During the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofits and corporations in New York City canceled STEM summer internships and mentor programs due to lack of funding. The Long Island City library branch had only two weeks to design a virtual program that responded to this community need. We lacked many of the resources necessary to create an impactful summer experience for underprivileged high school students. Our challenge was to design and market a STEM summer internship by crowdsourcing our ecosystem.

The Long Island City library branch used an initiative that Community Library Manager Tienya Smith had learned while at HBS as a student. The case study "Using the Crowd as an Innovation Partner" inspired the initiative. This study by Professor Karim Lakhani asserted, “For certain types of problems, crowds can outperform your company. You just need to know when — and how — to use them.” This pandemic presented the perfect opportunity to source the crowd. Jacob Riis CC, New York Academy of Science, The Grid, CIV: LAB and Queens Public Library served as our crowd.

Eighteen out of 33 teens completed the program. Eighty percent of the youths never had a mentor. Students explored 20 different STEM careers and were mentored by 12 experts. The teens created algorithm, delivery services and app prototypes. When we began, most of the teens had no prior knowledge of their design categories. At the end, design teams could confidently pitch and defend their prototypes. Despite the program’s crowdsourced format, the experience for the teens was seamless.