Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP), Cleveland State University (CSU), and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) have partnered together to create a college internship program intended to foster relationships between local businesses and area college students. The initiative, which is supported by funding from Cuyahoga County’s Workforce Funders Group, placed 55 students from CWRU and CSU at 22 businesses in the Greater Cleveland area this summer. Students spent their time working on projects that not only enhanced their employers’ productivity but helped shape the future of the region in areas like healthcare, biomedical research, manufacturing and environmental infrastructure.
These experiences, which are designed in part to entice college students to stay in Greater Cleveland after graduation, are also focused on helping local employers address their staffing needs by providing a source of diverse, dynamic talent at a competitive rate.
“Retention of college graduates in the region was recently reported at less than 48%,” said Kara Carter, Managing Director, Partnerships at GCP. “Our goal is to increase that number to 55% by 2030.”
Intern Rober Carillo during LAND bike testing at the IX Center. (Photo courtesy of LAND.)
Carter went on to share, “Recent data also shows that 70% of interns receive a full-time offer from their employer at the end of their internship experience, and 80% of the interns who are offered positions accept,” she said. “So, it’s clear that creating work-based learning experiences like internships is among one of the best ways to grow talent here in Cleveland and keep young people in our state.”
Carter continued to reiterate the benefits of the program by saying, “This initiative is ideal for any company who sees the value in bringing interns into their organization but may not have the resources available to create their own internship program from the ground up. Employers who onboard one of our interns can take advantage of the fact that our team has already done most of the work for them – from creating relationships with campus career services to crafting important documentation like job descriptions and offer letters.”
“Plus,” Carter said, “there’s funding available through our program that supports up to 25% of internship salary when the intern is paid a minimum of $20 per hour, which helps employers attract highly qualified talent and helps with budget constraints.”
One employer who found tremendous value in the internship program is LAND Energy. Founded in 2020, this Cleveland-based business has quickly become one of the most innovative electric vehicle companies in the country, producing their signature eMoto bike called The District, which melds the concepts of eBike, eMoped and eMotorcycle into one electric vehicle.
Henry Remington, Head of Engineering, shared “We initially expected to only have one intern and then ended up with three.” The company was able to bring on two additional interns, Matthew Budney, a sophomore studying Mechanical Engineering at CSU, and Rober Carrillo, a junior at CWRU studying Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, because of the financial support offered by the program.
Budney recounted his experience in the program saying, “Working with LAND this summer has opened my eyes to engineering opportunities in Cleveland and northeast Ohio. Before this experience, my main viewpoint was that you had to go to Columbus to get a good automotive related engineering job … I now see all the opportunities here in the Cleveland area.”
For some employers, the flexibility an internship program offers when identifying and assigning projects is one of the biggest draws to participation. R2O Consulting, a woman-owned water consulting firm that aims to better our region’s infrastructure through environmental management, climate resilience planning and other initiatives, chose to onboard a micro intern this summer. These students spend their 80-hour experiences focusing on completing one project.
Matthew Kleps, a sophomore at Cleveland State University pursuing a dual major in Civil Engineering and Business, filled much of his micro internship experience at R2O with a variety of water resource and civil engineering duties. His project, which focused on sewer and wastewater collection systems, took him to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport where he conducted daily field reports, construction surveillance and inspections.
“The micro internship experience marked the beginning of my professional journey,” said Kleps. “Given that engineering internships usually require prior experience, this program enabled me to establish a foothold in the field and initiate my career, while also accommodating my summer classes. Without this opportunity, pursuing a conventional internship would have been challenging.”
Interns Alyssa Hansraj, a freshman at Case Western Reserve University studying neuroscience, and Carlos Herrera, a junior at Cleveland State University studying computer science, had the exceptional opportunity to join the team of world-class researchers working with the IBM Quantum System One – the first quantum computer in the world uniquely dedicated to healthcare research.
Cleveland Clinic intern Alyssa Hansraj. (Photo by Mollie Lewis)
According to a Cleveland Clinic news release, the quantum computer, which was unveiled in March of this year, “Harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems that today’s most powerful supercomputers cannot practically solve, giving researchers the ability to tap into new computational spaces that could help identify new medicines and treatments more quickly.”
Alyssa Hansraj said the research her team was conducting centered around the effect food may have on your risk for Alzheimer’s disease. “I focused on berries,” she notes. “I extracted all the chemical compounds in strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, mulberries and bilberries and mapped them into a network visualization, which is basically just a way to take large amounts of data and visually display it so it’s easily understandable.”
When asked if she would be open to continuing this research during the fall semester, Hansraj shared that she had already accepted an offer from her mentor at Cleveland Clinic to stay on.
Kul Bhasin, CEO and founder of Rocky River, Ohio, based Comsat Architects aerospace company, says his business regularly hires interns, who are trained to suit the company’s unique talent needs. Since founding Comsat in 2014 after 30 years at NASA, Bhasin’s goal has been to build his company with local talent. “Many Ohio aerospace students would like to stay here, but don’t think there is opportunity as they are not familiar with the many small and medium companies in the sector. Internships convince them otherwise.”
“Young people are smart,” adds Bhasin. “They want to build careers; they’re not just looking for a job. In many bigger companies, interns are given narrow work to perform. At Comsat they are immediately working with NASA.”
LAND bike testing.
Henry Remington from LAND described the internship experience as “A very low risk way for both parties to get a good feel for how you’re going to work together. The intern gets a look at your company. You get a good look at how they’re going to be as a worker.”
When asked if he would recommend the internship program to other employers as a viable path to hiring qualified candidates, he replied “If you’re looking to expand your business start looking at internships, because it’s going to be the best way to find talent.”
Greater Cleveland Partnership’s All In vision for a Great Region on a Great Lake has five key priorities: Dynamic Business, Abundant Talent, Inclusive Opportunity, Appealing Community and Business Confidence. All of our work ties back to these values. This story relates to Dynamic Business and Abundant Talent.
Learn More and Get Involved
For more information on how your company can mentor a student in the college internship program, please contact Kara Carter, Managing Director, Partnerships, at kcarter@greatercle.com or 216-592-2331.
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