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Paid Healthcare x Business Opportunities for Students

Paid programs, ventures, entrepreneurship accelerators, grants, and more!

AuthorAuthor

Sachi Chan & Kaneera Uthayakumaran
February 03, 2025

Message from Sachi

Hey everyone, welcome to the first new Invite Health post of 2025! I hope you’ve been enjoying re-reading some of the past interviews- some of you have even been reaching out .

I have some exciting news to share - Kaneera has volunteered to become a contributor of Invite Health. She’s curated this incredible list of student opportunities (including many paid ones) for all Invite Health readers, linking some of them with past interviews. I am grateful for Kaneera’s support to grow Invite Health!

Today’s newsletter is a roundup of paid summer programs for life & health science students interested in working at the intersection of health and business. Opportunities include experiences in venture, entrepreneurship, grants to fund work in health innovation, and more. 

All of the summarized information is directly copied from each program’s websites, but for the most up-to-date information and details, please read through each program’s websites.

I’ve also attached relevant Invite Health interviews from students who have completed some of these programs. Feel free to reference their work and/or reach out to the featured students for additional details about their journey. 

All Invite Health interviews related to start-ups, entrepreneurship and the junction of business and health can be found here. 

-Kaneera

Programs Available to Students

What: With support from leading industry mentors, partners and experts, DMZ's Student Entrepreneurship programs are designed to help emerging entrepreneurs take their business beyond ideation. DMZ basecamp, open to students, is a free hybrid summer entrepreneurship program helping students grow their business.

Who can apply: Application criteria varies by program. 

Payment: Students can pitch to win a trip to NYC and $50,000 in grant prizes, including a $20,000 first-place prize. Members of the program can explore opportunities to interact with leading startups and experts within Canada and DMZ’s global network.

Duration: 4-week pitch coaching experience from May-June.

Learn More: Read our interview with Subaita Rahman, who joined a summer entrepreneurship program with DMZ the summer before university!

What: Contribute to innovating a small business by working on a 7-week, part-time project in groups of 2-5 students. Typical projects are in data analytics, marketing and communications, operations and project management, research, and media.

Who can apply: Canadian post-secondary students from all provinces.

Payment: $22/hr

Duration: Complete 60 hours of project work over seven weeks, with the flexibility to design your own work schedule.

What: The Health Innovation Bootcamp is an immersive, project-focused education program providing curious innovators with the building blocks of entrepreneurship.

Who can apply: Anyone, though priority will be given to those affiliated with McMaster University, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, and Hamilton Health Sciences.

Payment: Over $2000 worth of prizes are to be won in the final pitch competition.

Duration: Takes place over six sessions in three months.

Also Available: Residency @ The Clinic (open to any researcher, clinician, student and/or entrepreneur developing a health or biomedical innovation with affiliation to McMaster University.

What: The 8VC Fellowship is a unique, immersive, three-month internship program that places undergraduate students in contributing roles at some of the world's most innovative startups, including those in the health and life sciences sectors. Placements are available in design or engineering.

Who can apply: Undergraduate students.

Payment: Competitive salaries, varies by company. Program includes a partial housing stipend.

Duration: 3 months.

What: Nucleate Dojo is a subsidiary of Nucleate that focuses on catalyzing and supporting undergraduate biotech talent. Select programs include: 

  • DojoExplore - A 6-week biotech course to train undergraduate researchers in the fundamentals of the biotech sector and early-stage venture creation (unpaid)

  • DojoHouse - A biotech hacker house hosting talented undergraduates who want to become the next top biotech founders from June-August (paid, amount varies by internship)

Who can apply: Any undergraduate student. DojoHouse attendees must find an in-person internship based in the house’s host location by early April.

Learn More: Read our interview with Jennifer Tsai, the managing director of Nucleate Dojo!

What: A foundational education program designed to explore ideation, research translation and commercialization. The program provide students, trainees and investigators

with an introduction to ideation, entrepreneurship and research translation through theoretical and experiential training.

Who can apply: All fourth-year undergraduate students and graduate students enrolled in a Canadian university as well as post-doctoral and clinical fellows affiliated with any Canadian Institution are eligible. Applicants must be interested in exploring research translation and entrepreneurship within the cardiovascular health sector but have limited understanding of how to proceed. No ideas, start-ups, or previous experience are required to participate.

Payment: Teams will ideate an innovative cardiovascular health solution and have the opportunity to pitch their idea for a chance to win $500. 

Duration: Programs typically run from January to June. Participants must attend the orientation sessions, engage in each program element for six months, and join at least 80% of associated workshops and fireside chats.

Learn More: Read our interview with Anabela Cotovio, who studied translational research at UofT and collaborated with the team behind the program.

Incubators and Accelerators

What: Velocity is here to help you at any stage of your project, from generating ideas to starting a full-time career as a founder and beyond. Support is available in the form of pitch competitions, courses, open spaces, feedback, design sprints and more.

Open to: Any member of the University of Waterloo community, students, staff, and faculty.

What: CDL Health helps technical teams bring their human health innovations to market through the advice and guidance of accomplished entrepreneurs, experienced operators, doctors, scientists, engineers, and investors.

Open to: Suited for startups focused on improving the quality, speed, cost, or accessibility of health care. This program is tailored towards early-stage companies (early venture or growth) or even projects (pre-incorporation) that have a prototype or key early validation data on their technology; however, startups of all maturity levels will be considered.

What: H2i offers a wide array of programming and resources for entrepreneurs and their ventures throughout various stages of growth, including mentoring and education, funding opportunities, workshops and speaker series. 

Open to: Criteria varies by program, though generally affiliation with the University of Toronto is preferred.

Also Available: View all UofT-affiliated innovation accelerators at their website.

Grants and Funding

What: 1517 Medici Project works with high school, college students, and dropouts to launch projects to make humanity better. The fund helps to identify mentors, team members, additional sources of capital, and connect you to a vibrant community. 

Open to: Anyone with a project located in North America. Projects do not have to be a startup, but should it turn into one, 1517 can invest with further capital and venture scalable thinking.

Amount: A minimum $1K stipend to further your project.

What: Emergent Ventures is a low-overhead fellowship and grant program that supports entrepreneurs and brilliant minds with highly scalable, "zero to one" ideas for meaningfully improving society.

Open to: Applicants 13 years of age or older. 

Amount: Varies based on idea.

Learn More: Read our interview with Michael Trinh, who received Emergent Ventures funding to support his general career development and research at MIT.

What: Front Row Ventures backs student entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds and ambitious technology-enabled ideas, regardless of their field of work. Beyond financial support, it provides access to industry experts and strategic partnerships to maximize the growth of its portfolio companies.

Open to: Canadian startups that meet the following conditions: at least one co-founder is a student or a recent graduate (who graduated within the past six months), and the company has not raised more than $500K in prior dilutive funding. FRV specializes in pre-seed investments (early stage).

Amount: Varies based on idea.

Learn More: Read our interview with Kyle Jackson, Director of Investments at Front Row Ventures.

What: Innovation Factory’s Synapse Competition is Ontario’s premier life science pitch competition. Designed to help move your innovative life science products and services out of the lab and into the market, the competition pairs innovators with business and entrepreneurship students, and provides the training, mentorship, and resources to be successful.

Amount: Innovator finalists receive training, mentorship, a $2,000 grant, and a chance to pitch and compete for up to $50,000 cash and in-kind prizes. Students receive a $250 honorarium for participating.

Open to: Upper-year college and university students, Master’s-level or Ph.D. students, or recent graduates with experience in business, engineering, science or commercialization.

More Resources

Resources that were created for individuals looking to get a start in health x business, not created by Invite Health.

Jobs, Opportunities & Resources 💻️ 

Most of these resources are reposted on Invite Health’s LinkedIn page.

About Invite Health 💌 

I started Invite Health for my younger self who was trying to figure out what to do with my health sci degree that wasn’t a career in medicine.

Today, I’d say this quote is the primary reason I continue to build Invite Health:

“Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not”

The mission of Invite Health is to close this talent-opportunity gap for students in the life and health sciences.

Since 2022, we’re the leading resource for students figuring out what to do with a life sci / health sci degree. I interview students pursuing diverse careers in healthcare, and how they got there - no gatekeeping here. Every newsletter is rich with resources and insights.

Our main channel is this newsletter, and I occasionally share resources on social media (LinkedIn and Instagram).

You can read more about why I built Invite Health here

How to get the most out of Invite Health 🫶

  1. Connect with the interviewees: At the end of every newsletter, the interviewees leave their contact information for you to contact them. In your message, mention that you learned about their journey through Invite Health, and that you’re curious to learn more!

  2. Share the word: Share Invite Health with your friends and networks. Start a conversation about something you learned- an opportunity, a piece of advice, or a recommendation that an interviewee made.

  3. Bet on yourself: Apply to the opportunities that are shared in the newsletters. You have nothing to lose, and so much to gain. Circling back to point #1 - always reach out to the interviewees if you want advice!

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Read all of Invite Health’s past interviews

How I Built Invite Health - BTS 🌼 

I’m building a series where I share insights on how I built Invite Health. In two years, I’ve grown Invite Health organically to 1,500+ subscribers (meaning, I’ve spent $0), building it sustainably as a solo student founder throughout undergrad and my Master’s.

Schedule Posts

Scheduling posts, whether on LinkedIn or Beehiiv (the platform I use for this newsletter) makes my workflow more efficient. I won’t be always be motivated and/or have the capacity to create content everyday. However, by scheduling content, I’m able to maintain consistency without burning out.

For example, for January 2025, when I was focussing on personal and school commitments, I scheduled a bunch of 2023 and 2024 interviews to be sent out, so that new subscribers would be engaged. I also use LinkedIn’s scheduling feature to ensure I share weekly content on my profile.

Made with 💝 & 🍵 by Sachi

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