LightEdge Partners with Iowa State University and Sweetwater Union High School District to Support the Next Generation
LightEdge, the leader in compliant cloud and colocation for more than 25 years, launched a new partnership with Iowa State University’s Ivy Sales Forum, in addition to its ongoing internship program with Sweetwater Union High School District. Both partnerships align with LightEdge’s efforts to educate and provide opportunities for high school and college students within the digital infrastructure industry, including cybersecurity, cloud, network engineering, data science, and more.
Ivy Sales Forum’s mission is to build a pool of professional sales-focused students from different backgrounds. The program is a collaboration between Iowa State University’s Ivy College of Business and corporate partners, and it strives to advance the growth and effectiveness of professional sales.
“LightEdge’s participation in and financial contributions to the Ivy Sales Forum enable us to attract talented students across Iowa State University — and then empower them with the latest tech sales insights,” said Raj Agnihotri, Director of the Ivy Sales Forum. “LightEdge provides our students a worthy option if they want to pursue internships and job opportunities in the technology sales area.”
“We’re proud to share our knowledge and opportunities with students as one of the first technology organizations supporting the Ivy Sales Forum,” said Tommy Castle, Director of Sales for LightEdge and a member of the Ivy Sales Advisory Board. “For years, the digital infrastructure industry has been experiencing talent shortages across teams — from sales to engineering to product development — and it’s an incredibly rewarding and lucrative career for recent graduates. This program allows us to have a positive impact for the next generation right here at home in Iowa, while also benefiting our sales organization.”
Sweetwater Union High School District and NFINIT, a San Diego-based full-stack technology provider acquired by LightEdge in early 2022, launched their internship in the summer of 2021. So far this year, four interns have gone through the program, and plans are underway to re-open submissions in spring 2023.
Sweetwater and NFINIT developed the program as a way to combat the lack of diversity and representation in the computing and tech fields, which are struggling to attract enough talent to keep pace with job demand. With LightEdge’s San Diego data center as the classroom, the internship offers underserved students exposure to a broad view of IT-related career choices.
