When it comes to summer internships, college students of all ages have a wide variety of options to choose from. You can go the more traditional route and apply to corporation—a Cerner, Sprint or Hallmark—for the chance to spend a few months making copies and fetching coffees.

Or you can choose something different.

And this year, companies in the Kansas City Startup Village had more than 20 students of varying degree levels and disciplines do just that.

Right away it’s fairly apparent these students are much more than interns to the companies where they’re temporarily (or potentially not-so-temporarily) employed. They’re part of the full-time team, typically a small group of core individuals where everyone, including students new to the startup scene, pulls their weight.

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Now, that doesn’t mean there’s no time for cross-company intern activities, like the s’mores party Leap.it hosted a few weeks ago.

Before classes resume, we caught up with the startups from around the Village that have had summer interns to learn a bit more about what they’ve been working on and what they took away from their summer at a startup.

EyeVerify

For EyeVerify, students—both at the graduate and undergraduate level—working with the startup are far from the “intern” label.

Three of the startup’s seven interns have been working with Dr. Reza Derakhshani since the inception of EyeVerify’s technology during their Masters studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Another intern, Meigrom Diego Fernandes Lopes, is an exchange student at UMKC from Brazil and found himself at EyeVerify after he’d taken a number of classes with Derakhshani.

“As I was looking, I leaned away from Sprint or Cerner because you’re one of a lot of other developers,” UMKC student John Thompson told SPN. But at EyeVerify, each of the interns is part of the company’s core team, with involvement in a variety of tasks and projects.

The students: Adrienne Anderson, University of Missouri-Kansas City; Tyler Fowler, University of Kansas; Vikas Gottemukkula, Ph.D. candidate at UMKC; Meigrom Diego Fernandes Lopes, exchange student at UMKC; Sashi Saripalle, Ph.D. candidate at UMKC; Sriram Paran Tankasala, Ph.D. candidate at UMKC; and John Thompson, UMKC

Kansas City Startup Village

Interning for Kansas City Startup Village might not seem like the most immediate choice of summer job, but with more than 15 startups within a few block radius, there’s a lot to get done.

For instance, KCSV co-leader Brittain Kovac gives the example of John Bergwell, a UMKC graduate with his MBA who is helping incorporate the Village as a 501(c)3. Another of the Village’s interns, Gaelynn Patton, is a merchandising and broadcasting student at Northwest Missouri State University, placed with KCSV through the Kauffman Foundation’s Scholars Program.

The students: John Bergwell, University of Kansas; and Gaelynn Patton, Northwest Missouri State University

Leap.it

This summer, KC startup Leap.it has seven interns assisting with various aspects of its business and operations, especially with the launch of its new real-time search platform in early March.

The students: Blake Ayers, recent graduate of the University of Central Missouri; Zoe Ballam, Mizzou; Zach Johnson, Kansas State; Mike May, Kansas City Art Institute; Waira Mungai, University of Kansas; Tucker Newkirk, University of Kansas; and Tyler Vannavong, University of Kansas

Get a first-hand look at what it’s like to be an intern at Leap.it:

Rocket Fuel

Intern Sara Derakhshani chose to work at KCSV startup Rocket Fuel over other, larger companies because of the opportunity to really contribute to the small team.

“I was looking to get my hands on a real project and gain some real experience. I found that with Rocket Fuel,” Derakhshani told SPN. “The position provides the opportunity to take more responsibility and to actually grow and build a skill set.”

She also added that in terms of team composition, there’s no hierarchy. “You sit with the CEOs and experienced team members,” she said. “You’re an active part of the team.”

The student: Sara Derakhshani, University of Missouri-Kansas City

SquareOffs

This summer, Village startup SquareOffs has a diverse group of five—three students and two recent grads—helping move their vision forward. From French native Lauriane Mollier, who traveled from Switzerland to work at SquareOffs and is building a WordPress plug-in for the startup, to John Bergwell, who also is doing work with KCSV, who’s producing content for SquareOffs, the startup has a variety of needs being met by the group of interns.

The students: John Bergwell, University of Kansas; Manideep Gattamaneni, Masters graduate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City; Cole Harbur, Elon University; Lauriane Mollier, Swiss Institute of Technology; and Alex Souvannakhot, MIT

Interested in interning KCSV? Contact the Village organizers to learn more—marketing, social media and communications are in highest demand. Or find a complete list of all KCSV startups and their contact info on the KCSV website.