Swarthmore Future Entrepreneurship Program (SFEP)

Student Application Period: Feb 8-26

About SFEP:

Swarthmore College Career Services has a gathered listing of summer experiences at local start up companies through a partnership with Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Students (seniors and alumni are ineligible) can apply to posted opportunities and interview directly with participating start-up companies. Student will not receive any funding from the start up companies. In order to support the exposure to educational and entrepreneurial opportunities, the College will provide selected students with $4800 in summer funding support for 10 weeks. All SFEP opportunities will be conducted remotely.

SFEP Student Info sessions: powerpoint presentation

LIST OF EMPLOYERS & POSITIONS

Student Application Period: Feb 8-26, 2021

Student Application Instructions:

Please follow these directions to make sure that you're able to view all SFEP opportunities and apply to the ones you're interested in.

1. Log into Handshake.

2. In the search bar, type in "SFEP" and hit enter for a list of all experiences that are a part of this program. All SFEP experiences will have the title labeled "SFEP: ________" A full list of opportunities is also available; you can also type in the employer name and search for the opportunity that way.

3. Apply to as many opportunities that are of interest to you. You will need a resume to apply. If you haven't had your application materials reviewed, please attend Career Peer Advisor Zoom Drop-Ins (M-F 1-3pm) OR email cpa@swarthmore.edu to get your resume reviewed.

4. Please note that Career Services does not participate in the start up companies’ selection processes in any way. The decisions of the start up companies are completely independent of Swarthmore College and do not create an employment relationship between you and the College.

5. All SFEPs will be remote.

Note about funding:

$4800 is the maximum amount that a student may be awarded for summer funding. Should you accept an SFEP opportunity, you are not allowed to apply for additional funding for this program through the College.

Note to International Students:

Students are required to contact the International Student Center (Jennifer Marks-Gold) about summer funding.

Questions:

Career Services (pkim1@swarthmore.edu)

Hear from some of your Swarthmore peers about their SFEP experiences below!

My experience at Lithero is one that I will surely treasure for the rest of my career. I was able to learn quickly, adapt to a new environment, be a part of a business setting, and implement my own code into the company’s pipeline. It is thanks to this internship that I find myself interested and targeting Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence opportunities as I am now aspiring to be a Data Scientist.

I am extremely grateful that I had the chance to learn under a Swarthmore graduate within an intimate corporate setting in which my learning experience was maximized. Conveniently enough, the CEO of my startup had a successful career with various investment banks and was therefore able to offer me precious career advice (and connections) during our exit meeting that will aid me moving forward.

I believe I have grown a tremendous amount as an eager student, young adult emerging in the tech career, and an independent women...I’ve learned a lot of valuable skill sets such as communicating in the real world, time management, and organization. I am confident that my education at Swarthmore will only help me grow more.

I learned personally from the CEO’s on how to manage and grow a small business, something in which I have always had interest in. I worked with almost everyone in the company at some point or another, and even led a company-wide meeting on the fourth week. Throughout this experience, I’ve grown to know I thrive in an environment where creativity is held up as a priority, especially in marketing. In the future, I hope to continue to help create projects like the ones I did during this internship and continue my journey in my professional career.

I got to dive deeper into customer success work, from interacting with parents and clients, to working with data about how engaged our customers are, and much more. Being able to do this sort of work gave me a lot of knowledge about the busy and high-energy process of being at a small company. I was able to see the sales side, the technical side, and customer side in action, as well as watching the process of working with individual customers: from cold emailing, to finally sealing the deal, to officially launching our product for the client. I felt that I saw all sides of the start-up at work, and was able to see the personal impact of the work I was doing, which was particularly rewarding.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work for such an amazing company and I have truly learned so much about the higher education industry as well as sales in general. Working at startups for the past two consecutive years has made me realize how much I enjoy the startup environment due to the many opportunities that exist for individuals to wear many hats and gain exposure to things they aren't necessarily qualified for.

Working at Neuroflow has been a transformative experience, to say the least. Skill-wise, I've grown from a programmer who only knew a single "stack" of technologies to one who is able to learn and develop with new tech on the fly, from someone who had to be taught to one who can now be relied upon...Regarding myself, I've discovered two important qualities I hadn't been aware of: my passion for working in projects that offer tangible, positive social impact, and my desire to at some point create a venture of my own. These I hope to actualize in my future.

Animation: