On the first day of my virtual winter internship, I got up at 7:30 a.m., Eastern time. I made a cup of coffee. I put on jeans and a collared shirt. And at 7:58 a.m., I sat down at the kitchen table with my laptop and waited for the Google Hangout meeting to start.
In any other year, I would have been walking into the offices of Radio Cooperativa in Santiago, Chile. This year, on my first day of work, I walked from my bedroom to the kitchen. I researched, I prepared interview questions, and I wrote podcast scripts in the same room as my mother, who blasts Ricky Martin as she cooks lunch.
My work experience has been all too similar to my college experience thus far. Instead of meeting my pre-orientation group at the Yard, I typed fun facts about myself in the chat. Instead of running from classroom to classroom during Shopping Week, I clicked in and out of Zoom calls. Instead of being swarmed with flyers and upperclassmen at the Student Involvement Fair, I scrolled through a PDF list of clubs. This year, all that Harvard has to offer has had to fit my laptop’s 16-inch screen.
I, like many other first-generation, low-income students, have endured the difficulties of remote learning. Studying from home means enduring a weak Wi-Fi connection, sharing a study space with relatives, and seeing an increase in family responsibilities. And while these difficulties can be mitigated by living on-campus, the disparities between FGLI students and non-FGLI students will only become more pronounced in the summer, when there will be decreased access to Harvard housing.
Online college cannot be deemed the great equalizer when physical learning conditions are different across the student body. The FGLI community will be disadvantaged by Harvard’s policy that students “can only accept one Harvard source of summer funding” despite being involved in multiple summer experiences. After a year of hardship, Harvard needs to encourage students to take advantage of the virtual format of internships, volunteer work, and summer school and allow for appropriate multiple sources of funding. In fact, by limiting summer funding, Harvard is also limiting one of the few advantages offered by a virtual education: the ability to attend multiple programs that usually take place in different locations.
Two sources of Harvard-affiliated summer funding have never been allowed. The policy emerges from a time in which participating in two summer programs that took place at two different locations was physically impossible. But this year, everything is online. So why is funding being limited now?
Perhaps one possibility is to prevent students from taking on more opportunities than they can handle. How hard can interns work when they also have, say, papers and problem sets due? While concerns regarding burn-out are valid, it shouldn’t be assumed that ambitious college students will automatically be stretched out too thin. This summer, commuting, social events, and other time-consuming activities won’t be taking place like they usually would. If a student can handle two summer programs, they should be eligible to receive two sources of funding.
Another concern is the impact of changing this policy. Wondering if granting students access to multiple funding sources will affect other students’ chances of landing funding is a real worry, but Harvard doesn’t have to allow infinite sources of funding. Instead, the University could at the very least allow students to receive summer school aid plus an internship or volunteering stipend.
No matter the true reason for Harvard’s summer funding policy, its existence disproportionately impacts FGLI students this year. Unpaid internships were already inaccessible to FGLI students, who often choose between career advancement and a source of income. For example, students interested in public service and nonprofit work often labor without compensation, and pre-med undergraduates opt for summer courses in order to catch up to their peers and graduate on time.
This year, FGLI students can pursue both work and school, but only if Harvard allows multiple sources of summer funding. Education and experience are both vital to professional development, and for the first time, both are simultaneously accessible because of their virtual format. In a year in which Harvard wasn’t able to support its students in person, it is crucial for the university to support its students financially, especially when it comes to summer funding.
Image by Erin Doering is licensed under the Unsplash License.
