Does your community-spirited non-profit, small business, or startup need a little help but lack the funds to hire a student intern? An innovative Grove City College Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation (E+I) program might just have the solution to your problem!
The E+I Fellows program provides paid student interns to regional organizations and businesses at no cost. The Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation is now taking applications from organizations in the Pittsburgh region that would benefit from having highly driven interns placed at their organization free of charge.
“We are looking for host nonprofit and commercial entities that have a positive impact regionally through social innovation or economic opportunity but lack resources to hire traditional interns or employees to increase capacity and continue to grow. Under the E+I Fellows program, hosts get help creating a detailed project plan to maximize the value of the placement for both the organization and the students involved,” said Emma O’Toole ’23, E+I community manager and organizer of the E+I Fellows program.
The deadline for host organizations to apply for the fall 2024 cohort is Friday, August 23. Students can apply for the positions beginning on September 5 after meeting their prospective employers at an E+I Fellows Preview Night. Program and application information for interested organizations is available from The Center for E+I at gccentrepreneurship.com/host-organizations. Call 724-458-2591 for more information. E+I Fellows is funded by a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and an anonymous donor who supports the goals of the program.
Last spring, the program placed 17 Grove City College students with 10 different host organizations in the Pittsburgh region. They helped small startup businesses, some of them launched by their fellow students, and community-oriented organizations in Mercer, Beaver, Butler, and Allegheny counties. Their jobs ran the gamut, from data entry to film production to social media to sales.
“The E+I Fellows program is a unique opportunity for current students to hone their skills, build their résumés, and support amazing organizations vetted by E+I,” said Yvonne J. English ’97, professor of practice and executive director of E+I. “Students will also gain an appreciation of the problems and issues faced by nonprofits, startups, and small businesses locally and will contribute by strengthening the regional economy and advancing the common good in the surrounding area.”
Organizations being unable to hire interns or employees to help increase capacity often leads to understaffed organizations that do not reach their potential, overworked employees at risk of burnout, or shutting down the organization altogether. This directly affects regional economic prosperity as well as decreases the economic opportunities among residents.
“My experience with the E+I Fellows program allowed me to apply what I learned in my class in a real-world business setting. I learned the importance of being vocal in a business setting, especially when sharing ideas, as well as effective audience research, and the essential role small businesses play in the community. This experience has solidified my interest in pursuing public relations and marketing consultation for small businesses after graduation,” said Emma Rossi, ’25, fellow for Sidetracks Board Game Club, LLC.
“Our nonprofit, The Genesis Collective, reached out to E+I for our social media management needs because I knew we'd be getting someone who was thoughtful with a solid work ethic in a Grove City College student. What we got was far greater than that,” said Pamela Rossi-Keen '99, executive director of The Genesis Collective.
“Our intern was prepared, responsive, and did a fantastic job of putting the pieces of our story – both our historic story and our current people and programs – into a narrative that increased our social media engagement by several hundred percent. Our E+I Fellow delivered on every requirement we laid out at the beginning. The program was thoroughly managed, and communication was consistent and effective with the program staff, as well. We won't hesitate to apply to participate again, and we were so pleased that we are now trying to hire our fellow independently,” she said.
For more about the Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation, visit gccentrepreneurship.com.