Hope Students Conquer Internships

Isn’t summer the best?  Ice cream, bonfires, picnics, the beach and warm temperatures!  Here at Hope many students are also spending their days participating in summer internships.  Take a peek at what a few students have been up to!

Kelly Arnold, Senior, Communication Major (Digital Marketing Focus)
 
Where have you been interning this summer? 
This summer, I’ve been working as a Digital Marketing Intern for Herman Miller. I work under our Senior Digital Product Manager who helps maintain Herman Miller’s digital offerings both in and outside the company such as Omni, our dealer intranet. I also help out all around our Digital Marketing team on a variety of projects.
A day in the life:
Includes sitting in on meetings, performing user acceptance testing for a soon-to-come website launch, and working to prepare the right documents and data to assist with website content and development. 
What have you learned?
I’ve learned a lot about the technical side of digital marketing, Also, as a Communication major, I’ve been dropped into the business world, which at first was a big learning curve but I’ve loved the challenge and the growth I’ve seen in myself since I began.

Share with us more about the internship program and culture

As far as the program itself, it’s been an experience rich with opportunity. Everyone I’ve come in contact with has been friendly, kind, and excited to share their story with me about their career and their time with the company. One out of every four Herman Miller employees has been here for 20 years or more and this summer I’ve seen why. Employees are treated with care and respect and the work culture is just the best. From our intern project sponsor, to my company-assigned mentor, to my Work Team Leader (my boss), to others who I work with frequently, I truly feel that those around me have invested in me and genuinely care about my growth and professional success.

**Picture featured above: Kelly’s (fourth from the right) intern project group. Two group mates are also Hope students!

Amy Dkystra, Sophomore, Business Major and Leadership Minor

Where did you intern this summer? 

I was a claims intern at Broadspire in Lake Zurich, IL! Broadspire is a Third Party Administrator, which is a subsidiary of Crawford and Company. I personally handled claims for many companies such as Uber, Chipotle, Gordon Food Services, and Ecolab.
What did you learn from your internship?
I did not know what to expect of a role in the insurance industry, but learned many valuable lessons through my mentors and projects. Although my internship was mostly in adjusting worker’s compensation and commercial automotive/liability claims, I also was able to learn more about different roles within the company such as operations, carrier an relations.
What are other things you enjoyed about your internship?
My managers and co-workers took the time to get to know me personally, as well as answered any questions I had about the industry. I sincerely enjoyed my time at Broadspire, and would definitely consider an insurance position in the future!! 

Jarod Wolters, Senior, Business and Economics Major

How has your internship impacted you this summer? 

In my time at Haworth, I have seen first hand the value of my Liberal Arts education (Hear me out, because even as a senior I hadn’t fully invested in that idea). My role allowed me to apply techniques from within my major, but also from outside of it –  including Art and Communications. One major component of my role was data visualization, so having taken two Design courses helped my analysis carry an impact. Along those same lines, I presented out my findings to a team of my superiors, so knowing I had the skills to do so confidently was great!

What was something that surprised you?

One area that surprised me was the emphasis on StrengthsFinder within the company. Haworth has an Internal Development team that leads courses on it and they spent the better part of a day with the interns working through each of our results to see how we can leverage them in our day-to-day lives. Most of the other interns had not heard of the assessment before, so already having a bit of background going into the discussion was helpful. Oh, and three of my five skills changed from freshman year, which was kind of fun to see!

We know there are many more students having amazing experiences this summer and we want to hear all about them. Be sure to send us an email at internships@hope.edu to share your story. You might just find you will be our next feature!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *