Schuyler Nehrig ’20 LABB Intern – First and foremost I want to thank a Lilly Endowment for giving me this opportunity to learn about business and entrepreneurship. Also, I would like to think Roland Morin for giving me this opportunity. In week six we did a number of objectives throughout the week ranging from our business plan for our applications, to our consulting project regarding National Act. My app group is “Charity Chase” and we developed an app with a unique opportunity to blend goal-setting with philanthropy. We are currently discussing how we could use this idea not only for people to stay in shape, but to also donate to a charitable cause.

On Monday, we met at the Arnold house as group to talk about what was going on in the world, and to discuss the agenda for the day. After we broke off into our app groups my group researched and tried to get all the correct information for our presentation. Like I stated before Charity Chase is a philanthropic, workout, and motivation app.

On Tuesday, we worked on our consulting projects to get prepared for our presentation on Thursday. Our plan was to get rid of National Act as one big weekend and instead allocate the funds over a period of 12 weeks. It has been interesting to watch this develop as the original idea has changed time and time again. Later in the week, we presented our consulting projects to the Student Body President and Vice Presidents, as well as the Deans at the college. After the presentation, we were given feedback on how we could accomplish this idea next fall. 

Week 6 was a busy week. Not only did we finish and present our consulting projects, but we also had to prepare are business plan pitches for Chicago. We presented our plan to Roland Morin just a week before we would present it in Chicago to judges that had been successful in their own business ventures. Mr. Morin gave us some final feedback so we could be as best prepared for these presentations as possible. I think one of the most valuable lessons I learned from this is time management and how to use constructive criticism to further develop ideas. It is easy to get caught up in your idea and sometimes causes one to miss small details that are problems for the audience. In contrast, this internship has been a wonderful learning experience where I have been able to work on my speaking, leadership, and time management skills. I would like to thank the Lilly Endowment for making this opportunity available to me. I have had the chance to grow in ways that I never had thought was possible.