Riata Entrepreneurial Internship Program accepting applications for spring semester

Thursday, October 10, 2013

The Riata Center for Entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University is accepting applications for the Riata Entrepreneurial Internship Program for the spring semester. This internship provides unique entrepreneurial opportunities for highly qualified undergraduate and graduate students at OSU.

The Riata Center will interview 30 or more students each semester to find those select few that will be a part of the internship program. The program offers up to 10 student internship positions each semester.

These appointments require student interns to work directly with an entrepreneur, president or senior executive in a high-growth, innovative company located in the Stillwater, Tulsa or Oklahoma City metropolitan areas. Interns are expected to add meaningful value to the work environment and to produce a number of useful deliverables to company management. Interns also take independent study credits in order to meet certain curriculum requirements.

Being selected as a Riata intern is both an honor and a challenge. Interns will be able to participate in exciting, hands-on, experience-based learning opportunities in entrepreneurial work environments.

Lauren Gurley, a 2013 graduate of the Spears School of Business, spent time as an intern developing a marketing and sales plan for the chemical safety and explosive detection company XploSaf.

“I determined the economics of hiring a sales manager, created a diagram of existing product lines and the products within each line and evaluated the efficiency of the marketing/sales efforts currently implemented in these product lines, identified how to best generate repeat customers, reviewed and updated the approach to sales efforts and create weekly objectives, and classified which product can make the most revenue in the shortest period of time and quantity generating intended profit,” she said. “I enjoyed getting real professional work experience before graduation and being able to apply my skill sets learned in school to an actual career.”

The Riata internship offers students a chance to work inside companies, learn how a business runs, talk with the entrepreneur, and work on projects. Some students are even offered jobs after the semester is over because the company likes the work they did so much.

“Last semester one of our interns worked for Cookshack in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and was offered a job in their marketing department. This student worked on their social media plan, online marketing content, created t-shirts and YouTube videos in the 13 weeks they worked with them,” says Misty Stutsman, program director of the internship program.

The Riata Entrepreneurial Internship Program will accept up to 10 students for the spring 2014 semester and applications are due by Nov. 27. If you have any questions or concerns about the program please go to the program's website or contact the Riata Center at (405) 744-7552 or email at entrepreneurship@okstate.edu.