Minneapolis, Minnesota — The team behind the SciTech Internship Program is excited to announce that they recently surpassed an impressive milestone: 2,000 interns placed! For the last nine years, SciTech has helped college students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) connect with Minnesota startups and small-to-midsized businesses for paid internship opportunities across the state.

“This is an incredible achievement,” said Becky Siekmeier, SciTech’s Program Director. “We went from helping secure 60 internships in 2012, to 295 last year, and that was in the middle of a pandemic! It just goes to show how critical the SciTech program is to people, for both the students who are eager to get experience in their industries and the employers who are seeking new talent to help their small companies grow.”

Several hires took place to bring placements across the 2,000 threshold. Rebecca Steffen and Hui Qian Tan were hired by Haystack Data Solutions, an advanced analytics and data science agency, and will be working remotely as Jr. Data Scientists over the spring and summer.

Juliana Malyshev and Ali Mohamud will be working as web development interns for 7 Generation Games, a bilingual video game and interactive app developer that teaches math within the context of the virtual world.

“As a growing startup, we really make an effort to hire interns who we think could be a good fit longer term within our company,” said Maria Burns Ortiz, the CEO and Creative Director of 7 Generation Games. “SciTech is this incredible resource where you know that you’re going to not only get applicants, but really good ones. I have also been impressed by the diversity of candidates we get from posting on SciTech.”

“The SciTech program is a “win-win” for both students and companies,” said Jeff Tollefson, President and CEO of the Minnesota Technology Association (MnTech). “Students greatly benefit from the impactful work-based learning opportunities provided by employers, while hosting companies not only benefit from the work performed by students during the internship, they gain early access to new pools of STEM talent that will help drive their future business success. We are proud to partner with colleges and smaller businesses across Minnesota in this important work.”

The SciTech program, designed to build and retain Minnesota’s STEM workforce, eases the burden of paying interns by providing participating employers with a wage match that reimburses them for half of what they pay their students (up to $2,500 per intern hired through the program).

SciTech is administered by MnTech through a grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). To be eligible, businesses must have fewer than 250 employees worldwide. Students and businesses can view requirements and apply to take part in the program at http://scitechmn.org/.