Employers Non-Profit

The QUALCOMM Lavin Center Social Entrepreneur Internship Program at San Diego State University matches talented graduate business students with nonprofit organizations. Interns work with the organization's senior management to improve performance and achieve their goals through entrepreneurial initiatives. In early 1999, The Kauffman Foundation provided SDSU's Lavin Entrepreneurship Center with seed money to launch a social entrepreneur internship initiative with the goal of securing permanent local funding. Later that year, the Lavin Center announced a grant from its partner QUALCOMM, Inc. to continue the social internship program.

The internships unite academic, corporate and social concepts in entrepreneurship for a unique educational MBA experience. Over the course of a paid 150-hour internship, students identify a strategic objective, perform related business analysis and develop a substantive report. SDSU faculty advisors act as facilitators and QUALCOMM employees mentor the interns to enable agency implementation of recommended courses of action. Students are paid between $15-20 per hour depending on the scope of the internship and the student’s commensurate experience. Based on QUALCOMM’s generosity, the non-profit organization is only responsible for $1,500 of the intern cost.