A World of Opportunities for Undergraduates (Part 1)

As an undergraduate, a good way to distinguish your resume from your peers is by the awards/distinctions section. Although there are numerous great opportunities for undergraduates, most students aren’t aware of them.

In this article, I put together a list of opportunities for undergraduate students. Most of these opportunities are for students in North America.

If you identify as part of an underrepresented group in tech in North America, you can find more opportunities here. If you are a female undergraduate, look here.

Research opportunities:

• Mitacs Globalink Research Internship: The Mitacs Globalink Research Internship is open to US undergraduates. Interns come to a 3-month research internship in Canada. The program provides funds for students. Successful interns also have the opportunity to pursue graduate programs (masters, PhD) in Canada thanks to the Globalink Graduate Fellowship program.​
• ICER ACRES (Advanced Computational Research Experience) offers undergraduates in computational and data science a summer research experience. The projects are from different scientific fields including STEM. Applicants should be U.S. citizens or US permanent residents.
• TTIC Visiting Student/Intern Program: is a research program where interns work on research projects with a TTIC faculty. Usually, interns are funded.
• UCLQ Quantum Tech Summer School: is a summer school for undergraduates interested in quantum computing. The course fees are fully covered and interns also receive accommodation.

Scholarship opportunities:

• Tapia Conference Scholarship: provides funds to attend Tapia conference. The scholarship covers conference registration fees, travel stipend, accommodation and meals. Students must be studying in the U.S or the U.S. Territories.
• NANOG Scholarship Program: is open to undergraduate students in the following fields: network, electrical, or computer engineering; computer science. Students must be legal and permanent residents of the United States. The scholarship amount is $10,000.
• Fresh Prints/Kaplan Gand Plan Scholarship: is a $1,000 scholarship open to full time undergraduate students.
• The RevPart STEM Scholarship : The 1000$ scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate or graduate student in STEM.
• Bank of Canada General scholarship awards: These 4000 CAD$ scholarships are awarded for students that are Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. Students can be undergraduates or graduates students in several fields including Information Technology and Cyber Security.

Leadership opportunities:

• Google BOLD Immersion Program The Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) is a fully-funded program by Google. Students go to one of Google’s headquarters for up to one week in August. The program is open for students in their second year of a four year BA/BS program, in any major.
• Google Hispanic Student Leadership Summit is a 2-day all-expenses paid leadership summit in Texas. Undergraduates (including international students) in all grades in US and Puerto Rico can apply. No need to identify as a Hispanic/Latinx to apply.
• Target Diversity Leadership Symposium: 40 undergraduates sophomores will be chosen to attend a 3-day leadership symposium at Target Headquarters. The program covers travel and hotel accommodation fees.
• Nestlé Diversity Leadership Symposium: This 3-day symposium is open to junior or senior undergraduate students that would not require employment sponsorship.
• Emerging Leaders Camp: is an all expenses paid trip to PG headquarters in Ohio. The program is open to sophomores and freshmen.
• Nexus DE Shaw Fellowship: The fellowship brings talented students for 3 days full of interactive case studies, seminars and sessions. The fellowship includes a stipend, travel, accommodation, and excursions. It is open for sophomores in US.
• Goldman Sachs Undergrad Virtual Insight Series: This is an online program for freshman and sophomores from all majors.

Internship opportunities:

• Microsoft New Technologists program: is a 7-week internship for freshman or sophomores. Students get 8000$ stipend.
• Google STEP: is a 12-week internship for first and second-year undergraduate students
• Microsoft Explorer: is a 12-week summer internship program specifically designed for first and second year college students.
• Palantir Path: is an internship for sophomores and juniors.
• MLH fellowship: is a 12 week remote internship open to all English-speaking students. The program offers need-based stipends up to $5,000 USD to accepted Fellows who require the money in order to participate.

Want to know about other interesting opportunities? Check the Summer Research Opportunities Program for Undergraduates, Soliya’s Connect Program, Neo Startup Connect, Capital One Software Engineering Summit or the Huawei Seeds for The Future Program (I participated in this program in 2018, I wrote about my journey here). If you are interested in open source programs, look here, or here. Interested in social good?, check out impactful.

Besides, there We are hiring database, a public record of more than 3,001 hiring managers and 216 university recruiters.

Also, if you a are a graduating senior, or a recent graduate, you might want to look at these Associate Product Management programs. Some 2019 APM candidates produced an interesting database for the available APM roles and the recruiting process. Also, in 2020 Uber started an Empower Summit, a free, multi-day seminar for sophomores to introduce them to Product Management and the tech industry. Finally, SAP also has the Silicon Valley Next Talent Rotational Program for US-based seniors and recent graduates.

In case your plans were canceled or postponed due to COVID-19, make sure to checkout Short-Term Opportunities for several teaching, volunteering, internships and other opportunities. There is also the Coding It Forward paid fall 2020 internship.

If you have an idea and want to start your own business, check out the Gap Year program that provides students with the necessary funding.

Want to get help to secure an opportunity? This interesting and helpful blog interviews students who received scholarships, and can give you good insight on how to proceed.

Final Notes:

• I will be updating this article every time I encounter a good opportunity, so make sure to check it every once in a while.
• The second part of this article presents several opportunities for undergraduates from underrepresented groups in tech. The third part focuses on opportunities for female undergraduates.
• You can find funded opportunities to attend GHC (Grace Hopper Celebration) here.
• If you are an EMEA(Europe, the Middle East and Africa) Student, check this article.

If you like this article, don’t forget to clap! Thanks.