Enterprise 6 Internship Cohort Completes 2024 Session

Taking a summer internship in economic development, Stephanie Galicia, a graduate student at Kennesaw State University, didn't expect she'd be saving lives.

But Galicia, who is pursuing master's degrees in business and public administration, found herself doing just that as an Enterprise 6 Intern in the Safety, Health, Environmental Services group at Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute.

Because some of her family members work in manufacturing, construction, and landscaping, she felt a strong personal connection to the group's mission to help employers reduce workplace hazards.

"To come to work, learn the educational side, and go home and educate my family is something I've been very fortunate to do," Galicia said. "Everyone who works in these environments works to be able to feed their family and have a place to live. They don't know how serious these hazards are that they come across each day. We're able to tell people, 'This chemical's harming you, this air is harming you, this safety hazard is harming you.' It's saving lives."

Galicia was one of seven Enterprise 6 students from Georgia universities who put the skills they've honed in labs and classrooms into a host of dynamic economic development projects across the state this summer.

Launched in 2021, the Enterprise 6 program allows University System of Georgia undergraduate and graduate students to work in the economic development space. In the past three years, 31 interns have been selected.

The Enterprise Innovation Institute is the nation's longest-running and most diverse university-based economic development organization. Since launching its founding program more than 60 years ago, it has expanded to serve a wide range of businesses of all sizes while also increasing its focus on socioeconomic development, providing resources, support, and skills to local communities.

Enterprise 6 interns receive practical, real-life work experience and $25 an hour for a 20-hour work week, as well as mentorship from a research faculty member and biweekly check-in meetings. The program is made possible by funding from the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research.

"Our Enterprise 6 internships immerse students from Georgia Tech and other universities in the work of socioeconomic development across our programs that serve communities and business," said Enterprise Innovation Institute Vice President David Bridges. "Students don't always see direct parallels between socioeconomic development and their courses of study, but this experience is designed to help make those connections."

That was the case for Anshika Nichani, who interned with the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership. "Cybersecurity, supply chain, and Industry 4.0 projects provided me with invaluable experience and have been instrumental in my development across multiple domains," said Nichani, a computer science major.

"I learned more here than in some of my classes. It was also fascinating and enjoyable to learn about general workplace practices and dynamics."

For Shreya Dudeja, an undergraduate studying business administration in the Scheller College of Business, the internship enabled her to learn about the inner workings of university finance, tracking processes, and delving into research and policy. What she especially appreciated about the internship was "the fact that I could work with so many different people. It's a very collaborative environment."

Ciera Hudson is a Georgia Tech mechanical engineering student who will graduate in December. Hudson, who grew up singing and playing the flute, chose an Arts Innovation internship and has discovered some overlap between her major and her creative passions.

As an engineering student, she said, "I've had a lot of opportunities to learn about how products are developed and the whole life cycle from concept to completion." She sees similarities between that process and designing an arts program that meets a client's particular needs.

Samuel Hutto, an economics major at Georgia College and State University, worked with Georgia Tech's Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR), building surveys and collecting and organizing data on municipalities throughout the state.

What he enjoyed most about his experience was CEDR's team. "They've been very accepting and relaxed. They're very easy to work with," said Hutto, who added, "I've learned more about how research can truly affect people's lives."

Students participated at various stages in their educational and career paths. EI2 Global intern Ejaz Ahmed, for example, is a Ph.D. student in the School of Public Policy with previous work experience, and Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing intern Byron Fair enjoyed a successful military career before joining Scheller's MBA program.

Krystle Richardson, program operations manager for Enterprise 6, supports students throughout their internships, helping them to fine-tune goals and navigate challenges while connecting them with relevant resources at the Enterprise Innovation Institute and Georgia Tech.

"I'm thrilled when interns extend their time with us as student workers or graduate research assistants," she said. "Some even secure full-time positions."

One such intern is Hanyu "Hannah" Lu. After her experience in the 2023 Enterprise 6 cohort, she completed a master's degree in computational science and engineering at Georgia Tech. Lu then went on to work as a student employee at the Enterprise Innovation Institute, and she's recently been hired as a data analyst in the organization's Office of the Vice President.

"The success of the Enterprise 6 Internship program stems from both our exceptional interns - bright, driven individuals who eagerly apply their classroom knowledge to real-world projects - and our dedicated leaders who provide them with meaningful and valuable experience that shapes their career paths," said Richardson.

"We hope the interns' experiences will have a lasting, positive impact on their careers and lives."