The Qualcomm Social Entrepreneur Internship program at San Diego State University is linking MBA students with nonprofit organizations.
In the process of learning about entrepreneurship, participating students each put forth 150 hours of their semester toward local organizations such as the San Diego Blood Bank Foundation and Strive/Second Chance, a nonprofit agency dedicated to creating opportunities for self-sufficiency for the unemployed, underemployed and homeless.
Joined by Kauffman Foundation’s Entrepreneurial Internship Program, a 7-year-old Kansas City, Mo., company, Qualcomm Inc. executives and SDSU students have worked together for the past year to better the community.
The joint effort to assist nonprofit organizations and provide students with worldly experience is the first of its kind. That is, unique to other internship programs, MBA students from SDSU are serving nonprofit organizations with guidance from senior Qualcomm executives and SDSU professors.
– Program Organized
By SDSU, Qualcomm
Aiming to provide immediate assistance to a variety of nonprofit organizations that can greatly benefit from the students’ business skills, Sanford Erlich, executive director of the Entrepreneurial Management Center at SDSU, and Julie Kalk, senior manager of corporate giving for Qualcomm, have organized the recent addition to SDSU’s entrepreneurship curriculum.
Results are quantifiable.
The San Diego Blood Bank Foundation, with the assistance of MBA student Shirali Mehta, has begun to research the motives of Hispanics to give blood.
Attempts are being made to increase the number and frequency of Hispanics’ blood donations because of their highly prevalent blood type, O positive.
Through this internship, Mehta will continue to conduct market research, including focus groups, and she will create a marketing plan to encourage more donations. Since this is a problem across the United States, San Diego Blood Bank Executive Director Linda Ellis said Mehta’s work could have national implications.
– Creating A Plan
For Job Training
Also beneficial to the community, Sean Brooke, an intern at Strive/Second Chance, has used the business skills and techniques learned at SDSU to work on a concept paper, feasibility study and business plan. Specifically, his work analyzed the possibility of Strive/Second Chance offering job training and providing revenue through a retail store and career training center. His work with the organization also enabled him to land a job of his own with Strive.
With these real-world opportunities projecting a possibility of tremendous importance, Entrepreneurial Internship participants are put in the hot seat of business and marketing, helping the advancements for both themselves and their respective businesses.
“It’s a four-way win,” said Harvey Goodfriend, co-director of the Qualcomm Social Entrepreneur Internship program. “The students have a great experience, the agencies get a great project, Qualcomm gets a unique opportunity to help in the nonprofit arena and it all benefits the community.”
