Coronavirus Causes Internship Cancellations
By: Nick Viland
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ATHENS, Ohio – As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow, and as schools and businesses remain closed to in-person instruction, summer internship plans for students are not looking bright.
As early as the first week of March, businesses started to send current interns home and notified potential interns of a possible hiatus in summer-internship programs. Limiting personnel in those businesses is intended to limit the spread of the virus.
Students though, understand what is needed to be done at this time. Max Richards, a student at the University of Georgia, lost his summer internship to coronavirus precautions.
“The company did what they had to and cancelled my internship,” he said. “I understand it had to be done, but it stinks because it’s going to set me back.”
The set-back could even delay some students from graduating.
“It’s a university requirement that I get one done before graduation,” Richards said. “I contacted them about, so now I just have to wait and see.”
Other people have to wait and see what decisions their companies will make before summer. Those interning for sports team are the most conspicuous of summer program interns. Brad Walker, a student at Ohio University, is interning for a summer collegiate baseball team in the Cape Cod League. He said their decision will most likely have to wait until Major League Baseball weighs in.
“The league said that right now nothing is suspended, and a lot of the leagues are doing the same,” he said. “I think they’re going to wait and see what the MLB does, then everything will line-up from there.”
Major sporting events across the nation have begun to cancel or postpone their seasons. The NCAA basketball tournament got cancelled, The Masters postponed, and the MLB regular season has been pushed back indefinitely. None of these delays or cancellations have affected Walker’s hopes of broadcasting in the Cape Cod, but a recent major sporting event has him nervous about what the future holds.
“I wasn’t nervous originally, other than baseball suspending opening day it seemed like everything would be OK by when our season started,” Walker said. “Now that the Olympics have been postponed until next year, it really has made me a lot more nervous since that decision.”