Online internships lack personal interaction

The following comment was posted on SportsBusinessJournal.com in response to the column “Online internship could serve student, university and company” in the Jan. 11-17 issue of SportsBusiness Journal.

I like where you are going with this, and yes, when you put it in terms of “sending them to do research,” a virtual internship seems practical. But if we can make this argument, then we can make the argument that schools in general should go away because everything can be taught and done online. In the end, aren’t teachers just “sending students to do research?”

The problem is we are missing the personalization, the interaction. Just brains and beauty don’t qualify enough to get someone a job these days. They need to be able to interact, hold a conversation, have a quick wit, be creative, and so much more that you can only get out of physically being in a work environment. Unless these internships are specifically posted as “virtual research intern,” we can’t lose the essence of what makes internships so enduring.

Laressa Newman
San Diego