Lerer Ventures’ Summer School VC aims to help college students become entrepreneurs and investors

Lerer Ventures on Thursday announced the launch of a new summer program for college students to help train them to become entrepreneurs and investors. Called Summer School VC, this month-long program will take place in New York City and will consist of between 15 to 20 undergraduate and graduate students.

Ben Lerer, the managing director of the venture capital firm, says that Summer School VC  will give it “the chance to help the next generation of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and prepare them for a really exciting, but really challenging career path.”

With its inaugural class, Lerer Ventures says that students will participate in weekly after-work sessions covering all aspects of the VC world, including logistics, day-to-day operations, and fundraising. In addition, they will meet with founders and CEOs of the firm’s portfolio companies, like BuzzFeed, Branch, Barkbox, Adapt.ly, Everlane, MakerBot Industries, Newsle, Onswipe, and LiveIntent.

Each week, classes will be held on a variety of subjects, including industry, life cycle, financing, and breaking into venture capital. “Course professors” include folks like Ken Lerer, Eric Hippeau, and Ben Lerer. Joining them are Jordan Cooper, Steve Schlafman, Blake Lyon, Max Stoller, and Nicola Kozenko. All are part of the Lerer Ventures team.

Applications for the program are now open and the program will take place at Lerer Ventures’ headquarters in the SoHo neighborhood of NYC. The firm says that the ideal candidates it’s looking for are those influential on campus (no, not based off of a Klout score). Rather, applicants that are active contributors to their local tech community, have an awareness of startup culture and technology cycles, and a general understanding of the venture ecosystem are probably what Summer School VC is looking for.

The creation of this summer program is the latest by venture capital firms to try and find the next Mark Zuckerberg or help new talent flourish. Other VCs taking advantage of this trend include Highland Capital who has its Summer@Highland program and ff Venture Capital.

As it’s based in NYC, it’s a great place to learn not only about entrepreneurship, but also venture capital. After all, it’s one of the most diverse cities in the US and also is home to one of the top technology hubs, coming second against San Francisco. Perhaps it’s Lerer Ventures’ way of telling the community that they don’t have to flock to Silicon Valley in order to start a successful company.

Summer Camp VC is supported by Square 1 Bank, a financial institution that specializes in the VC market and helps fund startups.

Photo credit: John Moore/Getty Images