships

Working as an intern in a Gallo Winery lab in Modesto is helping biology major Maria Olvera transition from student to professional, just in time for her graduation from Stan State in May.

Maria Olvera

In addition to giving her real-life experience in her chosen field, the paid internship has boosted Olvera’s confidence and erased any concerns she had about entering the workforce and pursuing a career.

“It has definitely helped me a lot. It made me realize that I do like production, especially quality control and assurance, and I like being hands-on in the lab,” said the native Modesto resident. “It also gave me more perspective on what it’s like to work in what might be called an adult job in my profession. And now I actually have work experience that I can take with me in my career.”

A first-generation student who transferred from Modesto Junior College, Olvera was finishing her first year as a Warrior and participating in the STEM CRU program in spring 2022 when she noticed the paid internship opportunity posted on the University’s Accelerated STEM Pathways through Internships, Research and Engagement (ASPIRE) network.

She applied for the internship, which is paid by Gallo and structured as a seasonal job, sailed through the selection process, and soon found herself fulfilling the duties of a lab assistant from June to December – the duration of the 2022 grape harvest. As the season came to an end, Gallo extended the contract with Olvera into 2023, allowing her to stay with the company through her final semester at Stan State and another grape harvest.

As an intern in Gallo’s lab, Olvera analyzes the quality of wine about to be bottled. She checks the wine’s conductivity, pH, acidity, color, carbon dioxide content and turbidity. She is also learning about lab techniques, best practices and the wine business from her co-workers, two of whom are Stan State alumni who have become mentors to her.

“I’ve built good relationships there, and I really enjoy working there,” she said.

After she graduates with a bachelor’s degree in biology, Olvera hopes to parlay her internship at Gallo into a regular, fulltime job. Beyond that, she hopes to someday work in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry finding cures for diseases.

When Olvera reflects on the past couple of years at Stan State, she thinks about how she once considered leaving the Modesto area to attend a UC or other large university where class sizes often top 100, and she would need to live in costly rental housing, hours away from her hometown and family.

It makes her glad she stayed local and even more appreciative of the internship opportunity she has been enjoying so much.

Academic Internship Focuses on Keeping Children Safe

Hannah Perez’s academic internship with Safe Kids Stanislaus County may have ended in December, but Perez enjoyed it so much she volunteered to continue working with the program.

“I’ll be helping them with car seat demonstrations on the weekends because it’s something I am passionate about,” said Perez, the mother of two young children who recently graduated from Stan State with a bachelor’s degree in public health promotion.

Safe Kids Stanislaus County is a coalition led by Doctors Medical Center and the Stanislaus County Police Activities League dedicated to keeping children safe. The coalition educates the public about ways to prevent childhood injuries with programs such as car seat checkups, safety workshops and sports clinics.

Perez’s one-semester academic internship with Safe Kids was a win-win for her and the community. While she provided a needed service to Stanislaus residents, she was learning about best practices for childhood safety, working with the public, teaching techniques and grant writing.

Her internship class project consisted of promoting and assisting with three Safe Kids car seat classes attended by about 30 first-time expectant parents.

Alumna Hannah Perez helps Shannon Hernandez, psychology lecturer, adjust a new car seat.

“My goal was to get people to come to the classes, then we did a pre-test and post-test to see what their level of knowledge was before and after the class,” she said. “I learned that many people don’t know all the details of car seat safety, and those details are important to keeping children safe. It makes you realize the importance of health education and that the way information is explained and sent out into the world is also very important.”

Perez says she occasionally encountered parents who were surprised to learn they had not been using car seats in the safest way possible, and she can relate. When she started learning about car seat best practices, she learned that just following the law isn’t always best.

“There are laws and regulations in place, and those might be only the minimum you should do. There might be extra steps you can take, and those are called the best practices,” she said. “For example, you can turn your child’s car seat facing forward when they turn 2, and that’s the law. But the best practice is to not turn them around until they are at least 40 inches tall, because that is safer for them.”

Those are the kinds of details Perez expects to learn in a 40-hour class she is taking to become a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician. She says the knowledge she gains while earning the certification will be invaluable in her volunteer work and her public heath career, much like the knowledge and experience she gained in her internship.

“I think my internship gave me really good real-world experience because public health isn’t about sitting in an office and doing paperwork,” she said. “It’s about getting out, dealing with the public, sharing important information and getting things done.”