Remote Internships in Cape Town

This has been a wonderful experience. Even with Covid not allowing me to travel, learning virtually about the culture of South Africa was incredible. It has left me wanting to come to South Africa one day. My supervisor was amazing. I learned a lot more about urban farming than I did before this internship. I also picked up new skills for both professional and personal development.

Due to the pandemic, I returned to my hometown Hong Kong, and I started to look at remote internship opportunities online. That’s when I received the college’s email about VACorps’ Remote internship abroad in South Africa, and I thought it would be a valuable opportunity to get experience working with a company and understand more about South Africa’s culture and business environment. The experience turned out to be beyond expectation. I much enjoyed my internship, as the team has a vibrant and supportive ambiance, and it made me feel that my opinions are valued. Furthermore, my supervisor, who was also the company’s CEO, had also been approachable and frequently communicated with me to ask about my progress and answer any questions. She provided various working opportunities to me beyond accounting works, which helped me to reconfirm my interests in business analytics. During the three months, I got to step out of my comfort zone by presenting my analytical findings through weekly meetings. This experience enabled me to polish my presentation skill that was once one of my weaknesses. Overall, I improved professionally and personally through this internship opportunity, and I will miss the wonderful team at my internship site, and the supportive VACorps staff.

I chose to do a placement in South Africa (virtually) because I love scriptwriting and was keen to learn more about that area of work, as I wish to pursue it as a career. I really loved the weekly cultural meetings that were hosted by the loveliest ladies ever. I made new friends in South Africa and learned so much about the cultures, lifestyles, traditions, and food! I also made a new friend, another intern who was doing the placement with me. I will miss the meetings every week and learning more about the country and seeing my new friends every day.

I chose this internship experience because I wanted to gain an appreciation for another culture while also learning how to better my writing and research skills. South Africa has always been a top location of mine to visit and although I couldn't be there physically, the VACorps online cultural workshops helped me gain a great understanding of the country from the comfort of my home. I think the best part about interning with my host company was getting to work with Patricia, my supervisor. She exudes genuine warmth and friendliness, and was relaxed about meetings and completing tasks so as not to put too much pressure on me due to work and other responsibilities I had during the internship. My favourite part of the internship was reading and deconstructing her book, 'Skyline', as I felt a real connection with the story and the characters and how to relates to the world today. It made me want to travel, meet people and find stories like those in the book, and be a more compassionate person. Honestly, what I will miss most about the experience is talking to Patricia - hearing her insight and her research into crafting and creating these incredibly complex characters, and the emotional stories they tell. I have been given a new appreciation for work in the writing world and now understand that it's not all glamour, but the hard work can be just as fun.

After the COVID-19 hit the globe, I was worried I would not be able to have an experience out of the United States. I loved the community of people that I met through both VACorps and my internship site. I loved learning about South African culture from Buddy Chats with Kuselwa and Kholi. I hope to keep in contact with both VACorps and my internship site, as I hope to visit South Africa one day in the future. I really enjoyed the projects I was given because they afforded me the opportunity to learn and develop a new skill. I never had to create an informational brochure or a workbook before, but I am glad I got the opportunity to do so.

I chose South Africa because of the previous projects they had and the opportunities matched up well with what I want to do in the future. What I loved the most about my internship was the people I worked with-- communicating with them was fun and easy. What I learned about myself through this internship is that I do well when working with others and can take constructive criticism and create something everyone can agree on. What I will miss the most is creating and planning projects with my team. I wanted to become more comfortable and practice creating social media posts and I was able to accomplish this goal! I also enjoyed editing the proposal for funding, I was able to put my excel skills to use!

I chose South Africa as a destination for my remote internship because it is a place I want to travel to and I took a class on Modern Africa. What I loved most was that it provided a new kind of work environment that I otherwise would may not find in the United States. I learned most about my own work habits and how I need to manage my time properly. Some of the highlights that I had were when we finally submitted our grant proposal that we had been working on for two weeks and had spent 5 hours on the day of submission fixing it up. I loved working with the people at my host company and I will miss them the most.

Since my original plan to intern in person with a separate organization in South Africa was interrupted, I was very grateful for the opportunity to intern remotely. Although I was mainly interested in studying South Africa to understand it’s history of Apartheid and compare it with that of segregation in America, the cultural workshops throughout this summer have opened my eyes to everything else it has to offer. After learning a bit about the different cultural traditions, foods, music, and natural attractions, I am even more eager to visit and hope I will be able to next summer. I also learned many valuable professional skills throughout this internship. The biggest challenge was communicating virtually across a large time zone. Although it took some adjusting, I became much better at managing my time and became much more comfortable and confident in my communication abilities. Overall, this virtual internship was a very beneficial experience, and I hope I will be able to apply the lessons I learned in person in the future.

My initial plan was to intern at a PR agency in Detroit, Mich. Due to COVID-19, most of my opportunities went out of the window and I felt stuck considering I needed an internship this summer in order to graduate on time. Through my university's Study Abroad Instagram, I came across the opportunity to intern with an international company, virtually of course. I didn't have a specific destination in mind, I just knew I wanted to get experience working with a PR agency. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the South African culture and meeting people of Cape Town. My favorite part of this experience was how welcoming and kind every single person was. It made me feel more comfortable and confident during the experience, personally and professionally. Working at my placement company taught me a lot about myself and allowed me to build my skillset immensely, as well as my portfolio. What I will miss most about this experience is the constant learning of myself, PR in South Africa, and the culture of the nation. I would definitely participate in something like this again and highly suggest other students do so as well. They will not regret it

I have just finished my remote internship where I was working on putting together a sports program design with with a soccer academy for a group of underprivileged girls based in South Africa. Although I would have liked to visit Cape Town in person, I have still been able to meet some incredible people and truly experience the South African culture within the comfort of my own home. I feel I have made a difference in these girls lives whilst they have changed mine. While participating in fun cultural workshops and weekly buddy chats with my new friend in South Africa, I was able to learn and experience as much of South Africa as possible remotely. The buddy chats were always the highlight of my week and are something I will truly miss. This experience has helped me gain perspective, think creatively, and explore my interests. I have had a great experience with Kaya Volunteer and VACorps from the very beginning on my program and can’t wait to visit South Africa in the near future!