‘Home To Texas’ brings talented UT students ‘home’ for paid internships

For the past five years the Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Corporation has sponsored “Home to Texas,” a summer program affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin that connects first-year students with internships and research opportunities within their hometowns.

Amy Story, BKCEDC’s president and CEO, said many students from small towns attend big universities like UT-Austin; however, few return to their hometowns after they graduate.

“We want to see the program expand. As the EDC, we support the program financially and so we just see it as a way to show that Kendall County is a great place to come back and work and live,” Story said. “We call it boomerang talent. We hope to send them (the students) off and have them come back.”

In most cases, many small Texas communities lose future professionals and leaders. The goal of the program is to develop a strong professional foundation early in the student’s educational experience.

The program is expected to build connections for a potential future in the student’s home community and to prepare the next generation of community leaders.

This year the program brought back five students from the surrounding Kendall County and Boerne area: Cassidy Bernstein, Juliana Flores, Ryan George, Elle Nicholson and Samantha Spencer.

Students interested in applying for the paid internships were required to be first-year college students, attend an information session at UT, submit an essay, resume, cover letter and go through a series of interviews. The program annually sees hundreds of applicants.

Once accepted into the program, each student was placed with a host either directly or indirectly aligned with their area of study.

This summer, SEnergy, Prytime Medical Devices, Manifestive Design, the Kendall County Engineering Department and Bat Conservation International all hosted interns from the program.

Samantha Spencer, an acting major in UT’s College of Fine Arts, and Juliana Flores, a double major studying design and informatics, were among the five students selected for the program.

Spencer interned at Manifestive Design, a graphic design and brand strategy company owned by Callie Roberson.

During her time interning at Manifestive Design, Spencer said she worked on drafting different marketing statements and helped work on a mural painting.

“Home to Texas paired me up with Manifestive Design because of our common ground in art,” Spencer said. “It may have not directly contributed to my career, but it was a great experience regardless.”

Flores was paired with Prytime Medical Devices Inc., a medical device company that designs, develops and commercializes minimally invasive solutions for hemorrhage control.

“I’ve always planned on returning to the San Antonio/ Boerne area after my education is over, and this program seemed like a great way for me to learn more about what my hometown had to offer,” Flores said.

“It also seemed like a productive and useful way to spend my summer,” she said in an email about her experience.

Students who participated in the program not only worked full time with their host company but helped UT-Austin conduct five areas of research. Students gathered information for studies conducted in education, law and legal decision, energy, public policies, and language and history.

The program began at the end of UT’s spring semester and ended in mid-July. Students and their hosts were invited to attend a reception at Das GreenHaus to recognize their hard work and research.

For more information regarding the Home to Texas program, visit the Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Corporation website at: https://bkcedc.com/.