Cultivating connection in the Covid era: student experiences in an in-person agroecology internship after experiencing pandemic learning

Abstract

Undergraduate students who experienced an in-person and hands-on, Agroecology Scholars Program in Research and Extension (ASPIRE) internship at North Carolina State University participated in semi-structured interviews about their experiences in the summer of 2021 and 2022. This period reflects a transition back to in-person classes and programming, following the abrupt transition to socially distanced and online learning mandated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In ASPIRE, interns are placed with mentors in research labs at a public land-grant university and engage in weekly farm tours and professional development as a group. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants with interview questions formulated to reflect student experiences of hands-on and place-based learning, their interests in agriculture and agroecology, as well as questions designed to provide qualitative feedback about the internship itself. In the interviews, students spoke explicitly about how the in-person experience with a diverse group of their peers was especially meaningful given the contrast with socially-distanced models of learning implemented in the wake of a global pandemic. While the physical setting was a key point of this education, students emphasized the role of interpersonal relationships as impactful to their learning, highlighting three kinds of interpersonal relationships: student-mentor relationships, student-stakeholder relationships, and peer-to-peer relationships.