Entrepreneurship and internship, two ships passing in the night? Wrong.
The way Anthony Prieto ’12 and Chris Stamas ’11 saw it, for too long it seemed entrepreneurship and internship were two ships passing in the night. Sure, startups are synonymous with Silicon Valley, but they didn’t seem to be out in force at the job fairs hosted on the Mission Campus. So Prieto and Stamas decided to hold the University’s first Startup Expo.
Co-presidents of Santa Clara Entrepreneurs Organization, Prieto and Stamas put together an unconventional job fair co-hosted by the Career Center and SCU’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Prieto, a junior computer engineering major, is coowner, with Arthur Gallanter ’12, of the recently revamped Bronco Student Services, which offers laundry, delivery, and storage services for students.
The inaugural expo was held in February and drew upward of 40 Bay Area startups, some with international offices and others with first-name e-mail addresses—from solar panel manufacturers to Internet coupon providers to social media advertising firms. Kelsey Houlihan ’11 landed a marketing internship with startup Trubates.com, an online coupon company that is slated to expand its online presence from eight to 12 cities this summer. Logan Dobbs ’11, a marketing major and long-time user of Trubates, was also hired on this spring to help with the company’s ambitious expansion. Jon Teel ’12