Since 2016, Students+Startups has placed Tigers right in the middle of San Antonio’s exploding startup scene.

The program matches students with internships at a variety of San Antonio startups for the summer. This initiative is funded by the 80|20 Foundation and run in partnership with Geekdom, a unique coworking space in downtown San Antonio.

Thanks to the tireless work of 80|20, Geekdom, and Trinity’s entrepreneurship program,  Students+Startups has transformed into a competitive program with national interest.

After about 60 students participated in Students+Startups in 2018, the program accepted more than 250 applications this year, and ended up matching about 80 students with 49 companies in 2019.

These companies include firms in engineering, coding and development, finance, accounting, data analysis, research and operations, marketing, communications and content, user experience and user interface design, and food science.

And the students aren’t just from Trinity: in addition to about 60 Tigers, the program has expanded to include applications from students of other schools and universities across San Antonio and the nation. Columbia, Rice, Michigan, St. Louis, the University of Texas at Austin, UTSA, and St. Mary’s, among others, also have students interning through the program.

There’s another reason for this interest: according to stats provided by the 80|20 Foundation, about 50 percent of Students+Startups internships turn into full-time offers from those companies.

Students+Startups has also started accepting companies run by Trinity undergraduates as employers. In 2019, entrepreneurs from medical startup PATCH and Quick Sip Coffee both began hiring their fellow classmates through the program.