Anne Arundel Community College has completed an applied research report sponsored by a grant from ICCD and funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

By Joyce Ezrow, Professor, Business Management;
Alan Davis, Technical Research Specialist; and
Carlene Cassidy, Director, Entrepreneurial Studies Institute,
Anne Arundel Community College
Arnold, Maryland

Executive Summary:

The results of a survey of colleges offering some form of entrepreneurship education experience provides a snapshot of the size and scope of entrepreneurial internships available today. In addition this report provides insight into how these programs are being managed and measured for success. 

This study was conducted to learn from the experiences of schools offering entrepreneurial internships in an effort to identify best practices. The survey is a random sampling as participation was voluntary. The results therefore are limited to those who chose to participate.    

We believe this survey provides useful information for anyone starting or managing an entrepreneurial internship program. However, this project is not intended to be a comprehensive assessment of programs across the country.

Overall the results of the survey indicate that entrepreneurial internship programs are relatively small with no colleges reporting more than 100 students participating per semester and most indicating that they have 25 or fewer student interns per term. The small size of the programs was also reflected in the number of companies that had formal relationships with the colleges. The majority of the colleges reported less than 50 companies participating. However, these numbers are likely to increase as several colleges indicated that their programs are rapidly growing with increases each semester in both the students participating and the companies forming relationships with the colleges.

Purpose of the Study:

Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) engaged in this study of internship programs being offered as part of entrepreneurial studies programs to discover prevalence and best practices. With this information, AACC intends to form an entrepreneurial internship program incorporating information gleaned from this assessment of existing programs at other colleges and universities. In addition, AACC intends to share this data with interested entrepreneurial studies faculty and administrators.

Download the complete report (pdf)

Link to ICCD's other Winter 2008 Gravitas newsletter articles

Download the Winter 2008 edition of ICCD's newsletter Gravitas  (pdf)