U.S. Soccer Partners With Break Through Tech Chicago to Offer Sprinternship Program to Transform Career Trajectory of Women

CHICAGO (March 8, 2021) – U.S. Soccer announced today it is part of the inaugural group of organizations working with Break Through Tech to host a Sprinternship, a unique micro-internship that seeks to transform the career trajectories of women (cis and trans) and nonbinary students at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC).

 

Sprinternships are designed to improve students’ access to full-length summer internships by giving them the foundational work experience they need to compete while enhancing and diversifying Chicago’s tech talent pool.

In just three weeks, Break Through Tech Chicago Sprinterns complete a tech-based project while learning about the mission, business model, and strategic goals of an organization.

 

As one of the first organizations to offer a Sprinternship here in Chicago, U.S. Soccer is building on a successful model established by more than 80 organizations in New York City, home to Break Through Tech’s first site.

 

U.S. Soccer’s Sprinternship will bring five UIC students to the organization from May 10-28 to work on a tech-oriented “challenge project” by designing U.S. Soccer’s intranet site. The five Sprinterns will use the knowledge and skills from their University of Illinois-Chicago experience to come up with a solution to the challenge project, bringing unique perspective and fresh ideas. Outside of the goal-oriented project, the Sprinterns will get to know the organization by interacting with departments and leaders, giving them a sense of what matters to U.S. Soccer. For many, this Sprinternship will serve as a critical first step in pursuing a rewarding career in technology.

 

“In cooperation with Break Through Tech Chicago, we’re excited to be one of the inaugural companies to offer Sprinterships in Chicago,” said U.S. Soccer Chief Human Resources Officer Pinky Raina. “U.S. Soccer has been a leader in women’s sports and just a couple weeks after another successful SheBelieves Cup we now have another great another opportunity to lead in advocating diversity in the tech world. This program fits directly into one of U.S. Soccer’s principles of Championing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We’re looking forward to welcoming our interns this May and are honored to join all the companies in Chicago taking part in the program.”

 

Each host organization has designed a unique challenge project for the Sprinterns, who, working in teams of five, will bring their UIC experience and fresh perspective to a specific need or problem faced by the organization. Once the Sprinternships have ended, Break Through Tech will add stories to its website to illustrate some of these projects and highlight the tech solutions generated by the Sprintern teams.

 

Sprinternships are the career-immersion component of Break Through Tech Chicago’s overall approach, which seeks to promote gender diversity in tech by increasing the number of women (cis and trans) and nonbinary individuals who graduate from UIC with majors or minors in computer science, data science, and other tech disciplines.

 

Below is the full list of the inaugural hosts taking part of the program in Chicago:

 

AbbVie

Adams Street Partners

Anthem, Inc.

Aon

Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd.

Cisco Systems

IBM

Kavi Global

KPMG

Littelfuse, Inc.

Marmon Rail

Morningstar, Inc.

Optum

PEAK6

Relativity

University of Illinois Chicago

U.S. Soccer Federation

William Blair & Company