The University of St. Thomas (UST) recently reported that the school's Playful Learning Lab (PLL) is providing opportunities to keep students employed during the pandemic. 

St. Thomas student Khaled Shouman was told that his internship was being cancelled, and the lack of job opportunities concerned him until he came across PLL. PLL’s PLAYground project gave Shouman the chance to use the engineering skills he had learned in his mechanical engineering major to build birdhouse templates as well as translating the appropriate learning resources into Arabic. 

“Instead of being at home just sad about what is happening and losing my internship, thankfully I have an actual job to do and I’ve been meeting amazing people,” Shouman told Amy Carlson Gustafson, reporting for the university website. 

AnnMarie Thomas

In situations where summer camps were cancelled, PLL helped to facilitate the creation of a summer program to be delivered virtually for 80 deaf and hard-of-hearing elementary school children. The PLAYground project sent free themed boxes on a weekly basis for students at the Metro Deaf School and the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf. 

AnnMarie Thomas, who founded the Playful Learning Lab, explained the importance of the project. 

“I originally thought I’d have 10 people working in the Playful Learning Lab this summer and now I have about 30 students on the payroll,” Thomas told UST. “Anyone who wanted an internship – I hired them all back and gave them all raises. You always save your money for a rainy day and it’s pouring right now.”

In addition to helping students earn some extra cash, participants were able to improve their leadership abilities. 

“The Playful Learning Lab has given me a lot of experience with working with teachers and really responding to what they need,” Krista Schumacher told UST. “This summer camp specifically has taught me how to use the lab’s strengths to the best of our abilities in order to meet the needs of the community during these ever-changing times.”