Spring into summer with iX LaunchPad & Summer Springboard
This summer, we’re giving students the opportunity to explore careers, travel, and get real-world work experience and career clarity.
Written by
Sigrid Kenmuir
Summer 2023 promises to be exciting for iX LaunchPad as we partner with Summer Springboard once again to bring career exploration courses and micro-internship programmes to students across the USA and the world.
Our history with Summer Springboard
In 2022, we partnered with Summer Springboard to offer their students hybrid learning experiences in Digital Marketing, UX/UI Design, Web Development, and Blockchain. Students joined from their homes across the United States of America, as well as on various college campuses across the country.
These students spent two weeks intensively exploring their chosen careers and took part in a group micro-internship project. At that time, iX LaunchPad was one of several online course providers, and this year we have become the key online course provider to Summer Springboard for 2023 and beyond.
What’s on offer in 2023?
In 2023, we’ve expanded our course offering to include student favourites Data Analytics and Management Consulting, alongside our core programme that includes Blockchain & Crypto, Web & Software Development, UX/UI Design, and Digital Marketing.
How can GEMS students make the most of their summer?
The summer vacation is long, and there’s a lot you can do with it. This summer, why not take the opportunity to explore a new-to-you career, meet new people, and maybe even explore a new country? You can do all this with iX LaunchPad and Summer Springboard. Apply now (for free!) to take our two-week online or in-person career exploration programme in partnership with Summer Springboard.
On-campus immersion or online convenience
What was that, online or in person? That’s right. Students have the opportunity to travel to a college campus in the USA to immerse themselves in college life while exploring a new career opportunity.
Explore a US college campus
On-campus students will learn online in the morning in Zoom classes live taught by our industry professionals. In the afternoon, students will have the chance to take an enrichment elective in subjects like College Admissions, Photography, Public Speaking, Life Skills, Outdoor Athletics, or Community Service. In the evenings, students can explore the nearby towns and natural areas, depending on which campus they choose to visit. And while they’re doing all that, these students will be making friends, expanding their network, and experiencing college life for themselves.
UC Berkeley, Wheeler Hall
Learn online from wherever you are
Not everyone is up for travelling to another country, and for those students, we have the online immersion experience. Our online students will join their on-campus colleagues in their live-taught morning Zoom classes. After that, they are free to enjoy their summer holiday at home, on vacation, or in whichever way they like.
Which careers can GEMS students explore?
There are six courses available to GEMS students in our Summer Springboard programme:
1. Blockchain & Crypto
Learn to define what “sound money” is and trace the chronological evolution of abstractions of value throughout human history.
Students will describe, compare, and contrast centralised and decentralised applications of a given technology or system.
They will analyse peer-to-peer (P2P) computer networks and be able to list examples of existing P2P networks.
Gain an understanding of how blockchain networks grow and the economic incentives that are required for healthy blockchain networks.
Gain an understanding of basic crypto-economics, using existing crypto-economic models, and designing crypto-economic models.
Apply a practical understanding of crypto trading and investing to securely purchase, store, and trade cryptocurrencies.
Use teamwork skills and collaboration with others in diverse group settings.
Use different problem-solving methodologies, implementing hypothesis-driven analysis and critical thinking skills.
2. Management Consulting
Gain an understanding of what management consulting is and why management consultants are needed.
Learn to define problems so that they are SMART: specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound.
Explore structuring problems so they are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.
Students will learn how to prioritise deliverables, actions, and options in order to focus on elements that will give them insight into the 80/20 rule, or how to achieve 80% of the desired results with 20% of the effort in business.
Gain the in-demand soft skills for today's business world by learning how to derive insights and implications from words using business communication.
Learn how to articulate and build a forecast model on paper before completing one using Microsoft Excel.
Learn how to build a client-ready management consulting slide deck and present it to a client.
3. Data Analytics
Conduct exploratory data analysis including how to clean and pre-process data for visualisation.
Learn to visualise different types of data and how to create impactful charts and graphs.
Implement the principles of data storytelling through the micro-internship project.
Develop insights from the analysis of the data, and create practical takeaways for organisational decision-makers.
Use teamwork skills and collaboration with others in diverse group settings
Use different problem-solving methodologies, and implement hypothesis-driven analysis and critical thinking skills.
4. Web Development
The basics of coding: Learn the essential markup and coding languages of the web: HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
Mobile-first, responsive design: This is the default of the modern web. Learn coding frameworks and techniques that ensure that your websites work well on all screen sizes.
Software tools: Learn which software tools are most popular in the world of today’s editors including Figma and Adobe XD.
Databases: Learn the basics and how to store/work with data to drive your website.
APIs: Understand how to use APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) so you can communicate with other websites all over the web.
Effective debugging: Learn with tools like Chrome Developer Tools that might help you make sure your code works perfectly on every browser.
Git and Github: This is the industry standard for collaborating on, sharing and hosting software on the internet.
5. UX/UI Design
Design fundamentals: The psychology of colours, lines, shapes, textures, and fonts. Learn to leverage the power of space, rhythm, composition, and structure.
Human-computer interaction: The basics of the psychology of interface design and how humans feel about computers in different contexts.
User Research: Learn to form hypotheses, then go out to real people to collect data and test your assumptions.
Rapid Prototyping: Prototyping, sketching, and wireframing - essential techniques for experimentation and brainstorming.
Visual Identity: Build a visual identity from scratch, taking into account the story, personality, and core values.
Mock Websites & Apps: Learn to design across screen sizes and interaction paradigms.
6. Digital Marketing
Market analysis: Understand the mechanics of how audiences are marketed to and how marketers can co-opt those powers.
Develop a future-oriented framework that builds on the foundations of marketing and incorporating fast-evolving technologies and behavioural science.
Financial modelling: Analyse key metrics like return on investment (ROI), customer acquisition cost (CAC), and lifetime value (LTV).
Ad bidding & auction: Click bidding, bid management, and budgeting— learn how to outmanoeuvre your competition. Learn the basics of Google Analytics to measure your campaign performance.
Channels & tracking: The role of digital channels such as broadcast, direct, & social.
Brand & Social Media: Create a social ad campaign for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Produce a strategy that outlines key messaging, content mapping, distribution, and measurement.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Improve the search discoverability of your brand and products with SEO strategies and tactics.
How does it work?
Summer Springboard is an intensive nine-day programme, with daily, 3-hour classes. All classes will be held online, and students can join virtually from wherever they are in the world or fly to the USA to explore one of the Summer Springboard campuses and take part in the in-person activities there.
Two packages
Online: Cost $1,598 (Down from $1,798 - $200 discount for iX LaunchPad students) All six courses listed above can be taken online from anywhere in the world.
Hybrid On-Campus: Cost $4,948 (Down from $5,698 - $750 discount for iX LaunchPad students) Campuses available for the hybrid on-campus experience are: UC Berkeley: At UC Berkeley, students can study UX & UI Design and Intro to Software Engineering. New York: At Fordham University in New York City, students can study Blockchain & Cryptocurrency and Digital Marketing.
Structure & dates
Only Sessions 2 and 3 of the Summer Springboard programme will be available to iX LaunchPad students. The Online Academy can be taken from anywhere in the world, however, classes are live taught at the times and timezones indicated below.
Apply now for your best summer ever
Sign up for more information or apply right now and start making plans for your best summer ever. It’s time to spring into summer with iX LaunchPad and get ready for a career exploration adventure.
