As the University of Virginia's spring semester started in cold, cloudy January 2020, Soumya Chappidi, then a third-year student in the Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, was already daydreaming about her summer plans. She was counting the days until she could bask under a Mediterranean sun in Valencia, Spain, while taking an immersive Spanish class to fulfill a requirement for her minor in Global Studies in Education. Her classmate, Clare Hammonds, also a third-year in Engineering Systems and Environment, was busy calculating her moves for the summer, too. Students often consider the break between the end of their third year and beginning of their fourth year one of the most critical times for securing internships, with potentially huge implications for future job opportunities. Hammonds had already nailed down one internship offer from a technology consulting firm in Richmond, and was awaiting word from another global company. Little did these optimistic students know a nano-sized virus was about to disrupt their big plans and change the course of history. By March, the novel coronavirus was spreading across the globe, closing borders and collapsing economies. Over spring break, UVA and many other institutions announced a move to all-virtual classes. Hope for summer internships faded in early May as many businesses around the country announced they were canceling their summer hiring. As the semester ended, Chappidi was back home with family in South Carolina, having given up on a sunny couple of months in Spain. Hammonds had moved to Montana to wait it out with her family when she learned her internship had vanished. Summer was beginning to look a little hopeless for these two.