The Society of Women Engineers joined a consortium of 22 organizations that have signed an open letter to U.S. employers supporting the continuation of 2020 summer internship programs.
As a member of a national community of organizations working to build and diversify the talent in tech, engineering and all STEM fields, SWE is aware of the impact the COVID-19 crisis will have on the emerging science and technology talent pool and the future of U.S. innovation.
In the open letter it reads, “The aspirations and pathways of our nation’s emerging technologists and engineers are at risk. Students are experiencing severe disruption of their education as universities have had to abruptly move to online courses and close dormitories. But the disruption isn’t relegated to campus, and students have taken to crowdsourcing details of their off-campus experiences, including wide-spread cancellation of internship opportunities. While these have not been independently confirmed, at the time of this writing the number of reported 2020 summer internship cancellations has more than doubled in less than one week, and many federal and academic research experiences have also been canceled.”
SWE hopes this initiative will allow for summer internships for students to continue with an understanding of adjustments that will need to be made.
“Our mission at SWE is to empower women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders and by signing this letter we hope that we continue that mission to help ensure the success of our future women leaders in tech and engineering,”
-Karen Horting, Executive Director and CEO.
Several organizations are already taking proactive measures to address internship commitments:
- Cisco is continuing its internship program while making virtual plans.
- Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center (CEROC) at Tennessee Tech will offer Virtual Internships to replace several on-campus summer positions.
- Dell is offering remote internships, shortened to June and July.
- Discover is continuing its summer internship program with some adjustments in response to the current climate.
- Google is moving to remote internships.
- IBM will honor summer internship offers, transitioning to the company’s first-ever, 100% virtual, digital internship program.
- Microsoft is maintaining all their internships worldwide.
- Snap Inc. is continuing its internship program as planned but in a work-from-home capacity.
SWE has also created a new, custom filter to submit your resume on our career site. This will make sure both students and companies are able to connect to move toward a successful summer and future.
Upload or edit your CV/resume in the career center and flag it with our new filter, “2020 Internship,” to connect to companies and opportunities near and far. SWE will be continuing to remind our partners to leverage the career center resume database and post their internship opportunities to reach qualified candidates like you!
