On an overcast morning, more than 250 interns from a dozen Lehigh Valley employers, big and small, fanned out across the Lehigh Valley to pick up litter, clean a barn, paint street planters, help senior citizens, and make other contributions to their summer home.

Intern Impact Day, organized by the Volunteer Center of the Lehigh Valley, is designed to not only let interns make an impact on the community, but for the community to make an impact on them.

Attracting and retaining talent is a top priority for employers, and the hope is that by giving interns a chance to become invested and engaged in the community, they will choose to stay in the Lehigh Valley. 

“The hope is that they like their work. They like their environment. They want to come back and be a part of the Lehigh Valley as employees,” said Karen Smith, CEO of the Volunteer Center of the Lehigh Valley. “It really does make a difference.”

Participating in the June 16 event were interns from ADP, Air Products, Amazon, Andesa Services, ArtsQuest, Freshpet, Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Olympus, PPL, St. Luke’s University Health Network, and Victaulic.

They gathered at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, courtesy of the IronPigs, for a brief kickoff. Then they headed to their projects with lunches provided by St. Luke’s University Health Network, which sponsored Intern Impact Day along with PPL and ADP.

Interns from different companies were formed into teams for 16 projects, to create opportunities for them to meet and network.

“The goal is for us to really help connect the interns here for summer with like-minded individuals working across the region,” Smith said. “What we really want from Intern Impact Day is to have the interns experience more of the Lehigh Valley through volunteering together. We think that the Lehigh Valley is a great place to be and, as hard as the companies work to bring you here, we want you to keep coming back.”

Strong internship programs are an important piece of building and expanding the Lehigh Valley’s workforce. Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC) works with its partners to help employers create impactful internship programs.

LVEDC publishes an annual Internship Resources Guide and holds an annual Internship Summit where employers, interns, and educators offer advice including how employers can connect with internship candidates. This year’s summit will occur on July 27 at DeSales University. The event is free. Register here.

Many of the interns working this summer in the Lehigh Valley had never been to the region before accepting their positions. Several said they got a lot out of Intern Impact Day by connecting with their peers from other companies.

They appreciated the opportunity to get out and see more of the community, recognizing that quality of life is an important factor in deciding where they will work.

“Getting a job, somewhere that you can see yourself living in, is definitely important because you're not only going to be working there, you’re going to be living there, you're going to be a part of the community. So, seeing the actual community, interacting with the actual community, it would be influential,” said Camila Chombo Sam of Germantown, Maryland, who attends University of Maryland-Baltimore County and is a cybersecurity engineer intern at Air Products.

She and other interns from Air Products joined interns from PPL and Lehigh Valley Health Network to pick up litter at Yosko Park in Bethlehem and along the South Bethlehem Greenway.

Several interns said they have found the Lehigh Valley to be a tight-knit community.

“I can definitely see the community aspects in Lehigh Valley,” said Anthony Criscione of Westchester, New York, an MBA student at Boston College who is interning in the treasury section at Air Products, working on a variety of financial and insurance matters. 

“I think it's a really great community. It's much more close-knit than I've seen other parts, which is really great,” said Pravallika Palwai of Princeton, an intern at Lehigh Valley Health Network who attends Georgetown University.

She is working on a project about COVID-19 in the infectious disease unit and was among interns from LVHN and ArtsQuest who were pulling weeds and doing other clean-up at the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem.

Several interns who grew up in the Lehigh Valley said they hope Intern Impact Day encourages their peers to move here after graduation.

“I love the Lehigh Valley. I hope to come back here once I finish schooling and have a job here. I think it's really important for people to see the community and sort of help out in order to create those connections and hopefully be able to appreciate what the Lehigh Valley has to offer,” said Danielle Weaver of Walnutport, who attends Penn State University and is interning at LVHN. As the senior scholar, she is in charge of helping 42 scholars with poster presentations.

“It's a great area and there's clearly a lot of good opportunities here,” said Gwen Minogue of Orefield, who attends the College of Holy Cross and is working on audio visual distraction techniques for burn patients during her internship at LVHN.

“I thought this was really cool. I jumped on it right away,” said Alison Yurchak of Hilltown, Bucks County, who is an air separation unit intern at Air Products and was part of the crew at Yosko Park.

She said Air Products encouraged participation, as the company emphasizes giving back to the community.

“They made a very big notion of that when I signed on, which I thought was really cool,” Yurchak said.

An undergraduate and master’s student at Illinois Tech, this is her fourth internship. The others, all elsewhere, did not include a component such as Intern Impact Day and she found it to be valuable.

“Why don't we have more of this? I’ve never done this before,” Yurchak said. 

The Volunteer Center of the Lehigh Valley started Intern Impact Day five years ago, after working with PPL on a service day for its interns. The center and PPL discussed how to create a community wide event.

The center’s mission is to connect nonprofits with businesses and individuals that want to give back to the community. It strives to create educational and human service partnerships that will enhance and enrich the Lehigh Valley by developing leaders and providing resources to nonprofits.

More than 250 interns from 12 Lehigh Valley employers gathered at Coca-Cola Park on June 16 for Intern Impact Day, organized by the Volunteer Center of the Lehigh Valley. (Photo courtesy of St. Luke's University Health Network)