Trip goes on despite SARS

Despite a travel advisory and the threat of SARS, Aaron Baker still plans to intern in China.

Baker, junior international business major, plans to spend 14 weeks of his summer in Guangzhou, China, interning for Leggett & Platt.

He will be learning about the company’s operations and training for a possible future management position with the company.

Baker doesn’t believe he’s putting his health in jeopardy by visiting China during the SARS outbreak.

“I’m not worried about it,” he said.

He doesn’t see the trip as a “real risk,” because he said compared to the population of China and the number of outbreaks, the people who have been infected with SARS is a small percentage.

“I follow it every day,” he said. “I check to see what the latest statistics are on the number of people who have been infected.”

Only if the number of deaths from SARS soars into the thousands will Baker decide to cancel or postpone his trip, he said.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is a flu-like disease that has no known cure. It has infected more than 5,500 people in nearly 30 countries and an estimated 350 people have died from SARS.

The Chamber Choir had to cancel its trip to China because of the SARS threat. The Institute for International Studies has a policy that doesn’t allow students to fly to a country with a travel warning in place.

Baker said several other students were planning to study Chinese this summer at a China university but were unable to go after the Institute pulled their funding. Baker isn’t receiving funding from Southern, because Leggett & Platt is sponsoring his trip.

“I think students deal with international travel in a number of different ways,” said Dr. Pat Kluthe, honors program director.

She said many students were scared to travel after 9-11 and the war with Iraq, but others, like Baker, still insist on traveling.

Since Baker is an honors student, Kluthe was told about his internship opportunity. She believes Leggett & Platt wanted Baker for the internship after the company found out he had a minor in Chinese.