Introducing the Student Startup Project

The Student Startup Project gives Penn State Great Valley students the opportunity to immerse yourself in a real-world startup experience. Working with other students and the LaunchBox director, you’ll tackle real challenges the LaunchBox and its clients face. You’ll be involved in infrastructure, brand, communications, marketing, events, and consulting, giving you a glimpse of working in a startup and, more importantly, challenging you to think outside the box.

What we do

From November to May, our students work 10 hours a week to produce deliverables that help address issues the LaunchBox is facing. Each cohort tackles different issues based on how the LaunchBox and its clients are developing.

Students also work directly with LaunchBox clients, beginning by sitting in on their conversations with the director. From there, students move on to working with clients to create deliverables, answer technical questions, and more.

The Student Startup Project is only open to Penn State Great Valley students.

The startup experience

We provide students an opportunity to become immersed in startup culture. As part of the  program, you’re thinking about everything, not just one aspect of the organization. This isn’t a student job, internship, or academic project—you’re facing the same real-world problems as entry-level employees at startups.

Things in startups can change quickly, which is why we emphasize agility and ability to change day to day in LaunchBox. You’ll learn the best way to solve problems, which isn’t always a conventional way of thinking, and leave ready to enter the world of startups.

This season

Our current group has three focuses:

Infrastructure—Using tools and resources provided by the University, determine the optimal connections and workflow for the Great Valley LaunchBox and its communications.

Awareness—Expand the marketing for the LaunchBox, including developing and implementing email templates, content marketing ideas, and social media presence.

Engagement—Who do we want to engage and why? The content we produce should be beneficial, educational, and easily accessible for students and our target audience.