Internship Program
CCEW's interdisciplinary Internship Program brings students from across the university to propel Oklahoma's research and intellectual property towards the marketplace. CCEW interns have the option to receive upper division credit in the Colleges of either: Engineering, Business, Arts & Sciences, and Honors. Additionally, interns receive a $1,200 stipend for their commercialization efforts.
To date CCEW has provided more than 150 internships to the top OU undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of backgrounds including students from the colleges of Arts and Sciences, the Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, the Price College of Business, Earth and Energy, Engineering, Fine Arts, Journalism, and Law. Together, these students have collaborated on 26 different commercial opportunities with the assistance of more than 24 private sector mentors and inventors.
Collectively, CCEW commercialization teams have launched new companies, negotiated licensing agreements, sourced management teams, and have attracted nearly $6.8 million of funding to propel Oklahoma technologies forward. CCEW is a transformative experience. CCEW interns build the entrepreneurial skills, professional relationships, and diverse friendships that will mark their lives for years to come.
The CCEW internship consists of four unique components:
Boot Camp
Diversity makes the program unique and ultimately more rewarding, but with such a variety of backgrounds, it is crucial to start out on the right foot. Boot Camp is a two-day seminar intended to provide interns with a common "tool box" for success regardless of their academic backgrounds. Boot Camp provides participants an overview of the entrepreneurial process, introduces them to the project, mentors, and inventors they will be working with throughout the semester. Additionally, Boot Camp is a time to build a sense of team camaraderie to help strengthen their team dynamics.
Commercialization Work
Interns spend the majority of their internship time with their commercialization teams working on a strategy for the advancement of the commercialization of their assigned technology. Commercialization activities vary based on technology-specific factors including (but not limited to) technical and market research, benchmarking, financial analysis, fund raising, strategic planning, and business plan creation.
Distinguished Speaker Series
Interns attend a weekly academic course to learn about different aspects of the entrepreneurial process from real-world experts. Since 2006 interns have had the opportunity to learn from and network with seasoned entrepreneurs from various industries such as: biotechnology, banking, oil and gas, and prosthetics. In addition, the CCEW speaker series helps interns to develop on a professional level, by providing topics that range from resume building to public speaking.
Final Presentation
The semester culminates with a Final Presentation where the interns present their findings to more than 150 business and educational leaders from across the university and state to recommend the path each technology should follow to move forward in the commercialization process.
How do I apply?