In this 10-week summer incubator, you’ll split your time between interning at a local social impact organization and developing your own social venture with Innovate@BU.
Generously funded by the Enlight Foundation, you’ll receive a $10,000 stipend and develop the leadership, technical, and entrepreneurial skills necessary to solve today’s most pressing social and environmental issues.
Please note that this program does not provide housing.
Applications for 2026 have closed, but if you’re interested in using innovation and entrepreneurship for social benefit, sign up to be an Innovate@BU Insider to get alerted when we have new opportunities!
There are two ways to get placed at an internship.
On a summer evening somewhere around week eight, the ten members of the 2025 Enlight Fellowship cohort found themselves at BU Beach, talking about the world's biggest problems and what they intended to do about them. They came from different schools, different disciplines, different countries. But as they sat together watching the sun set over […]
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Before the Enlight Fellowship, Gabrielle Moussas felt stuck. With a big idea in mind and a clear desire to make a difference, she wasn’t sure how to move forward. "I was unsure about how I would take this big idea and make it something […]
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Mya Kelly has always been inspired by entrepreneurship. Growing up in Owensboro, Kentucky, she watched her mother run a business that spotlighted local entrepreneurs. And once she arrived at Boston University, Mya decided to explore what innovation might look like for her. "I just […]
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Before graduate school, the idea of starting something of her own wasn’t even on Jamila Peguero’s radar. "I’m the first in my family to go to undergrad, the first to go to grad school," she shares. "Owning something, creating something—it wasn’t something I was […]
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Megan Kwan (CFA'27) came into the Enlight Fellowship with a vision: to bridge the gap between Boston's art students and the real-world skills they need to thrive beyond graduation. As a College of Fine Arts major and entrepreneurship minor, Megan understood firsthand how individual […]
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Ishtiyaq Shajahan (CAS'26), a political science major eager to make a difference in his community, spent his summer in the Enlight Fellowship through Innovate@BU, where he launched a new nonprofit and explored the systems behind community-driven change. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, with family roots […]
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Zachary DaSilva-Grondin (Sargent'28) began his summer feeling exhausted. Fresh off a medical brigade in Guatemala, he entered the Enlight Fellowship unsure of what to expect. But, by the end, the community he found reshaped his perspective on his role in tackling some of the […]
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Patricia Porekuu is a seasoned development practitioner from Ghana with over 15 years of experience in HIV, TB, and malaria programs, and she has spent her career educating and supporting underserved communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. When she arrived at Boston University’s School of Public […]