2024 MFF Emerging Talent Program: Internship Experience
By the MFF Intern Cohort, Brought to you by MFF Staff
This summer, our Emerging Talent Program has welcomed 16 students from all over Michigan, offering them invaluable experience in their future careers and an introduction to the startup community. These internships, hosted by our MFF member companies, have equipped students with practical knowledge and hard skills essential for their professional growth. Additionally, throughout the summer, these students have participated in our Emerging Talent Program workshops, hosted by MFF and Thrive and Shine LLC, enhancing their soft skills such as communication, time management, teamwork, and more.
In honor of this year’s National Intern Day on July 25th, we wanted to highlight the experience of some of our interns and share the impact they have had on their hiring company. This summer, 12 MFF Member companies hired interns and have been dedicated to helping these students grow professionally and personally. Here are some of the success stories from this summer’s program that we’d love to share with our community.
Zyniah Pritchett
Zyniah Pritchett is a second-year Public Relations and Advertising student at Oakland University. This summer, she is the Acquisition Specialist at LiteRaise. Lite Raise is a social tech company providing a unique student fundraising platform and a white-labeled fundraising software solution for institutions & organizations.
Tell us about your internship experience with an MFF member company.
“My experience thus far with LiteTuition has been incredibly enlightening. From the positive atmosphere created by my coworkers. To the vast amount of knowledge about education and finances bestowed upon me.”
How has this internship helped you grow professionally and personally?
“From the beginning, I’ve learned how to better adapt to the feedback given verbally or analytically to move forward with higher efficiency. My responsibilities include sales to versatile audiences. While simultaneously, expanding my leadership abilities through the directing and creation of projects.”
Which internship projects or tasks were most fulfilling to you?
“Every day, I utilize pitching skills to make sales and connections. This [skill] strengthens with time and can’t be taught with a template as every person you speak to is different as you are not identical to anyone else on your team.”
How have your intern contributions impacted the company?
“My work and input within the marketing department has expanded the audience across multiple social platforms, and built brand imagery bringing digital traffic to the webpage.”
Ian Hajra
Ian Hajra is a third-year Applied Mathematics and Computer Science student at Brown University. This summer, he is the QA Intern at InfoReady. InfoReady is a SaaS platform solving workflow challenges associated with promoting application opportunities, processing applications, routing, and reviewing processes, and sharing results for higher education, corporations, and other organizations.
Tell us about your internship experience with an MFF member company.
“Working with InfoReady has been an amazing experience! I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to meet and work with mentors and peers who have wonderful sets of skills that help me grow as a professional and as a person. I’ve loved the opportunity to work hands-on and to see the immediate impact of my work.”
How has this internship helped you grow professionally and personally?
“Professionally, this internship has provided me the opportunity to learn how different teams of late-stage startups work together to accomplish company-wide goals. Additionally, I’ve learned all about different approaches used in Industry to develop new features, and methods used to improve upon current features. Personally, it’s been great to see an example of a positive work environment and to meet many role models who communicate professionally and productively, all while in a friendly manner. This sets an excellent example that I strive to achieve.”
Which internship projects or tasks were most fulfilling to you?
“I am currently working on restructuring the architecture of the Regression Testing project. This has been super fulfilling, as I can see my ideas become implemented, and then appreciate the impact of them, all in real-time.”
How have your intern contributions impacted the company?
“The work I’ve done has helped catch multiple bugs before they reach production, as well as improving the company’s overall approach to testing! Furthermore, I have been able to help other members of the QA team focus on projects they are particularly interested in by taking a share of the overall workload.”
Hank Greeves
Hank Greeves is a fourth-year Biomedical Engineering student at the University of Michigan. This summer, he is a System Engineer at ThermoVerse, a company dedicated to innovating thermal environment control and management.
Tell us about your internship experience with an MFF member company.
“Working at ThermoVerse has been a great opportunity to develop my entrepreneurship and engineering skills at the same time.”
How has this internship helped you grow professionally and personally?
“Working with Thermoverse has allowed me to develop technical skills in a dynamic environment that fosters the development of strong communication skills and agile decision-making that is sure to help me in my future work.”
Which internship projects or tasks were most fulfilling to you?
“I have enjoyed working on device development and getting to participate in rapid prototyping.”
Paixun Lin
Paixun Lin is a master’s student with dual degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan. This summer, he is a Control Engineer at ThermoVerse.
Tell us about your internship experience with an MFF member company.
“The internship with ThermoVerse has been a truly enriching experience. I’ve had the opportunity to work on various exciting challenges in R&D, which has allowed me to delve deep into complex puzzles, gain valuable insights, and work towards achieving significant milestones. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to contributing even more in the future.”
How has this internship helped you grow professionally and personally?
“Professionally, I have honed my skills in data-driven engineering solution development and gained valuable experience working on black-box models and systems. This has not only boosted my confidence in my abilities but also provided me with the tools to excel in future career endeavors. On a personal level, this internship has allowed me to cultivate meaningful relationships with my colleagues and provided me with a greater sense of independence and resilience. I have also learned the value of time management, adaptability, and effective communication, all of which are invaluable skills that I will carry with me throughout my professional and personal life.”
Which internship projects or tasks were most fulfilling to you?
“Signal/data processing, analysis, and interpretation; predictive modeling (machine learning) based on domain knowledge”
How have your intern contributions impacted the company?
“Generate insights and understanding about the model and system, identify the challenges, develop potential solutions for measurements and control, and advance the development toward an intelligent system”
Freshta Noori
Freshta Noori is a fourth-year Computer Engineering student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. This summer, she is the Software Developer Intern at an emerging software startup currently in stealth.
Tell us about your internship experience with an MFF member company.
“During my internship, I worked on enhancing the customer platform. This platform helps member organizations better connect with and understand their members by creating individual cards and bios that highlight interests and suggest meeting times. As a software engineering intern, I focused on enhancing platform features and creating analytics to improve user experience and engagement. This experience allowed me to apply my technical skills in a real-world setting and contribute to the platform’s development and success.”
How has this internship helped you grow professionally and personally?
“My internship has significantly contributed to my professional and personal growth. Professionally, I honed my software engineering skills by enhancing platform features and developing analytics tools. I gained hands-on experience in both frontend and backend development. Personally, the collaborative environment improved my teamwork and communication skills, and I learned the importance of user-centric design. This experience has bolstered my confidence in tackling complex projects and inspired a deeper passion for innovation in the tech industry.”
Which internship projects or tasks were most fulfilling to you?
“The most fulfilling projects during my internship involved enhancing the individual member cards, and dashboards, and working with APIs. Developing features that allowed organizations to better understand and connect with their members was particularly rewarding. I enjoyed creating analytics using Google Cloud Analytics that provided valuable insights about the platform and its usage. These tasks not only utilized my technical skills but also had a tangible positive impact on the platform’s functionality and user experience.”
How have your intern contributions impacted the company?
“My contributions as an intern have positively impacted the company by enhancing the platform’s functionality and user experience.”
Pranav Deshmukh
Pranav Deshmukh is a third-year Computer Engineering student at Michigan State University. This summer, he is the Product Engineering Intern at Livaq, an electric ORV startup, aiming to revolutionize the off-roading experience with sustainable technology.
Tell us about your internship experience with an MFF member company.
“LIVAQ is redefining the off-roading industry through sustainable technology. We built the first high-performing all-electric E quads! It is a four-wheel vehicle that has a sharp and rugged look. Throughout my internship I have been able to do a wide variety of tasks. I got to work directly on the E quad, but also focus on the sourcing and manufacturing side of things. Overall the coolest part of my experience was just being in a startup environment. There is a mixture of so many skills required to maintain forward progress, and you get to experience so many new things.”
How has this internship helped you grow professionally and personally?
“My internship has taught me that adapting and learning are [crucial to success]. You will never be able to know everything or know what problems will arise, so the best route is to prepare yourself. This is the biggest [lesson I’ve learned] this summer.”
Which internship projects or tasks were most fulfilling to you?
“One of the coolest parts about working at LIVAQ was being able to showcase the product. NEWLAB had so many events while I was interning and there were thousands of people coming in and out of the building. The E Quad was placed right at the entrance of the building and many people would come and look around it. I got to describe the electric details of the vehicle, the story of LIVAQ, and the upcoming iterations. This pitching was very exciting to me and I loved talking about the product!”
How have your intern contributions impacted the company?
“During my time at LIVAQ, I was part of an everyday three-person team—our CEO, lead Engineer, and then me as the product engineering intern. More people contributed, but these were the three people who were there every day during my internship. I was able to learn a lot about how a startup is run because I was exposed to so many different aspects of the company. I was able to shift all of the tasks to a new product management software to ensure long-term organization, and additionally, I also researched new parts that we will possibly use on our new E Quads for optimized features. During my internship, I was able to learn from many different parts of the company spanning from technical to operational areas of a company!”
As we celebrate National Intern Day, we recognize and appreciate our interns’ incredible contributions and our Member companies’ dedication. These experiences and skills gained by our interns will shape their future careers. We are proud to support their journey and look forward to their future accomplishments.
Thank you to all our interns, member companies, and everyone involved in making this program successful. Here’s to many more summers of growth, learning, and innovation!
