ChoicePoint gift to support Pamplin College of Business internships

ChoicePoint Inc., through its foundation, has made a $50,000 gift to the Pamplin College of Business to support social entrepreneurship and technology education at Virginia Tech.

The gift will be used to create internships that focus on providing technology solutions for local and regional nonprofit organizations, said Pat McCarthy, Pamplin’s associate director of corporate and foundation relations. “This gift will help leverage our students’ technical knowledge and skills, while encouraging them to engage with social policy issues and allowing them to gain on-the-job training and experience.”

Projects may include building effective websites, creating or maintaining databases of organizational information, and establishing technology assessment and implementation plans. McCarthy said the projects will typically be solicited through such initiatives and organizations as VT-ENGAGE (now part of the university’s new Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships) and the YMCA at Virginia Tech.

The projects will be evaluated for their feasibility and appropriateness by faculty members in Pamplin’s business information technology department,” she said. “Because of the technological focus of the internships, participants will be selected primarily from within this department. However, other Pamplin students with the appropriate skills will be eligible for consideration.”

The funds from the ChoicePoint foundation, she said, will provide support, over a two-year period, for two part-time interns in the fall and spring semesters, two full-time interns in the summer semester, and a summer faculty supervisor.”

For more information about this internship scholarship program, please e-mail Pat McCarthy.

ChoicePoint, headquartered in Alpharetta, Ga., provides businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations with technology, software, information, and marketing services to help manage economic risks and identify business opportunities. “As a company, ChoicePoint strongly promotes the responsible use of information as a fundamental plank to its business model as well as the inherent belief that a successful corporation must be a positive force in society,” said Megan Mahoney, ChoicePoint vice president of corporate communications.