Client internships combine work with learning

The Youngstown Business Incubator is offering its clients a new commodity: interns.

Through a partnership with Youngstown State University, YBI is setting up internships for its clients. Although the incubator has had interns in the past, this is the first time that interns have been available to clients. The program started with the fall 2009 semester.

"We wanted to work with the university in a way that was more specific to entrepreneurial immersion," says Julie M. Smith, YBI's chief development officer.

The interns, all from YSU's Williamson College of Business Administration, work 15 hours per week for one semester. The paid positions are funded jointly by YBI and the college's Monus Entrepreneurship Center.

The interns work in a variety capacities — such as marketing and media relations — while becoming familiar with how a small business works and what it means to be an entrepreneur.

"I hope they [learn] that the spirit of entrepreneurship can be in any business and any field," Smith says. "Whether they want to start their own business after they graduate or whether they want to work for a Fortune 500 company, the skills they learn [through the program] will be useful."

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