Long Pham ’14:  This summer I am doing an internship up here in Lowell, MA with Jim Ray ’95 at his startup FASTPORT, thanks to the funding from Lilly Small Business Internship Fund.  FASTPORT is a small business focusing on technology-based trucker recruitment, and is pretty much the very first such company in the trucking industry.  One particular advance that we possess is our web-based application for truckers to get rid of all the paperwork and reduce the processing time from a few weeks to 48-72 hours.

However, our web application was meant to be much better and faster than it is at the moment; and that is where my work comes in. Generally, my work at FASTPORT involves assisting Jim on rebuilding the entire web application from scratch, to create a better, faster and much more efficient system for the business.

I would like to emphasize the importance of what I have learned here at FASTPORT.  In fact, the most important lesson that I have learned over the last 10 weeks is not about programming; instead, it is all about work ethics and entrepreneurial attitude.  For over 10 weeks, Aeknoor Cheema ’15 and I have been working to get the business up and running.  Aeknoor was helping Colin Dunlap ’12, our Sales & Marketing manager, on building business and marketing plans, while I assisted Jim on all the programming stuffs.  Since FASTPORT is only a startup with 2 employees and 2 interns, it is obvious that we all have to work really hard in order to make it work. Late-night and weekend work shifts are very common at FASTPORT.  Even though the workload is always tremendous, I never felt unmotivated, thanks to Jim’s wonderful mentorship.  When we stay late for work, he often takes us out to dinner, and we discuss our workplan over delicious wings and beers.  Jim also shares stories about his ventures, his successes and failures, and always concludes with some sort of life-worthy lesson.  These experiences make me feel fortunate for having chosen this internship for my summer.

Certainly, I cannot forget to mention the programming part of the internship.  Even though I had studied several courses on Computer Science and was indeed fluent in Java and Python, my knowledge did not help very much.  Jim has guided us towards .NET programming using Visual Basic/SQL, which I never learned.  Thankfully, he was a great teacher, who would spend time making me instructive videos and guidelines, as well as providing working examples for me to study from.  After 10 weeks of ‘studying’ web programming with Jim, I have come a long way from knowing nothing to being able to construct a complete web project on my own with an infinitesimal amount of help.  All this work also makes me realize that knowledge means nothing unless you really use it in fieldwork.

To conclude, I would just like to thank Career Services and Jim for offering me this wonderful opportunity.  All these hardworking late nights and weekends have taught me the importance of working ethically with a positive attitude, regardless of your position in the company.  More importantly, they affirm one simple truth to me: Wabash Always Fights, in school and beyond.

Office of Public Affairs Interns with Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napalitano

Andrew Dettmer ’15:  First let me take a moment to thank the Wabash College Political Science Department, and the Coons-Cassel committee for providing me with my grant for this summer.  If not for their hard work year around, financial assistance, and the support they’ve given me in the classroom this internship would not have been possible.

I am now approaching the end of my ten week summer internship in Washington, D.C. and I am shocked by how quickly time has flown by here at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Public Affairs!  It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in an office with a security officer handing me my badge and explaining the security protocols and procedures at our complex.  Now as it ends, I find myself wrapping up projects and documents I’ve spent the whole summer working on, and preparing to clean out my desk and turn my badge back in.  Also, I’ll miss spying on all of you.  Just kidding, we don’t do that.

I’ve often heard horror stories from interns with other government agencies about having little to do, and only being given busy work.  The exact opposite has been true for me, thanks in part to the departure of several full time employees whose shoes needed to be filled, but due to budget cuts had to be pushed off.  But with their departures, came opportunities for the summer interns.

One of the best things I’ve learned in my position is how to create, manage, and maintain a website that represents 240,000 employees and deals with so many complex and different issues for the public.  Despite having no experience doing anything like this, my boss fully trusted that I could figure it out.  Like a true liberal arts student, I threw myself into the task and learned on the job.  Now, I’ve completely overhauled the Department’s Website satisfaction and response system, and helped initiate several Website improvements that have helped the American people use our website and interact with their government better.  Pretty cool.

I’ve learned how to use programs like Google Analytics, IdeaScale, Foresee ACSI, and Drupal CMS; programs not usually found on a Political Science major’s resume, which only increases my skill set for when I leave Wabash.  And while the practical skills I’ve learned have been immeasurably valuable, the other functions I’ve helped and observed have given me a more in depth view of how our country responds to all types of disasters and attacks.  Thirty seconds from my desk is the National Joint Information Center, a room which was the center of the U.S. government’s response to everything from Hurricane Sandy to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, or the Boston Bombing to Sandy Hook.  Sitting in on calls with people we see on the news every day, and participating in drills on every type of scenario you can imagine has given me a lot of confidence in our government’s ability to weather any storm.

Andrew Dettmer ’15 and Carter Adams ’15 enjoy “sweet seats” at a Nationals game courtesy of Eric Eversole ’94

The people here have been great, and I am saddened that my time here is ending.  The skills and experiences they’ve given me will and have shaped my career path.  However I feel I’ve made the best of the summer, even taking the time to meet up with my old bosses, Eric Eversole ‘94 and Laurène Gros-Daillon at the Military Voter Protection Project.  Eric was kind enough to give Carter Adams ’15 and I his tickets that night to the National’s game, and we had a blast. And of course, countless trips to museums, monuments, and famous eateries has capped off what has been an amazing summer.

Casey Shipley ’14:  This summer, I was fortunate enough to land an internship working for Nantucket Bike Tours in Nantucket, MA.  Thus far, it has been an unbelievable summer working for entrepreneur Jason Bridges ‘98, who started this company three years ago, and Carl Rivera ’13.  Courtney Nemeth, who is the co-owner of NBT, and Tadhg Hannon ’15, who is also interning for the summer, make up the rest of our team.  At Nantucket Bike Tours, we give tours to people all around the island helping them experience Nantucket by showing them amazing beaches, endless historical sites, and breathtaking landscape.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect before I came out to Nantucket, but everything Ihave learned here has by far surpassed my expectations. Being a bike tour company, giving tours is obviously a major part of my internship this summer, but it is far from theonly thing that I have done and learned here over the last couple of months.  Not only do I give tours, but I have also had the chance to participate in all of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to make a small business thrive, which all entrepreneurs aim to do. There is so much that goes on in a small business, and as most entrepreneurs know, it is hard at times to stay on top of everything on the agenda with limited employees.  Not only was I continuously trying to learn the history and layout of the island in my first few weeks, but I had to juggle all of that while helping with all of the business side of the company.  I was involved in the company’s accounting, marketing, business planning, and public relations.  This wide-ranging mixture of business experience I have been gainingwill be extremely beneficial to my future career.

Aside from the vast variety of hands-on business experience I have been gaining through this internship, I have also learned the “little things” that will help me be successful in whatever I do down the road.  Jason and Carl have helped me grow so much as a person by helping me develop the necessary character traits and teaching me intangibles that would help make anyone more successful.  They are both always stressing to me about things like leadership, details, and awareness.  These traits seem so obvious, but it actually takes a lot of work to develop them.  Jason has been giving me literature to read on leadership and how to influence people.  This is very important at Nantucket Bike Tours because every single group of customers is different, so it is imperative that I have the social and communication skills to be able to effectively meet and gain the trust of people from all different backgrounds.  While this is obviously very important while giving tours, these skills I have learned will without a doubt make me more successful down the road by helping me interact with a wide variety of people effectively.  I have had numerous chances to work on these skills this summer outside of the tours through the various volunteer jobs we do within the Nantucket community.  We have volunteered for the ACK clean team, the Nantucket Film Festival, and the Nantucket Comedy Festival. These have all provided excellent opportunities to work on these communication and leadership skills.

We are extremely blessed at Wabash to have a very strong and dedicated group of alumni. To not take advantage of the opportunities they can present, and the knowledge and wisdom they can offer, is a mistake as a student.  Internships through Career Services and the Small Business Internship Fund are the perfect opportunity to connect with alumni and really build your business skills, as well as leadership and character traits that will expand your communication and social skills.  All of these skills will help make you successful in any career path that you choose. 

I would like to thank those who make the Small Business Internship Fund possible.  The beauty of having an internship for a small business is that I have been exposed to every aspect of the business.  It has really helped me diversify and enhance myself by developing a wide range of skills that I will use in whatever career I go into after I graduate next spring.  From accounting and marketing, to social and communication skills, Jason and Carl have taught me more in a short amount of time than I ever expected to learn while I was out here. I look forward to my remaining weeks here on the island, and I will definitely continue to take advantage of this opportunity to work with great alumni and gain as much knowledge as I can from them to continue to grow as a person.

Jeff Bell ’14:  Setting about the task of synthesizing these last two months of my life is quite an intimidating feat to attempt, but I will try to do justice to the spectacular experiences that I have found around every corner of my time in California, as I’ve taken part in a job provided by the Small Business Internship Fund.  Before I dive into a fuller explanation of my time here and how it has been spent, I find it necessary to thank those whose generous contributions made my time in this internship possible (although it would seem there are more people deserving of thanks than I have space to write).  First, thanks to those whose generous contributions to the SBIF allow for interns like myself to travel the country in pursuit of furthering their education through workplace experience.  Your faith in us is humbling and your generosity is inspiring.  A hearty thanks must also be extended to Scott Crawford for the tireless hours that he pours into this program, ensuring that it is successful for the numerous Wabash Men who utilize it.  A final warm thank you must be extended to all the friends, family, alumni, and coworkers who I have encountered along the way these past two months.  Although there are far more of you than I can list here, I will always be indebted to you for your never-ending support and interest in the continued education and development offered by my time in California.

I think it important for my reader to first understand that I have been a born and raised Hoosier for my whole life.  Never having lived outside the state of Indiana for more than a month at a time, the idea of sojourning west to California to take part in an exotic and exciting internship inspired a mixture of both curious fascination and nervous apprehension.  The opportunity that had been offered to me by trustee Paul Woolls was a two-month tenure in California.  The first month was to take place in downtown Los Angeles where I would be spending time in his Insurance Litigation firm working in different capacities with the goal of learning more about the legal field.  The second would require that I moved north to the Napa Valley area for a month working in his beautiful Vineyard and Winery.  Now to the average Indiana native, each of these locations brings a certain romantic notion of excitement and joy that can only be brought by adventure and travel.  So needless to say, I was overwhelmingly thrilled to be given the opportunity to move out West and continue honing my talents and pursuing discovery of the career that I wish to spend my life doing.

Plunging into both the legal side of this internship and the slightly more exotic experience of winemaking in Napa Valley, I was expected to display a tremendous versatility in the tasks I was able to perform.  Bouncing back and forth from being a clerk filing legal documents to hand tending the vines of a vineyard required an aptitude for quick learning and a certain curiosity that would keep the steady stream of new tasks from being overwhelming and daunting.  Here the liberal arts education I have received at Wabash College shone through and gave me a special familiarity with learning a variety of tasks and quickly mastering different forms of work.  As an English major, gaining workplace experience has been a critical part of developing my education beyond the great literary works and many hours of writing that fill the curriculum of such students at Wabash.  Internships like the one I have taken part in are a critical part of the growth and development of any Wabash Man, but in particular those whose major might not be deemed “practical” by some individuals in this country.

While I sit and write this blog post I keep looking out the window to my right and breathing in silent awe of the gorgeous Napa Valley landscape.  My employer, Paul Woolls has graciously lent me the guesthouse that sits atop Mt. Veeder and overlooks a certain portion of his estate vineyard.  It is perhaps the most gorgeous part of the country I have ever seen and the peace and tranquility offered by this location stands in stark contrast to the fast paced, vibrant, and oftentimes overwhelming downtown Los Angeles lifestyle.  Getting the opportunity to experience each of these styles of life all while gaining valuable work experience in two drastically different fields is humbling when I stop to reflect on all that it has done for my growth as a person, citizen, and as a Wabash Man.  I now have one and a half weeks before I start the long drive back to Indiana, and in that time I will savor the thrill of living alone in a splendid area filled with new people, places, and adventures.  Although my heart misses my home and family there is something to be said for the thrill that comes from exposing oneself to unfamiliar experiences.  Thank you again so much to all those whose tireless efforts enable these opportunities to benefit young men like myself.

Wabash Always Fights