Foundation Funds “Engineering Innovators” Stipends for Summer Internships

An impressive 41 University of Florida engineering students recently completed intensive summer internships at a diverse group of Sarasota and Manatee County employers. To help ensure successful, high-impact work experiences in the region, nearly half of the interns received $3,000 stipends funded by Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

The talented students were hosted by a variety of private and public employers ranging from an industrial drone maker and a fire-engine manufacturer to a county transportation planning office. Now that their summer programs are over, the students have returned to school with not only valuable real-world engineering experience but also meaningful connections with Gulf Coast businesses where they might eventually start to build their careers.

The internships were coordinated by the UF Innovation Station Sarasota County, the first physical extension of UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. Launched in 2016, the Innovation Station has been working on several fronts to help foster an innovation economy in the Sarasota region. Erik Sander, executive director of UF’s Florida Engineering Experiment (FLEX) Station, which oversees the operation, recently told the Sarasota County Commission, “The Innovation Station will always be about economic development. Nothing will help that economic-development mission like interns.”

To that end, Gulf Coast Community Foundation earlier this year awarded a $61,500 grant to help the Innovation Station facilitate successful internship and work-study experiences locally. The grant was used to provide 19 of this summer’s interns with $3,000 stipends, which could be used for expenses like food, lodging, and transportation during their assignments or even to help defray tuition costs in the new school year. This added incentive, on top of what employers paid their interns, helped make the Sarasota-Manatee region more competitive as an internship destination for Gator Engineering students.

“Many people still don’t realize the breadth of innovative companies that call Sarasota and Manatee counties home,” said Mark S. Pritchett, President | CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation. “By supporting these internships, we can introduce more students to our region’s businesses and start priming the pipeline of skilled talent that comes here to live and work.”

Relearning their hometown

The 2019 class of summer interns included a mix of local students, who got to know prospective future employers while interning close to home, and students from elsewhere, who might not otherwise have ever come to Sarasota County.

Nokomis native W. Cole Thomas, whose family moved out of state after he finished high school, was reintroduced to his hometown through his internship with Sarasota-based Voalte. Thomas, who worked on software development for hospitals, described his internship as “an instrumental experience for my career development that sparked new interests and passions.” 

Mallori Johnson, a UF senior who also is from Nokomis, interned with nearby PGT Innovations, where she had the opportunity to help design a component that will be used in windows to be featured by a national homebuilder. Johnson said she was grateful for the learning and networking opportunities of her internship. 

The ultimate goal of the Innovation Station is to increase the base of engineers and innovators in the Sarasota area, helping to shift the region’s economic base away from traditional service, consumer, and tourist-based sectors. In addition to the stipends, Gulf Coast Community Foundation has helped to fund an Engineering Innovation minor at UF that comes with tuition forgiveness for students who relocate to the Gulf Coast region to work after they graduate.

Gulf Coast’s Pritchett points out that these strategies directly address issues identified by the foundation in its most recent research scan of regional trends and challenges.

“Our partnership with UF helps to address other regional priorities including retaining skilled graduates and developing our region’s workforce,” he said. “Continuing to invest in programs and partnerships that train workers for the future and provide career pathways is critical.”