Expanding Summer Fellowships to Support Students

As the economic consequences of the pandemic took hold, many students like Powers found themselves facing a very different job market. “Many summer internships were canceled,” explains Kristen Fitzpatrick (MBA 2003), managing director of HBS’s Career & Professional Development (CPD). “Graduating students who already had job offers saw their start dates delayed, and those interested in hard-hit industries like hospitality and entertainment had to broaden their searches.”

To support students facing this uncertainty, the flexible resources of the HBS Fund enabled the School to triple funding for its Summer Fellowship Program and open it up to graduating as well as current students. These fellowships provide stipends to supplement lower-paying internships (for example, at nonprofits and startups). In a typical year, about 250 first-year students are awarded summer fellowships. This year, some 750 first- and second-year students received them.

The School also reached out to all alumni, encouraging them to post open full-time jobs and internships with CPD and asking them to consider creating special projects and consulting opportunities for students over the summer. Those efforts netted almost 1,000 new postings.

Powers was relieved to receive a summer fellowship. Rather than work for just two weeks at the consulting firm, she spent the entire summer at Continuum Lab, a pioneering venture firm run by Vladimir Jacimovic (MBA 1992), who created a summer training program for five students in response to the School’s outreach. “My background is in health care,” says Powers, who worked remotely for the San Francisco, California–based firm from her home in Providence, Rhode Island. “This appealed to me because it was completely different.”

She is grateful for the unexpected opportunity to explore a new career path she might never have considered otherwise. “I developed ideas for startup companies that use artificial intelligence in industries undergoing profound change," enthuses Powers. “I got to experience what it’s like to be an entrepreneur, and I learned more than I thought possible about cutting-edge technology. I couldn’t have asked for a better summer.”