SciTechsperience Internship Program kicks off new program year with 300 matching grants
Minneapolis, Minnesota — The SciTechsperience Internship Program is now accepting student and company applications for the 2017-2018 program year. SciTechsperience connects college students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors to internships in small Minnesota companies. SciTechsperience is administered by the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) through a grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).
College students who become interns will receive a paid work experience at STEM-based businesses statewide with potential for full-time employment. Businesses that hire interns receive a dollar for dollar matching grant to cover 50 percent of wages paid. The grants are capped at $2,500. 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/.
New to the program this year is that 15 percent of the students hired can be graduate students. Prior years were limited to undergraduate students.
“Minnesota is facing a talent shortage — especially in STEM fields— making programs like SciTechsperience important to our state’s future success,” said Margaret Anderson Kelliher, president & CEO of MHTA. “We’re excited that the program continues to grow year after year and encourage companies and students to get signed up.”
“Minnesota is fortunate to have incredibly talented students and great companies looking for future talent,” said Becky Siekmeier, SciTechsperience Program Director. “SciTechsperience is bringing these two groups together, offering students valuable hands-on experience and businesses a low-risk way to evaluate talent. SciTechsperience is an absolute win-win for everyone involved.”
“We’ve been juggling project priorities that require specific technical skills and interests,” said Stacey Kusnier, Marketing Communications Manager at EnergyPrint. “This program gave us the opportunity to try out some new things with interns and it’s been very successful.”
“Thank you so much for all your help over the past couple years with my internships through SciTechsperience,” added Jake Engen, a senior studying Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. “SciTechsperience is a fantastic program that has helped connect me with some really educational and beneficial internship experiences. I hope that SciTech continues to grow, so that more companies can afford to give students the same beneficial experience that I received through my internships, because the truth is that most students will not and are not gaining that kind of knowledge from their education alone. Keep up the good work!”
SciTechsperience was established in January, 2012 to offer college students pursuing STEM degrees the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge in solving real-world challenges. The program is designed to expand a pool of talent to support Minnesota companies commercializing new technology, products and processes. MHTA, through the SciTechsperience program, has placed nearly 900 students in internships since 2012. Nearly 1500 students applied for internships in the last program year.
In the 2017 Legislative Session, the Minnesota Legislature increased funding for SciTechsperience to $2.7 million over the 2017-2018 biennium. The funding is being used to increase the number of matching grants to 650, which are available on a first-come, first-hired basis.
A short promotional video can be found at https://youtu.be/c7h9pBa_orw.
About the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA)
MHTA is an innovation and technology association united in fueling Minnesota’s prosperity and making Minnesota a top five science and technology state. We help bring together the people of Minnesota’s technology ecosystem and lead the charge in directing technology issues to Minnesota’s state capitol. MHTA is the only membership organization that represents Minnesota’s entire technology-based economy. MHTA members include organizations of every size − involved in virtually every aspect of technology creation, production, application and education in Minnesota. Find out more online at http://mntech.org or follow MHTA on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MHTA.
