Start ups may not have a lot of time to respond to that sort of thing. When you are living off Ramen and praying that you don't lose money this year, you tend to be pretty busy.
I think you can still find a couple minutes to respond to someone reaching out for help once in a while. It doesn't mean it's your responsibility to shoulder all the burden of helping everyone asking, but it is worth doing it sometimes because even if you don't realize it, other people did it for you, many times.
Suggestion: while waiting for the beans to boil, why not put a simple short Web page together with information aimed at College students? Stress the generic (problem solving, attention to detail, big picture planning, importance of getting and listening to feedback from customers &c) and link these to skill set needed.
Shows commitment to the Youth, Values, Caring &c and takes seconds to point to if/when the e-mails arrive.
