Entrepreneurial Internships and Ventures

The Burton D. Morgan Foundation recently established an endowment at Denison to support entrepreneurial internships and ventures. For the student who has identified an opportunity and is ready to test his or her skills in the world of innovation, there is no substitute for an authentic field experience. The Liberal Arts and Entrepreneurship Education Program encourages students to "learn by doing" under the guidance of real-life entrepreneurs, or even to try their hands at launching a business or service themselves.

Entrepreneurial Internships

Brandon Gill '09 conducted an internship with a Florida company called Tinomics, which specializes in titanium castings for precision manufacturing. Brandon focused on marketing initiatives and also learned about the full range of business expenses for a young company that he recognized was at the "fine-tuning" stage of its life.

Megan Reilly '08 pursued an internship with entrepreneur Paulette Gabriel, owner/ founder of Key Leadership Initiatives, an organizational development firm. Megan commented that "Working with an entrepreneur was an eye-opening experience. I saw first-hand the trial and tribulations faced by a new company...," an experience that "only strengthened my conviction that I one day want to start my own consulting company."

Ventures

Kurt Vincent '06, who along with his partner and childhood friend, used venture funds to start Dale Threads LLC. The idea behind the business was to redesign collegiate apparel that would be more stylish and high-quality - more like popular vintage style clothing as opposed to the "traditional, bulky sweatshirts and stuff that you only wear to the gym or on game day, said Vincent."

Michael Candelori'08 and Ryan Ahlrich'08 used venture funds to start Thousandword Films, a commercial video production company that produced promotional videos for the City of Lansdowne and local businesses. The partners remarked in their final report, "What made this summer possible was the Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurial Stipend...it gave us the ability, as students blessed perhaps with talent but not yet with much experience, to compete with established businesses and, indeed, to begin to establish ourselves. The hardest part of starting a business is earning trust and proving that you have the right mix of competency and passion, and the Burton D. Morgan Foundation's generous stipend allowed us to start off on the right foot - and three steps ahead of where we would have otherwise." You may see examples of their astonishing work at www.thousandwordfilms.com

 Internship and Ventures Stipend Application: Deadline March 5, 2009

 Application [pdf]

This initiative was structured to work in partnership with Career Services. 

List of Internships

Interviewstream.com

Cap City Studios

Whateverworks Art Space