If open job positions don’t grab attention, free coffee will.
On Jan. 27, students from Concordia were invited to attend “Internship Day” as a part of 1 Million Cups at Barry Hall in downtown Fargo.
1 Million Cups is an event hosted by Emerging Prairie held every Wednesday at the Stage at Island Park in Fargo from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m.
During the event, community members make announcements, local entrepreneurs give short presentations and the audience of community members is able to network and provide feedback for the presenters. Last week, the event took place at Barry Hall and had scheduled time for local business owners to offer internship positions for students. Over 20 businesses advertised specific internship positions and offered them to local students.
“All the people who were offering positions for internships lined up and were allowed to do a 30-second speech on their businesses, what they do and the students they were looking for as interns,” said sophomore Kirsten Stave.
Students then had the opportunity to talk with different business members and receive further information. All of the businesses seeking interns, along with their contact information, were posted on the Emerging Prairie website.
Stave said there was quite the turnout.
“We got there and it was packed,” Stave said. “There was standing room only and a massive line for free coffee. The coffee was from Twenty Below, which is so good.”
Greg Tehven, co-founder of Emerging Praire, began the morning with a short introduction. A few organizations then took the stage, made announcements and promoted different events happening through their businesses. Justin Odney, a junior from Concordia, made an announcement about the Ted X event at Concordia.
Sophomore Katie Beedy said one group of students from Liberty Middle School presented on apps that they had designed for a contest. They asked audience members to text a number to vote for their apps.
“It was so fun to see people at that age doing something so beneficial,” Beedy said.
Another man took the stage and presented on Prime, a company devoted to giving a software engineering education to people in 12 weeks.
After presentations, audience members interacted with the presenters.
“A central part of 1 Million Cups is communicating with business owners, offering advice and finding out how to do things, so it’s not strictly presentations,” Beedy said. “They open it up for Q-and-A.”
According to Beedy, Tehven said the most important question of 1 Million Cups is “What can we as a community do for you?” Audience members can approach presenters after they are finished and ask further questions or offer help.
“It is a good place for new businesses or students who are looking to start their own,” Stave said. “Everyone is helping each other.”
“Fargo is so connected and 1 Million Cups is a perfect representation of that.” Beedy said. “I would definitely go back.”
The event will continue at its usual location at the Stage at Island Park next Wednesday.
