James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows

This initiative fast-tracks the careers of Carnegie Mellon University's first year graduate students who are passionate about entrepreneurship in the technology arena.

The highly selective program develops each Fellow's entrepreneurial potential and leadership skills through hands-on experiences, networking, mentoring and courses in entrepreneurship. The program's core is a mentored summer internship with a top-tier VC-backed startup within the high-tech, high-growth environment of California's Silicon Valley and San Francisco  (encouraged but not required) or another area of preference.

Congratulations to the 2024-26 Swartz Fellows!

Meet the 2024-26 Fellows!

Swartz Fellows Program Activities

• Summer internship: Committed to and working toward completing a summer internship anywhere in the U.S. (California’s Bay Area encouraged but not required).
• Networking opportunities that include unique access to investors and business leaders
• Speaker Series Roundtables that bring together Swartz Fellows with prominent entrepreneurial leaders such as Matt Rogers (Nest Labs), Lila Ibrahim (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Coursera), Andrew Mason (Groupon), Scott Griffith (ZipCar) and Jonathan Kaplan (The Melt; Pure Digital/TheFlip).
• Mentoring and guidance from entrepreneurial faculty and staff, business community members, investors, and C-level executives
• Cohort and community building with current and alumni Swartz Fellows
• Entrepreneurship coursework
• Stipend for networking trips to the California Bay Area

Requirements

An applicant must be:

• registered as a full-time, first year CMU graduate student (master’s or doctoral program)
• committed to and working toward completing a summer internship anywhere in the U.S. (California’s Bay Area encouraged but not required) OR working on your own startup over the summer
• able to take one to two mini-courses in entrepreneurship during the two-year program
• able to attend the weekly Proseminar in Entrepreneurial Leadership course (99-735) on Fridays, 1:30-2:20 p.m.

Each Fellow must have permission from his/her program advisor. Please note that not fulfilling these requirements will jeopardize standing in the Swartz Fellows program.

Deadline to apply (including all letters submitted) is Sunday, October 13, 2024.

*Due to the competitive nature of the program and the limitation of 12 slots available, interviews will be based on the strength of the application and program diversity.

Application Process

1. Fill out an online application form
2. Upload resume
3. Upload a personal statement (2 pg max), including:
   • Entrepreneurial and technology interests
   • Entrepreneurial successes and failures
   • Goals (internship, immediate post-graduation, long-term)
   • Plans to contribute to the evolution of CMU's entrepreneurial ecosystem
   • Role of the Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows program in achieving your goals
4. Two Letters of Recommendation 

Recommenders can be employers, colleagues, mentors or faculty instructors, and they should be able to attest to an applicant's entrepreneurial inclinations, interests, experiences, practices or goals.

Questions? Contact Dave Mawhinney, dmawhin@andrew.cmu.edu or Sonya Ford, sonyaf@andrew.cmu.edu.