Problems Arise With Internships due to pandemic

By Ashley Dandoy

March 12, 2021

Since the pandemic began, Colonie Central High School students enrolled in CEIP have faced difficulties finding internships.

CCHS offers the Career Exploration Internship Program (or CEIP) to seniors only. The class aims to help them familiarize with the work force setting while still in school, according to the updated CCHS Curriculum Guide.

“This class combines classroom instruction with work-place internships,” it stated. “Students then gain experience in specific career areas through an unpaid internship.”

But ever since COVID-19 hit the United States during the first half of 2020, CEIP has changed. It’s difficult for students to find internships.

“It’s usually not that difficult to find the actual providers for the interns, but this year here, it’s going to be a little hard to do,” said Christopher Hanley, the instructor of the course.

He also stated that some interns from different fields, such as the medical and law enforcement fields, are not accepting students this year.

However, he said that students can apply for other internships that are similar to their original request.

“Anything that we need to do, we have to find on the peripherals of those areas,” Hanley noted.

Despite the setbacks, a twelfth grader in CCHS, Joshua Archanian, was able to apply for an internship.

“Mr. Hanley set me up with Kenny Trima, who is a racing driver,” he said. “I haven’t gotten a response yet, but I’m sure he’s pretty busy so by the weekend, he’ll probably get back to me.”

But, Archanian did mention the difficulties of applying for and pursuing an internship during the pandemic that previous students did not experience.

“I really can’t go in person because maybe if racing was normal, maybe I could go to race tracks and actually talk to him, and maybe ask in-person, and maybe give me a little demo of what they do,” he noted.

Students at Colonie aren’t the only individuals missing out on internship opportunities. Maya L. Dandoy, a registered nurse in Albany Medical Center, also gave insight on the hospital’s stance on internships.

“The last one I knew is that they’re not allowing students to do their clinical internships,” Dandoy stated.

Furthermore, she also guessed as to why the hospital is not accepting student interns, saying that they don’t want to increase COVID cases.

Although the future of this course is uncertain, Hanley hopefully stated that CEIP is going to grow.

“It’s going to get bigger, it was bigger for a while and I think the district is interested in continuing this,” he said.