When I think about a team, I think about a group of people who have the same abilities and desires. Before becoming a financial economics major, I thought that the only way I could play on the team of impacting people’s life was through pursuing a medical degree. This team has direct contact with patients every day. They are the ones that make the difference. I slowly began to realize that this is not the case at all, and this realization has been exemplified every day here during my internship at Tx: Team.
Having an impact during an internship is one of the reasons that I decided to join Tx: Team. Tx: Team is a physical therapy company based in Indianapolis but does business in many different states. I remember speaking to Scott Benedict, the CEO of Tx: Team during the interview for this internship. He said that the intern would have the ability to speak freely and be treated as an equal member of the team. He also assured me that I would not be getting coffee for him. I never realized how accurate this statement was until I started the internship.
On the first day of this internship, I was introduced to all of the tools that are used for forecasting. I remember saying to Spencer Sherridan, the financial analyst, on the first day, “These tools are ridiculously slow. There has to be another way.” His response back was simple, “Find it.” So with that motivation I set off to find another way to compile the data and make the tools work faster. I consulted many different sources to find the best program to use that was not Excel. The answer came to me with a Microsoft program called Access. Over the next few weeks, I would transform the physician referral Excel sheet into a quicker, and more user-friendly Access version. My best friends those next few weeks became “Access 2010 for Dummies” and the Office Support website since no one at the office knew much about Access.
After many obstacles and challenges, I finally finished the new Access database. Everyone in the office was impressed and wanted to work on changing all of the forecasting tools to Access. This one simple example shows that even though I am only an intern, I had a major impact on the team. I also impacted the team in another way by using my skills from Rhetoric 290- Deliberation. I got the chance to compose a deliberation for associates to voice their thoughts on how to increase the enthusiasm within the company. This just shows the value of a liberal arts education. I had to use skills from a variety of different classes and backgrounds to accomplish the task at hand. I would like to thank the Lilly Endowment for giving me all of these opportunities to learn a new operating system and for allowing me to realize even as an intern I can have a huge impact.
In conclusion, this team that I work for does not consist solely of therapists. It consists of people from all different specialties and experiences with each member making a difference in people’s lives directly or indirectly. They practice hard to give everyone the opportunity to live the healthiest life possible. I am part of that team. Tx: Team.
This post is part of the Looksharp Internship Blog Competition. To read more about the competition and view other posts go here.
