CEA CAPA WORLD

Michaela talks about how rewarding her remote internship has been from start to finish. She drew from her forensic studies to work on cases with Networked Knowledge, an organization based in South Australia, and had unique opportunities to learn firsthand from experts in the criminal justice field. Her experience was supplemented with career workshops featuring guest speakers in her global internship course.

Over the past year-and-a-half, the pandemic has brought a lot of stress and anxiety for many students. We tend to plan our semesters and summers in advance, and the pandemic threw those plans in limbo. For some undergraduates, an internship is required to graduate, and during the pandemic, all in-person internships were canceled.

So, what do you do? Delay graduation? Or find another means of accomplishing your internship?

Study abroad providers like CAPA started to offer remote internships abroad for a small fee. Studying abroad is something few students take advantage of in their undergraduate careers. A remote internship abroad allows students to work with companies overseas without air travel, although you miss out on the prospect of living like a local.

One of the benefits of participating in a remote study abroad internship is that it helps you stand out from other applicants for a job or graduate school.

I recently completed a 6-week internship through CAPA with Networked Knowledge in Australia. Networked Knowledge specializes in criminal justice cases involving miscarriages of justice and wrongful convictions. The company aids lawyers in Australia and analyzes cases in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Dr. Robert Moles, the founder of the group, is the foremost expert in his field. He has worked on some of the most high-profile cases in Southern Australia, whose primary mission is to right the wrongs of the criminal justice system by helping the victims of miscarriages of justice.

From the first day to the last, the internship was a rewarding experience for everyone involved. Dr. Moles was very welcoming to me and my fellow interns and encouraged questions or discussions on any subject. In an internship, you must have an insatiable need to learn but also be open-minded as well. My remote internship consisted of weekly meetings to discuss past criminal cases and current cases that the firm is working on. My background is mainly in forensics, so I provided information from previous classes to aid understanding of the different analytical and investigative techniques used in the cases.

My favorite part of the internship was toward the end, where we had a chance to meet one of the individuals whose conviction was overturned due to Dr. Moles and others' hard work. We also met a journalist who made it his mission to bring the Canadian criminal justice system's attention to a pathologist. It was a surreal experience to meet both of these men and hear about their experiences. This meeting was a unique opportunity to hear firsthand experiences and to ask questions.

I gained a lot of knowledge from this internship that I can use to further my studies once I graduate at the end of the year. I also learned a lot through CAPA’s Remote Global Internship Course (GIC), which I took alongside my internship. The course is designed to help students articulate their internship experiences and prepare for the job market or graduate school.

The GIC teaches students subjects like cultural intelligence. Believe it or not, even though we interact with other people from different cultures, we rarely understand the cultural norms. The course even has workshops to help you build a resume/CV and a cover letter along with a mock interview to help you prepare for the future. They also have guest speakers who speak about diversity, equity, and inclusion in corporations.

Safe to say, if you have the opportunity to study abroad or participate in a remote internship, I definitely recommend it!

Thanks, Michaela!

Michaela Clarke is an official Remote CAPA blogger for spring 2021, sharing her story in frequent posts on CAPA World. A Forensics Studies major from Florida Gulf Coast University, she is remotely studying abroad and interning in Dublin this semester.

Michaela's journey continues all semester so stay tuned.