Revamped for the second cohort, the Four Athens’ Startup Internship Program opens applications for participating companies July 5th. Five companies will be selected to submit full project proposals that will be worked on by internship teams managed by Four Athens.

Following up on the first cohort of 16 students from the Spring 2017 semester, the program has been updated and revised to incorporate feedback from interns and participating companies. The new program structure reduces the management burden for the companies, and provides the experience of working on an interdisciplinary team for the interns. Graduate students (primarily MBA and MPA students) will lead the small teams and manage the projects submitted by local companies.

“Ideally, the teams will have the experience of what it’s like to develop a new product or feature in a startup, with short-term projects aimed at testing the viability of an idea”, says Jordan Burke, Executive Director of Four Athens. “Part of the project will be working with their stakeholders - the participant companies - to identify and measure what constitutes a successful outcome.”

Four Athens will be working collaboratively with the Office of Experiential Learning at the University of Georgia to identify and attest to the learning objectives necessary to satisfy the experiential learning requirement for new students. Four Athens will also be working with Athensmade and their Experiential Learning Institute initiative to help source potential interns and participant companies.

“Our goal is to expose students to the opportunities that exist with local businesses, and give them the experience of taking ownership of a project in a startup setting - an environment with limited resources, an abbreviated timeline, and learning about your target market as quickly as possible”, says Burke.

Applications for participating companies will close July 26th, and student applications will be open from July 17th until August 23rd. More information can be found at https://members.fourathens.com/startup-internship-program.