This blog series offers a glimpse into reSET’s summer internship program in entrepreneurship. The series captures interns’ experiences, both with reSET’s curriculum and the startups that they are working alongside. Our first blogger, Madi Duffy, comes to us from Belmont University in Nashville, TN.

I am a rising senior at Belmont University in Nashville, TN majoring in Social Entrepreneurship. Before moving to Nashville, I had never heard the term Social Entrepreneurship, much less considered majoring in it. Since my freshman year, I have been exposed to countless social enterprises and I have seen how the entrepreneurial spirit of the people in Nashville has had an affect on the city in ways I was never exposed to growing up in Connecticut. While so many other students would stay and take advantage of the opportunities that Nashville presents in the summer months, I always wanted to spend my summers back home in Connecticut, but I still wanted to be able to find internship opportunities that would be relevant to my major. The reSET internship program has served as a perfect solution to the problem of wanting to be home for the summer while still learning and gaining experience in social entrepreneurship. 

This summer at reSET I have been working on projects for two companies that were in reSET’s accelerator program, Little Nomad and TIEV – Treasure in Earthen Vessels. The two companies are at completely different stages of the start-up process, so it has been so valuable to see the contrast of running a company both in the very beginning and further down the line. I have been helping run the social media accounts for both businesses, which I am continuing to learn is much more complex than I would have anticipated, but it is such an important business skill to have.

The second component of the internship program is to work on our own venture projects. For this project, I am working with another intern on developing an online social networking platform focussed around helping travelers gain local expertise from locals in the cities they are traveling to. We have had weekly professional development courses to advance these ideas, which have been incredibly valuable and informative. Although I have already learned so much, my main takeaway is that starting a business is a much bigger undertaking than I would have anticipated and there are so many crucial elements that I would never have known to consider if it weren’t for reSET!

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