Dec. 08, 2014
Kyle Guthrie
[email protected]
Volunteering 20-40 hours a week in an internship they wish to work at in the future is a hard task to tack on to college life. Additionally, internships that pay their interns are often few and far between.
But relief may be in sight for certain students at UCCS, as the Startup Summer internship program is casting a wider net in the hopes of recruiting students from the Colorado Springs area.
The Startup Summer internship program was founded in 2012 in Boulder through an organization called Startup Colorado with the hopes of recruiting CUBoulder students into fulltime and part-time internship programs at a rate of $12 to $15 an hour.
After seeing successful results, the program was expanded in 2013 to include students from Denver, and then expanded to Colorado Springs this summer.
Kyle Harmande, the Startup Colorado director of the events, entrepreneurship and innovation club explained what his group was looking for in potential intern candidates.
“We are taking interns that specialize in market research, things like the business side of things. We are also looking for interns who specialize in the programming field, so people like computer science or engineering,” Harmande said.
The program is looking for juniors and seniors majoring in business, computer science or engineering to apply. “That’s not a requirement, it’s just something that we think could help them in the field,” Harmande said.
Internships take place over the summer.
“[It’s] a 10 week program giving interns full time employment with startup companies in [Colorado Springs], Denver and Boulder, and it’s totally directed towards college students for the summertime,” Harmande said.
Harmande said the program has been met with success in the past.
“Students who worked for these startup companies were often offered jobs at these same companies once they graduated,” he said. Students also are encouraged to create and work on their own business ideas while in the internship.
“At the end of the program they will be pitching their ideas to the CEOs and founders of these companies,” said Harmande.
John-Scott Delva, the director of the program for this summer, believes that it will continue its trend of expanding.
“We’ve looked at possible expansion, but there are no specific plans as of yet,” he said. “A lot of that will just depend on how this year goes.” Delva also explained his thoughts on the program.
“What I’ve seen is that it provides interns with great founders and upper level executives,” he said. “It helps connect certain aspects of the community along with teaching those students more about their position than a standard internship.”