“UMSL Students Succeed Virtually Anywhere” debuted during the annual Founders Celebration and showed the resolve of students such as Wangui Gathungu, who is pursuing her degree and working two virtual internships amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by August Jennewein)

This unprecedented time has challenged University of Missouri–St. Louis students to continue learning and working toward their degrees.

A new video, unveiled during last week’s 29th annual Founders Celebration, provided evidence of their determination and adaptability as they seek brighter futures.

“UMSL Students Succeed Virtually Anywhere” featured testimony from three students – Laura Haug, Michael Brothers and Wangui Gathungu – who worked in virtual internships to gain experience and enhance their resumes after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Philanthropic communication specialist Cary Goldwasser worked with Contemporary Productions to produce the video, which also included perspective from Jamie McDonald, an assistant business manager at Burns and McDonnell, a full service engineering, architecture, construction, environmental and consulting solutions firm that provided training opportunities to UMSL students in a different format this summer.

Haug, a communication major, had only recently started her internship at a St. Louis area marketing agency when she had to begin working remotely, but she took the initiative to build trust with her new colleagues and find ways to contribute.

Brothers, a graduate student in supply chain and analytics and a member of the UMSL men’s golf team, took advantage of the canceled spring season to start his summer internship at Fenton-based Nexius a month early.

Gathungu, a media studies major, gave up plans for a summer internship and instead landed a pair of positions this fall working remotely in two positions based in Houston while completing her degree.

“UMSL students can succeed virtually anywhere,” Haug said. “That’s a consistent pattern that I have been able to see. Most of the time I’m in virtual classes, so you meet a variety of people with different backgrounds, of all different ages, of all different walks of life. That was something that I was particularly drawn to when I first joined UMSL. There was just so much diversity and diverse thinking and all these different people that you could connect with. It’s definitely an environment for growth.”

Click below to watch “UMSL Students Succeed Virtually Anywhere.”