Katherine Olives
Next week marks the kickoff of our Summer Internship Program. Thirty CCNY students will begin life-changing internships at companies and startups like Crowd Bureau, Bloomberg, Source3, SHADE, Kinetic, and the New York City DOT.
Patrick Sullivan, founder of Source3, gave a special presentation to start the program. Patrick is a serial entrepreneur and investor who is deeply passionate about the start-up community. He co-founded RightsFlow, an enterprise music licensing and royalty company acquired by Google in 2011. He has built businesses that have generated billions of dollars in revenue through out his career. Patrick has held senior executive positions over his 20 year career including positions at The Orchard, eMusic, National Music Publishers Association, & The Harry Fox Agency. He also founded and manages VanHam Ventures, an angel fund focused on early stage NYC-based technology start-ups. He is a mentor and frequent lecturer for TechStars, IMPACT, DreamIt, Google IO, Google for Entrepreneurs, Cornell Tech and his alma mater NYU.
Students in the program will have other opportunities to meet founders throughout the summer. Anna Hutcheson, our Internship Program Manager, has also created opportunities for students to develop soft skills necessary for the workplace.
In his discussion, Patrick encouraged students to find a job that satisfies your passions. “If you're passionate about what you do,” he said, “it will lead you to new experiences, talent, and information.”
Many of the students who participated in last year's programs discovered unknown passions in their internships, and not only acquired new skills, but learned about themselves. Zahn Internship Program alums Anita Khabir and Engjell Latollari came back to speak to the new internship cohort about their own experiences. Both Anita and Engjell went into their internships not knowing what to expect, but came out of them with heightened focus. Like most college students, they wanted to secure a full-time job after graduation. “I knew early on that I wanted to work at Echoing Green full time, so I made it a priority to become part of their culture, and do more than just an intern would do,” said Engjell.
Anita said, “Because of the Zahn Center, I am where I am today.” We hope that all students in the program experience her success and happiness.