William Bernhardt ’19 Archon Tech Strategies – I remember the description of my internship posting on WabashWorkswhich discussed how the CEO wore a lot of hats and performed many tasks within a company.  After reading it, I wondered what being a CEO to a company actually entails.  For a small business like Archon Tech Strategies (6 employees including my fellow intern Steven Stark and me), I was truly astonished with how much Tony Unfried ‘03 takes on.  Owning multiple businesses while being involved in several others is a ton of work.  I have just finished my sixth week here at Archon Tech Strategies and the experience has been different than what I had expected it to be.

Going into my internship I expected to work with the technological and business aspects of the company.  However, that is but a small fraction of what I have been doing until now.  Being able to intern for and witness a small business’s operation has shown me the variety of work that comes with any given day.  From creating electronic forms to starting a marketing campaign or updating the company’s website to working in sales, being an intern for Tony and Archon Tech has been a well-rounded learning experience.  I feel as if I have worn a hat for every aspect of a small business, including specialized hats for setting up security cameras and painting a trailer.

The environment during my internship has been very Wabash-esque, which makes sense because four out of the six of us – bar Katie and Angela – are Wabash men.  The feeling doesn’t stem from just attending Wabash. I believe Wabash has instilled in us a way of life, one where we strive to learn and take on as much as we can.  Watching Tony and Brian Wittman ’16 apply the lessons learned during their time at Wabash in the “real world” gave me a sense of how I can do the same. They strive to better themselves each day and are constantly learning new things, and that is what I did my best to do this summer.  I didn’t just improve on one skill over these past couple of weeks.  I learned new skills that I had zero experience in and improved on multiple other ones.

Interning at a small company such as Archon Tech makes you feel that the work you do is important not just to you, but also to the company.  It has been great meeting new people and learning all about how a small business operates.  It goes without saying, but I want to thank the Lily Endowment Fund and Wabash College for providing me with the opportunity to grow my professional career.