Celebrating 150 Stanford Interns in 8 Years!
At Cooliris, we strive to provide opportunities for students to gain work experience in a startup environment. Ever since we founded Cooliris in Silicon Valley in 2006, our close proximity to Stanford and our hands-on environment has allowed us to work alongside many talented Stanford interns. And this summer, we hit 150! Incredibly, over the past eight years, we have already worked with a total 150 different Stanford interns. This summer, we had four Stanford interns who not only allowed us reach this new threshold but who also helped us out tremendously in a variety of ways. Before they leave Cooliris and return to school, we decided to ask them six questions so you can get to know each of them. In the following interviews, they’ll share why they chose to work at Cooliris, which projects have been the most memorable, and what they will take away from their summer internship experience!
1. What year are you at Stanford? What is your major?
Senior, B.S. Science, Technology, and Society (STS) planning to concentrate in Human Development and Design
2. How long have you been at Cooliris? Do you plan on continuing to work here throughout the school year?
I’ve been here since the beginning of this past summer, and hopefully I can continue interning with the design team at Cooliris, depending on how much time my class schedule allows me (I have quite a heavy class load to look forward to!).
3. What have you mostly been working on here? (Engineering, Marketing, Design, etc.)
4. Any specific or memorable features/projects/tasks you have worked on?
I’ve worked on understanding a user's experience with the layout of current and potential features of the BeamIt app. I worked directly with Michael, Head of Design and a great mentor.
5. Why did you choose to work at Cooliris?
Looking for internships this past academic year, I knew that I wanted to work for a startup in San Francisco. As there are handfuls of startups in this area, it was actually difficult to find an idea I truly believed in. I am fortunate to have found Cooliris--from my first interview and first peek at the BeamIt app (at that time unreleased), I was drawn to the company's environment as well as the purpose of the app, especially since I'm a big fan of photography and simple, yet delightful designs.
6. Anything specific that you’ve learned this summer that you plan on utilizing in the future?
The past many weeks have taught me even more about the Adobe Suite, wireframing and prototyping, and more broadly what it's like to work at a startup. My advice: if you're in the process of switching majors (like me), a startup is a great place to learn quickly and really dive into your new interest!
1. What year are you at Stanford? What is your major?
Junior, double majoring in Computer Science and Economics
2. How long have you been at Cooliris? Do you plan on continuing to work here throughout the school year?
Two months during the summer. And yes, I will be returning!
3. What have you mostly been working on here? (Engineering, Marketing, Design, etc.)
Back End Engineering (programming in Scala) and Product Management
4. Any specific features/projects/tasks you have worked on that we could mention?
I have worked on a lot of email notifications and reminders, server restart performance optimization, management and utilization of server monitoring data (varZ's), looking into new feature possibilities and prioritizations (such as for iOS8), researching product development strategies (ie phone number integration).
5. Why did you choose to work at Cooliris?
Great team. Lots to learn from mentors.
6. Anything specific that you’ve learned this summer that you plan on utilizing in the future?
I learned a whole new programming language, how to more efficiently manage and organize tasks, and how to make great coffee!
1. What year are you at Stanford? What is your major?
Sophomore. Still undeclared, but interested in one of Stanford’s many interdisciplinary majors involving human behavior.
2. How long have you been at Cooliris? Do you plan on continuing to work here throughout the school year?
Two months, started at the beginning of the summer. Yes, I hopefully will continue working part time in the fall - it all depends on my schedule and how much time I have on my hands!
3. What have you mostly been working on here?
I have primarily worked in Marketing, Community Outreach, and the management of BeamIt and Cooliris’ social media sites.
4. Any specific features/projects/tasks you have worked on? (Engineering, Marketing, Design, etc.)
I’ve created and written new sequences of Cooliris blog posts, helped develop BeamIt’s marketing strategies, and reached out to new user groups.
5. Why did you choose to work at Cooliris?
The welcoming, intern-friendly environment definitely made me feel like Cooliris was the place for me! Plus, they are very open to giving people with little experience a chance to learn and take on responsibility.
6. Anything specific that you’ve learned this summer that you plan on utilizing in the future?
Among many new skills, I’ve learned the basics of Photoshop, how to market to a wide variety of audiences, and I also greatly improved my writing ability - not to mention I’ve mastered all the ins and outs of Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram! Having no prior business experience, I’ve also learned valuable lessons about what it takes to run a company and the vitality of working with a diverse team to produce an end product.
1. What year are you at Stanford? What is your major?
Junior, Computer Science (concentrating in Human Computer Interaction)
2. How long have you been at Cooliris? Do you plan on continuing to work here throughout the school year?
I started at Cooliris in April through the Stanford Women in Business (SWIB) “springternship” program. I'm not a SWIB member, but the springternship program was open to all Stanford students. I decided to continue working for Cooliris over the summer. I might work here during the school year, but it depends on student obligations. But, I love it here. So hopefully it works out!
3. What have you mostly been working on here? (Engineering, Marketing, Design, etc.)
While I was part of the springternship program, I mostly did marketing tasks. I helped with many of the bug bashes and helped draft different use cases for the app. I worked a little on blogger outreach and sorority outreach as well. Once the summer began, I started with web tasks. Prior to the app launch, I helped prepare the BeamIt site. After the app launch, I began working on the styling for the BeamIt web application. Basically, I worked on turning the designers’ photoshop drafts into the code necessary to actually produce them. So, in short, I guess you could call it Engineering and Design!
4. Are there any specific features/projects/tasks you have worked on?
Specifically, I worked on the “about” page on the BeamIt website as well as some of the features on BeamIt’s new web app. I also made the welcome page of the web app, which is the first thing a new user sees if they don’t own the app - which is pretty cool and exciting!
5. Why did you choose to work at Cooliris?
I chose to work at Cooliris because they promised me an experience where I could learn a little bit of everything. A little CS, a little design, a little marketing, and a whole lot of startup life. And they delivered!
6. Anything you’ve learned this summer that you plan on utilizing in the future?
I’ve learned a lot about startup life, which is always useful in Silicon Valley. Also, I learned a few new programming languages. The experience as a whole was definitely the best takeaway.
Stay tuned to get to know more interns and their stories!
Cooliris and BeamIt are available for free on iTunes. BeamIt’s web app and Android version are in the works - sign up here to stay updated on the releases!
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