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Guelory Brutus, a senior at the University of Connecticut, shares his experience with reSET’s 2017 Summer Internship Program.reSET’s four-month immersive Summer Internship Program connects students with startups. Participating students work alongside startup teams to help grow and scale their businesses. The program helps students enhance their entrepreneurship skills and exposes them to a variety of industries.INNOVATION DESTINATION HARTFORD: What school are you currently attending? Are you studying entrepreneurship?

GUELORY BRUTUS: I’m a rising senior at the University of Connecticut. I’m majoring in Computer Science so I can hopefully become a software engineer. I’m equally interested in business, but I wasn’t able to study its fundamentals until recently during my summer internships with reSET, Phood Solutions, and SafeTweeNet.

IDH: How did you connect with reSET?

GB: I was first introduced to reSET at a UConn career fair. I was excited because I knew an internship with the organization would put me in a creative environment that would allow me to bring new ideas to life.

IDH: What does your internship work entail? How are you helping the startups you’re working with to grow and scale their businesses?

GB: I’m currently working alongside two mission-driven companies: Phood Solutions is a software company that serves the food waste industry by tracking pre-consumer food waste through data analytic trends to help with cost reduction, maintain sustainability, and eventually help bring food waste down to zero.

SafeTweeNet is a software company that helps educate families about online safety, including cyber bullying and online predators. So far, I’ve mostly been working on improving their software and content.

The cohort of interns is also participating in the reSET Innovation Challenge, where we’ve been tasked with creating a business to solve a different problem in the state. Later this month, we’ll pitch our ideas to a panel of expert judges.

IDH: Tell us something you’ve learned about launching or running a startup.

GB: Launching a startup is in itself something that requires extreme passion for the service and solutions the company is offering.

As for any endeavors anyone is partaking in, building a successful business requires a lot of dedication and hard work. I’ve also seen how important it is to do your market research and to pursue a model that’s truly new and innovative.

IDH: What entrepreneurship skills are you gaining from your internship experience?

GB: As a computer scientist, you are naturally a critical thinker and problem solver. As an entrepreneur, you require similar skills so you can provide solutions to the world’s most pressing issues.

I hope to continue growing as both a computer scientist and entrepreneur during the rest of my undergraduate studies, and to one day start something where I can share my knowledge with others.

IDH: What does being an entrepreneur/being entrepreneurial mean to you?

GB: Becoming an entrepreneur means a lot to me. While I still have much to learn about the business world, I can honestly say that this internship has made me more knowledgeable about how business can be a force for good.

IDH: Do you consider yourself entrepreneurial? Do you plan to launch a startup post-graduation?

GB: Yes, and I think this hands-on learning experience has put me one step closer to launching my own startup one day.

IDH: Tell us about your post-graduation plans.

GB: Post-graduation, I’d love to start out by working for a software company where I can learn more about the field.

Learn about other reSET Summer Internship Program participants:
Kay Wilcox – reSET Summer Intern Learns about the Realities of Running a Startup

Find out more about the reSET Summer Internship Program at resetco.org/resource/internship. Get involved with reSET by visiting resetco.org or follow on Facebook, Twitter @resetco_org, or Instagram @resetco.