It’s July 31st, 2020, and four very full weeks of programming, but it’s finally here: the last day of our first ever virtual summer program. My overall (and biased) perspective is that it went very, very well. Especially considering this was our first time ever running a virtual program and there were a lot of unknowns that we all had to navigate constantly. Through it all, we still somehow managed to keep the summer associate’s need for connection and communication forefront in our minds and our program.
It’s definitely different to go through a summer program virtually.
Having been so thrilled by remote work, I didn’t think I would feel the impact quite as much as I did. Although most of our programming transferred better to the virtual environment than many had feared, things that were not programmed just disappeared. Those things were the small touches of communication that happen when you’re sharing the same space. Things like directing people to the bathroom, making small talk as we wait for people to file into the conference room, listening to conversations as we line up to get a meal, and all those random instances when you see people briefly in the hallways or other common spaces like the cafeteria.
I found that I missed those things.
More than that, I found that those small tangential conversations had been a lot of what I relied on to develop a sense of who these students were over the summer; particularly because in my role as an assistant, I really didn’t have any other kind of communication with them. But none of that was programmed, so my only sense of these students this year was from whatever I could glean from a computer screen expression and things in the room behind them.
Is that enough for me to prefer an in-person program? No, it isn’t, for two reasons:
One: I’m likely one of the only people on the team who really feels a sense of loss about not getting a glimpse into the summer associate personalities.
Others on my team had check-ins with them individually a few times over the summer, and our summer chairs and hiring partners also had small group meetings to chat on a regular basis. The summers set up their own small group meetings, and also had multiple virtual meetings with their mentors and “neighborhood” groups. From my experience meeting and chatting with WALRAA members virtually, if you have the time, connections are made, and I imagine that for everyone who had a chance to meet the summers in that environment don’t really feel like their connections would be significantly different in person.
As an assistant, it’s appropriate that I have the least touch points with the summers, and that is just how it plays out in a virtual environment. I wouldn’t schedule check-ins with the summers simply for the sake of my own curiosity over the summer, but I also don’t think my lack of exposure to them virtually is significant enough to account for a programming change as dramatic as in-person vs virtual decision. Perhaps it’s something to keep in mind for next year and make it my own personal goal to initiate conversations more, but otherwise it’s simply the new baseline in the virtual world. I can be ok with that. Especially when it means that I’m not working a ridiculous amount of overtime and long nights in exchange.
Virtual connections take planning to accomplish. It's simply the new baseline in the virtual world.
Two: The benefits of remote work far outweigh this slight loss of communication opportunity.
I was able to sleep in daily, was able to wear comfortable clothing, there was no commute in the morning, a much reduced getting-ready routine, no stress from other people’s anxieties, no office politics, and far less overtime and late nights spent away from the person I love. I could be in complete control of my environment and how I presented myself. So that in the end, even though there was so much to learn in a short period of time, and so much riding on us getting it right, my stress level this summer was far less than I’ve ever felt during a summer program - or even at any job - ever. And that, to me, is worth the sacrifice of missing a few casual conversations.
Overall, I learned a lot in a variety of ways these past four weeks, and am glad I had the experience.
I worked with a really great team of legal recruiter’s across the U.S. who navigated what I think has to be one of the best ways to run a virtual program. Very few things surprised us, very few details weren’t considered and accounted for - it was both planned well and thoroughly to the absolute best of our collective abilities. And although we may have fell short in a couple of areas, what we did do turned into a very robust and beneficial four week program. I’m super proud to have been a part of it.
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