Ursinus College has launched a Summer Business Assist Initiative which pairs students with local businesses to help them develop marketing ideas.

Through the pilot program, 14 students will provide seven new or established businesses with a creative marketing boost under the college’s U-Imagine Center for Integrative and Entrepreneurial Studies.

“We want the students to help the businesses think outside the box and introduce new ideas,” said Maureen Cumpstone, the entrepreneur-in-residence at the U-Imagine Center.

Ursinus College students will work in pairs to help Montgomery County businesses on projects such as executing a new marketing plan, introducing a new website, improving the company’s social media presence, and presenting a new line of products.

“This allows the students to take their own ideas and mold them with concepts they learned in the classroom and apply them to the real world,” Cumpstone said.

Each student will be awarded a $2,500 stipend for their work on the project funded by an anonymous donor. Throughout the week, students will spend four days at the site of their assigned business and one day at the U-Imagine Center on Main Street giving them a chance to tweak their business plans.

The program is expected to run through the end of July, with organizers hoping to make it an annual program for students.