What to Expect From Your Internship

Innovate for Maine is not just a summer internship.  

It’s called a fellowship for two reasons. First, everything you’ll do as part of Innovate for Maine focuses on your professional development. Second, you’ll build a lasting fellowship with the other students in your cohort and other interns working in Maine.   

If you’re looking for a summer experience that offers more, Innovate for Maine is for you. You’ll get trained in Innovation Engineering, connect with other like-minded students, be introduced to Maine’s entrepreneurial community, and work directly with an innovative company where you can really make an impact.

Boot Camp

The Innovate for Maine experience begins before your placement even starts, kicking off at the end of May with our four-day boot camp.

Here, you’ll get a crash course in Innovation Engineering, learn soft skills that will help you succeed in your internship, and meet innovative entrepreneurs from across the state. Please visit our Boot Camp page to learn more.

Maine Career Catalyst  Events

The Innovate for Maine Fellowship Program proudly partners with Maine Career Catalyst (formerly FocusMaine Intern Experience) to offer an even more engaging experience for our fellows. Maine Career Catalyst provides professional development, social opportunities, and networking for college students working in summer internship programs throughout the state. This program is not limited to Innovate for Maine – in 2019, more than 800 students participated! From stand-up paddle boarding and eating lobster rolls along Maine’s coast to lunch and learn events that teach you professional development skills, these events held throughout the summer facilitate connections among interns and a deeper understanding of opportunities to launch a career in Maine.

Photo courtesy of Maine Career Catalyst

Introduction to Maine Entrepreneurship/Innovation

A major goal of our program is to make students aware of the innovative career opportunities available right here in Maine. You don’t need to move to Boston or New York to find a meaningful career at a startup or other pioneering company. During boot camp, you’ll get a front row seat to the Top Gun Entrepreneurship Accelerator’s Statewide Showcase where the top startups from that year pitch their businesses for a $25,000 prize. While at the event, fellows will network with the founders of these up-and-coming Maine companies (some of which will be hosting interns) and other important businesspeople from around the state.


Internship Placement

Our recruitment targets innovation-minded students from across academic disciplines who want internship experiences where they can make a meaningful impact. On the company side, we work with businesses and non-profits that value innovation and are committed to providing fellows with purposeful work.

During the Innovate for Maine Fellowship Program, you’ll be placed with one of those innovative Maine companies for a 200-hour or 400-hour internship that typically lasts for about 10 weeks starting at the beginning of June. Your placement will depend on your passions, skills, and strengths indicated on your application. Please refer to the Matching Process page to better understand how we decide where to place interns.

As an Innovate for Maine fellow, you might…

  • Generate ideas to solve problems and improve processes
  • Write marketing messages and develop new channels to communicate with customers
  • Run “fail fast, fail cheap” experiments to determine innovation feasibility
  • Leverage technical skills to design and build prototypes

We work with companies from a wide range of industries and students from a variety of different majors, so these are just a few examples of the projects interns could work on during the program.