COVID-19 affects internships BYU–Hawaii students’ internships are being canceled, postponed and some students cannot return home from their internships BY SERENA DUGAR IOANE The coronavirus has negatively impacted students and their aspirations to complete internships, they said, border closures in countries also prevented them from returning home once their internships were completed. BYU–Hawaii professors suggested online internships as possible alternatives. Tom Court, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education & Social Work, said as an internship coordinator, he has seen changes in the ways students complete internships.
Before COVID-19, online teaching internships were not accepted for the TESOL major. Court said since most teachers in the TESOL profession are teaching remotely, they changed that policy. Stuck after doing internships Court added how the most challenging situations have been for students who finished their internships, but travel restrictions prevented them from returning home.
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Court shared, “One of our TESOL students was finally able to fly home to her country just last week after many months of waiting to be reunited with her family. That kind of physical separation from family and home during a pandemic is very stressful.” Laura Vaitea Liu, an alumna from Tahiti who majored in TESOL, did her internship in Mauritius. Liu served her full-time mission in Mauritius and said she was happy when she found the internship through Handshake.
Graphics by Esther Insigne
