How Lehman Students Remade Lost Summer Plans
(Photo via CUNY Herbert H. Lehman Lehman College)
By David Kolade
The outbreak of COVID-19 that began in March crept into summer and affected many students’ plans by halting vacations, internships, and jobs. As a result, students struggled to find other ways to occupy their time and adapt to the new normal.
“I was supposed to go to Massachusetts where I would complete a fully funded research program at Novartis Pharmaceuticals,” said Lamount Evanson, a Lehman biochemistry major. “However, due to COVID-19, the research program was canceled. I was offered a position in the next summer program, however since I am graduating in January, they said I cannot do it as I have to be enrolled in an undergraduate institution.” And while he was able to work for the Office of Prestigious Awards as a WAC Junior Fellow facilitating a summer program, he was unable to do any research there.
Other students also lost opportunities due to COVID policies. “My plans for the summer were to do an internship, shadow a doctor, and travel. As a result of the pandemic, I was not able to do these plans,” said Mariam Kamara, a health service administration major. “The hospital wasn’t accepting any interns because it was closed. I wasn't able to go to the country that I wanted to because they weren’t allowing people to come in and travel bans were placed. I ended up staying in the house while taking a summer class.”
Likewise, disruption forced Ezekiel Olumuyide, a chemistry major with a concentration in biochemistry, to sacrifice an important goal. “I had a project to complete at the National Institute of Health on studying the STAT3 pathway in immune cells, and the project would have led to the publication,” he said. “However, due to the pandemic, the program was canceled. [So] I decided to improve my bioinformatics skills by working with Dr. Manfred Philipp on elucidating the molecular basis of SARS-CoV as an application investigating SARS-CoV-2.”
“The hospital wasn’t accepting any interns because it was closed. I wasn’t able to go to the country that I wanted to because they weren’t allowing people to come into the country.”
Some students also highlighted the unexpected opportunities that they met while facing the losses of others. “In my case, I applied to a lot of internship opportunities but I got rejected for most of them,” said Edward Adjei, a major in business administration with a concentration in finance and a minor in media communication studies. “After I joined [the Association of Latino Professionals for America] and got my resume reviewed by some of the amazing board members, I was able to confidently apply to many opportunities for the summer. I was fortunate enough to land one internship opportunity through ‘Project Destined’ which was a 5-week real estate internship, and I got the chance to learn a lot about the fundamentals of real estate, ownership, and acquisitions,” Adjei added. “I am grateful for having that internship experience which I can put on my resume to showcase the skills I gained.”
