Intern(al) Affairs: The CI Blog

Statement with respect to COVID-19

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In light of COVID-19, more commonly known as Coronavirus, we elected to suspend Spring and Summer 2020 Programs for all locations outside of our London and U.S. based Programs. We did not re-open these locations for Summer 2020, as anticipated.

While we have refrained from launching our summer 2021 in-person programs so far, we are now taking a more – albeit cautiously – optimistic stance, and will be opening admissions for all summer 2021 programs publicly on Sunday 1st November.

The following assurances we made available for our 2020 Programs will continue to apply for students who are newly enrolling for 2021 Programs.

Guidance for current and prospective students

If you have selected one of the following programs, you are not affected:

  • Global Accelerator Program
  • Global Explorer Program (held within the US or UK)
  • Global Remote Program

If you have selected one of the following programs, you may be affected:

  • Global Explorer Program (held outside of the US or UK)

For students currently enrolled to participate in a Global Explorer Program held outside of the US or UK, we will be contacting you directly to assess your individual circumstances.

To better accommodate current and prospective student needs, we have altered our 2021 Program structure to provide the following:

  1. We’ve elected to open our Los Angeles and San Francisco Global Explorer+ Program, provided in collaboration with the University of California, Merced, to all students.
  2. We’ve increased the number of spaces available on our Remote Program, to offer students a flexible avenue to gain summer work experience.
  3. We’ve extended our new Income Share Agreement (ISA) funding option beyond the Global Accelerator Programs in New York and London. The availability of this is now extended to all currently available Programs.

Additional information for Prospective and Current Students

We have several safeguards in place to protect the integrity of Programs for students that are already enrolled, and those who are yet to enroll:

  1. We have several levels of flexibility to our Programs that can accommodate the changing circumstances and impacts of COVID-19. These apply across four levels: location, season, dates, and Remote participation. For example, if a travel ban is enacted preventing a student travelling to a given destination, we can:

    1. Allow suitable program location (and program type) changes

    2. Allow participation deferrals to either a later season or even year, to enable them to continue their Program in their original location choice

    3. Alter the start (and end) date of their Program by days/weeks/months as necessary

    4. Transfer their enrollment to a Remote Program to provide complete flexibility

  2. Our Placement Guarantee remains unchanged – if we are unable to secure a placement for you in your chosen Industry and Location, you are entitled to a full refund.

These safeguards are intended to protect the health and wellbeing of our students and those close to them. We recognize that balancing the need for work experience with safety is one that brings certain challenges, and we’ll continue to refine our actions as needed to maintain that balance.

What Current Students Can Do

Beyond the actions we have taken, there are a handful of other avenues that will help protect the integrity of your investment with City Internships.

  1. Please notify us of any travel plans you may have ahead of your scheduled Program. This is particularly relevant for international students who are considering travelling home/leaving their country of study before their Program.

  2. Please ensure you have adequate travel insurance. Whilst this is something we recommend irrespective of the current situation; it is extremely relevant now.

  3. When exploring travel insurance providers, please consider taking out a “Cancel For Any Reason” or CFAR policy, and ensure you understand the conditions of any policy that you purchase

Conclusion

Our first priority is the safety and security of the students joining our Programs. We will continue to closely monitor the spread of COVID-19, and will swiftly make changes as necessary to mitigate any risk that it poses to those participating in our Programs.

Everyone’s tolerance of risk differs, but based on the science and data provided by WHO and worldwide governments, we believe that whilst COVID-19 should be taken extremely seriously, the health risks posed to the typical participant of one of our Programs remain low if best practices are observed.

Our actions so far have been dictated by a wide array of fact-based sources. These are in line with the COVID-19 framework provided by The Forum on Education Abroad, and its Standards of Good Practice that we follow, in particular, Standard 8.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us on hello@city-internships.com or +1 310 438-5329.