Last modified: Wednesday, June 26, 2002
Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation places 15 students in summer internships
EDITORS: A list of participating companies is included at the end of this release. Students working for each company also are available for interviews.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, in conjunction with the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, has placed 15 Kelley School of Business students in summer internships with start-up or growth-oriented firms.
Fifteen MBA students and one undergraduate student are interning with 11 companies in Indiana and three out-of-state companies. The students will learn firsthand the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship.
Both the students and the participating companies have to meet specific requirements. Companies must provide a substantial role or project for the intern with specific goals, and the intern must work directly with the business owner, chief executive or other chief decision-makers. The student is expected to give strong value-added work for the company. The student will be required to outline in a presentation the lessons learned and experiences gained.
Elizabeth Gatewood, director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship at IU, feels the internship program is a "win-win" situation for everyone.
"The students have the opportunity to work closely with decision-makers in an environment that's always challenging, busy and exciting," Gatewood said. "Likewise, companies have the chance to work with some of IU's best and brightest business students as they apply their expertise and enthusiasm to a project. The students and companies find the experiences to be what the entrepreneurial spirit is all about: stimulating, demanding, invigorating and rewarding."
The participating companies are 3N Enterprises, Jasper; Cornerstone Information Systems, and Spring Mill Venture Partners, Bloomington; Crown E.S.A., Portage; Kinetic Art & Technology Corp., Greenville; Ohio Valley Plastics, Evansville; Vera Bradley, Fort Wayne; Telamon Integrated Marketing Services, Carmel; and PolyMicrospheres, Division of Vasmo Inc., and Suros Surgical Systems, Indianapolis. Immaculate Consumption, Flat Rock, N.C.; Vaxa Inc., Hollywood, Fla.; and VIVA USA Inc., Rolling Meadows, Ill., also are participating in the internship program.
The highly successful internship program is in its second year. The Johnson Center hopes to expand the internship program to give more students and Indiana's entrepreneurial companies opportunities to learn from one another.
For more information about the internship program and the criteria for companies to participate, contact the Johnson Center at 812-855-2521 or go to its Web site at https://www.kelley.indiana.edu/jcei.
Funding for the internship program comes in part from the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Below is information about each participating company and its contacts:
-- 3N Enterprises, Thomas Nigg, Jasper, Ind., 812-481-2345
-- Cornerstone Information Systems, Alan Minton, Bloomington, Ind., 812-330-4361
-- Crown E.S.A. Inc., Linda Johnson, Portage, Ind., 219-7692-0700
-- Immaculate Consumption, Scott Blackwell, Flat Rock, N.C., 828-696-1655
-- Kinetic Art & Technology Corp., David Hougland, Greenville, Ind., 812-923-7474
-- Ohio Valley Plastics Inc., Gary Smith, Evansville, Ind., 812-425-8544
-- PolyMicrospheres, Division of Vasmo Inc., Dr. S. Mohan, M.S., Ph.D., M.B.A., Indianapolis, Ind., 317-549-3764
-- Spring Mill Venture Partners, David Mann, Bloomington, Ind., 812-331-7500, ext. 166
-- Suros Surgical Systems, Jim Pearson, Indianapolis, Ind., 317-334-1040
-- Telamon Integrated Marketing Services, Dr. Vincent Liu, Carmel, Ind., 317-818-6888
-- Vaxa Inc., Steve Nathasingh, Hollywood, Fla., 954-989-2425
-- Vera Bradley, Julie North, Fort Wayne, Ind., 260-482-4673
-- VIVA USA Inc., Ilango Radhakrishnan, Rolling Meadows, Ill, 847-368-0860
