Students at Moravian College are getting real work experience thanks to Traditions of Hanover Independent Living. Traditions of Hanover prides itself in providing individualized, compassionate, quality care to seniors in the Bethlehem area, and not only do they look after seniors, but they also like to connect with the younger generation and the greater community in a variety of ways. One of these is through the partnership that was developed between Traditions and Moravian.

Moravian College partnered with Traditions of Hanover in 2014 to hold events together and bridge the generation gap between seniors and students at the college and have maintained a strong relationship ever since. Through the partnership, Traditions and Moravian created an internship program, which has been instrumental in enriching Traditions’ work in the community.

Over the past two years, seven different student interns have worked at the senior community. This semester they are host to four interns in the building in different departments: sustainability, public health, marketing-statistics, and social media.

The interns are typically at Traditions of Hanover two or three days a week. Most of them found out about the internship through Moravian’s Volunteer and Internship fair, through personal connections, or through an organization, such as a sorority or fraternity that had brothers and/or sisters who volunteered in the past.

Internships are for credit; students can do a full 10-12 hour internship per week that gives a certain amount of credits, or half an internship that gives less. Students can also volunteer in order to build a resume.

Giulianna Young, junior, social media intern, said, “This internship is teaching me a lot about how to market through Facebook and other social media platforms, which was expected. However, it’s also taught me a lot about connecting to people, especially the older generation. It has been incredibly rewarding to get the chance to interview them for social media spotlights. A lot of them have truly incredible things to share, so it has been an absolute pleasure being able to listen to all their stories.”

In addition to providing the internships, Traditions of Hanover Executive Director Cathy Heimsoth will continue working with Moravian to develop social events and activities to keep the partnership alive. In the past, Traditions has assisted with a bingo fundraiser, run by the OGO Brothers, who in turn helped Traditions on their annual Family Day by selling tickets and assisting families. They’ve also helped clean out the Traditions library and donate books to another cause, and one of the other Moravian sorority groups has hosted a PJ night for senior residents, in conjunction with the resident life department at the community.

“We love the fact that our interns provide an ‘intergenerational’ component to our residents’ lives – each enriching the other in just their daily interactions as the interns spend time working on their focused projects,” said Heimsoth.

For more information about the partnership between Traditions of Hanover and Moravian College, please call 610-882-0400.