When your internship is in the middle of a pandemic

When Sofiya Saakyan, a student in Clark College’s Professional Baking and Pastry Arts program, called Baron Patisserie in early April to check on her planned spring quarter internship there, the bakery was closed indefinitely due to COVID-19. The owner told her he wasn’t sure when the bakery could open again—or when Saakyan could fulfill her internship.  

Saakyan is one of nine students graduating in June with an Associate in Applied Technology degree in Clark’s Professional Baking and Pastry Arts program. The program’s final requirement is to complete a five-week industry internship during spring term. Students work 24 hours a week gaining real-world experience before they graduate. Students cannot graduate without completing an internship. 

Department Head Alison Dolder had arranged student internships in bakeries, patisseries, and chocolatiers in Vancouver and Portland. When COVID-19 restrictions shut down most food operations, Dolder had to act quickly to secure new internships for Saakyan and the other students. Because of the COVID-19 shutdown, all internships were pushed to the second half of the quarter while the department figured things out.   

That’s when Dolder called Josh Svenhard, co-owner and Vice President Operations at Eurobake.

Coming up with a Plan B, in a hurry

Eurobake, a Portland wholesale baker, remained operating as an essential business during the COVID-19 shutdown. Svenhard is a member of Clark’s Professional Baking & Pastry Arts Advisory Committee. This is the first quarter Eurobake has provided internship opportunities for Clark students. 

“I think we’re a perfect fit,” Svenhard said. “We can bring in students during COVID-19 because we’re not a retail bakery with customers, so students aren’t being exposed to the public. It’s important for a business to give back to its own industry, as well as the community.” 

Dolder offered all nine of the students the option of an internship at Eurobake, which is near Portland International Airport.  

“We left it up to the students to do what’s best for their families,” Dolder said.

Six of the nine Clark students chose to complete an internship at Eurobake spring quarter. One student chose not to do the internship at this time due to family reasons. Two other students had been laid off from their jobs and couldn’t afford to travel to Portland for the internship. Those three students are waiting for an opportunity to do an internship in Vancouver during summer term, when COVID-19 rules allow more bakeries to open. 

Two students per week are scheduled to work at Eurobake. The bakery operates from 3:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., providing ample opportunity to work around the students’ schedules. It allows students to maintain their other jobs. 

Dolder said, “Eurobake is rotating our students through their bakery for their internship and is providing hands-on learning following proper social-distancing protocol. It’s a great opportunity for our students. Some want to finish the program and be available to be hired when everything opens up.”

To accommodate students, Dolder said the baking program is not taking its standard break between spring and summer term to allow students to finish their internships, even if they started later in the quarter. 

Safety first

Working in a wholesale bakery during a global pandemic is no different from working in a bakery pre-COVID-19, Svenhard said. Eurobake’s follows strict safety protocol. “The baking industry has become one of the most careful,” he said. “Food safety starts with washing your hands and ends when the product gets into the packing in an unadulterated form. The industry has evolved to require handwashing, not touching your face, wearing hairnets and gloves. These things are common practice every day in a bakery. We can show student interns how these safety measures can be used to safely operate a business.” 

Svenhard said, “We want to ensure the Clark students aren’t just working at Eurobake, but also learning. We’re working with only two Clark students at a time so we can give them individual attention.” 

Dolder said, “It takes time to train students. Bakeries that accept students for internships are training students for the way their business operates, their product line.” 

Svenhard explained the importance of students getting hands-on experience: “They’re learning to use their skills. Learning the repetition and how to become efficient with your movement is a key part in baking, or any manufacturing business. To make hundreds of uniform products. To develop a rhythm.” 

He added, “The real-world bakery experience is production at speed, keeping up with line and the crew. Teaching students about food safety, R & D [research & development] projects we’re working on. We have a cake department, a bread department, and a pastry line. Students are operating different kinds of machinery in each department.”  

Eurobake staff also talks with interns about the business side of operating a bakery. They work with their interns to do a cost analysis on what to charge for each product in order to make a profit.  

There’s always summer 

Dolder told her students who chose to intern at Eurobake that she would contact the other shops where they had planned internships before COVID-19 shut everything down, to see if they will allow Clark students to do internships in the summer after more businesses can open.  

Dolder and the program’s other instructors have worked to build relationships with local bakeries. In previous years, Clark baking students have completed internships at highly respected Portland restaurants and retail bakeries including Papa Haydn, St. Honore Patisserie, and Fleur de Lis Bakery and Cafe.  

Dolder said, “The best outcome is if we get a student interning at a bakery or shop where they want to be, and then they get hired. It happens quite a bit.” 

Sofiya’s Story 

During a class Zoom meeting after COVID-19 pushed the pause button on baking internships, Dolder told students about the new internship opportunities at Eurobake. Sofiya Saakyan chose to start the internship as soon as possible so she could graduate from Clark and start working in her chosen field. She works three eight-hour days at Eurobake. One of her favorite tasks is at Eurobake is braiding sweet raisin bread. 

“You get to practice it a lot,” Saakyan said. “We make hundreds of loaves. There are multiple people making it on the same bench.” 

She said her classes at Clark prepared her for her internship.  

“I built confidence in my classes at Clark,” Saakyan said. “You learn good skills and get to practice so you can be confident that you know how to do certain things and not be afraid of many challenges.” 

Saakyan grew up in Ukraine, where she learned home baking from her mother. Her family immigrated to Vancouver five years ago when she was 15. She graduated from Fort Vancouver High School, where she spent three years in that school’s baking program.  

Saakyan said she hopes to land a baking job that allows her to stay in Vancouver.

“I’m very thankful for the internship,” she said. “I thank my advisor and Eurobake, who took me in. The opportunities—and the internship opportunities—at Clark College are awesome.” 

Those opportunities haven’t ended: With Dolder’s help, Saakyan has landed a summer internship at the Vancouver-based Baron Patisserie, where she had originally planned to intern during spring term.

Saakyan offered advice to future baking students: “Make sure you love what you do. When you’re a baker and you love baking, I think people can taste that.”