Carolina Innovators Connect

Carolina Innovators Connect offers students and companies a two-pronged event featuring a panel discussion and meet-and-greet. These events give students learning and career development opportunities with high-growth startup companies and social ventures in the Research Triangle region. Both sessions bring students together with local companies and nonprofits that are eager to work with talented students through internship and job opportunities.

The first event is a focused discussion panel that showcases underrepresented startup founders, offering students an opportunity to hear from successful entrepreneurs from a variety of backgrounds. The second event is a broad networking meet-and-greet session that gives students a chance to hear from and meet a variety of startup companies from across the region. Innovate Carolina offers funding support for a select number of internships.

Send any questions or comments to Anise Robinson, student engagement and events manger, at Anise.Robinson@unc.edu.

What can you expect?

Carolina Innovators Connect events:

• Introduce students to internships and employment paths that help them to develop entrepreneurial skills.
• Increase awareness about the variety of jobs for all academic majors within startup companies.
• Engage students in Innovate Carolina’s 1789 student innovation community, which offers mentoring, events and networking to all students interested in innovation and entrepreneurship.
• Keep talented Carolina students local by immersing them in the extensive learning and employment opportunities the Triangle region’s growing community of collaborators, creators, entrepreneurs and mentors.
• Demonstrate to students that the startup path is available to them no matter their race, ethnicity or gender.
• Educate and inspire students through the stories of diverse founders.
• Allow startups to go beyond traditionally expensive and corporate-dominant career fairs to engage with UNC students in a startup-focused environment.

Who should attend?

Students seeking startup internships and entrepreneurial inspiration. These sessions will give you chances to meet UNC-affiliated startup leaders and make connections that could land you an internship or potential job. These events are best suited for students who:

• Are currently enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill.
• Want to learn more about entrepreneurship and what it’s like to work at a startup.
• Are interested in making connections with a diverse group of startup founders.
• Seek internships working at a startup company or social venture in the spring or summer.

Startup founders and innovative corporations who want to connect with talented students and/or apply for internship funding. While this event is open to all startups and small businesses, it is best suited for and will provide more enhanced participation opportunities for organizations that:

• Are in the central region of North Carolina or offer well-structured virtual opportunities
• Have completed customer discovery and are preferably revenue generating.
• Can offer valuable learning experiences to students (clear goals, a supervisor and preferably paid internships).

Why should students attend?

If you’re a student, these events give you chances to hear directly from companies’ about their startup work cultures. You’ll make connections with business leaders who may give you an opportunity to jump in and start living the entrepreneurship life yourself. Students who have interned with high-growth startups in the past report that they appreciated working in small, collaborative teams that gave them opportunities to lead, apply technical skills and gain experiences across a variety of business functions.

Why should companies attend?

As a company, you’ll enjoy meeting talented students from UNC-Chapel Hill and Central Carolina Community College who are curious to learn more about your world. These students are ready to start applying the management, scientific and technical skills they’ve learned in the classroom to help solve some of your most pressing business problems. Plus, with the chance to apply for internship funding through Innovate Carolina, you may be able to gain the financial resources to hire one of them as an intern. You’ll also learn about how you can get involved with the 1789 Hub student innovation community at Carolina and build ongoing connections with student entrepreneurs.

Is there funding to support student and startup internships?

Yes – After attending these events, your startup company is welcome to offer internships to any students with whom you connect.

Carolina Innovators Connect 2024

For both students and startup leaders, Carolina Innovators Connect 2024 will include two events designed to build relationships among intern-seeking ventures and talented college students in central North Carolina. Brought to you by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Innovate Carolina, this dual-event experience gives both students and local startup companies the chance to network, share mutual professional goals and experiences, and explore internship and skill-building opportunities together. For your convenience, the events are scheduled back-to-back in the same location Thursday, Nov. 12. Join us at the Junction, located at 136 E. Rosemary St., Suite 100, for these events.

STARTUP INTERNSHIP PANEL DISCUSSION & MEET AND GREET
Nov. 12 | 4 p.m. | The Junction, 136 E. Rosemary St., Suite 100

This session is open to companies startups located in the piedmont area of North Carolina – and all UNC-Chapel Hill students. During these events, companies describe their missions and employment opportunities. Following these company talks, students engage with companies through casual networking and conversations. As a student, you’ll have the chance to talk directly with companies that are looking to meet students who have entrepreneurial spirits, a passion for problem solving, computer science and other technical skills. If you’re searching for an internship, a potential job or opportunities to learn what entrepreneurship is all about, this session will jumpstart your professional journey.

Register now

Event partners: UNC Department of Computer Science | UNC Career Services | Honors Carolina

Past Companies

Here’s a look at just a few of these fast-growing ventures that joined us last year.

Startup Jobs and Internships

Are you a student looking for an internship or job at a startup company? Innovate Carolina’s 1789 Hub: UNC’s student innovation and entrepreneurship center posts internship and job listings with various ventures interested in working with talent Carolina students. Check out the directory and find the right opportunity for you.

You can also follow 1789 Hub on Instagram @1789Hub to keep up to date with student innovation and UNC.

Newsletter

Sign up to receive one of our newsletters and stay in the know about all innovative and entrepreneurial activity at UNC-Chapel Hill. Whether you’re a Carolina faculty member, student, alumnus, community partner or part of our regional and international entrepreneurial family, explore our different editions and register to receive regular news and useful information right in your inbox. You’ll find information for all types of thinkers, doers and problem solvers.

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Carolina Innovators Connect Programs

Internship Funding

Funding awards for Carolina students who are pursuing unpaid or underfunded summer internships with established local startups and social ventures.

Startups + Student Talent = Impact

Since 2018, Carolina Startup Connect has brought innovation-oriented students together with early-stage ventures to expand career development paths, entrepreneurial skill building, and opportunities for social and economic impact. Through our events and funding opportunities, we engaged students from diverse personal and academic backgrounds and startups from a variety of industry segments.