Russell Berning ’19 Indianapolis Film Festival – I, along with Lucas Bucina, have been working with the Indianapolis Film Festival (IFF) this summer. It has been a great experience to be able to see all of the hard work and dedication that it takes to get a completely volunteer based event running.

Some of the main missions that we have been tasked with are assisting in the arrival and departures of filmmakers coming to the festival, getting together and distributing promotional materials, and making sure that the festival is running smoothly. In order to ensure that the IFF is steaming forward, there has to be someone manning the theater operations, box office, and the selling of merchandise. The person working the theater operations is the one working the soundboard as well and making sure that the movie is screening correctly. Being in charge of the box office means the person is at the front desk assisting people with buying their tickets and ensuring they are going to the right screening. One of the biggest lessons that I have learned is that even though there may be some minor setbacks, one must be able to think on their feet and find the best possible outcome. There have been a few kinks in the process of getting the IFF going, yet through deliberation and critical thinking, these problems were handled in a manner that worked best for everyone.

We always have to make sure that the viewers are happy with the entire experience at the film festival. This means having the best experience all the way from walking through the doors of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, purchasing tickets, sitting down in the theater, watching the production to departing from the IFF. Being able to communicate with the consumer and ensuring that they are happy with everything is hard to accomplish at times, yet is what the whole festival is contingent upon.

All of these lessons I’ve learned will be applicable in the fields of either marketing or sales. Both of these occupations are large on one to one interactions. However, without the Lilly Endowment, none of the experiences or lessons that I have learned would have been possible. I am more than grateful that I was one of the students selected to receive the endowment. Being able to work with the Indianapolis Film Festival has opened up my eyes on the process of what it takes to bring together a large scale event.

Taylor Canter ’18 Blue Marketing – I am a marketing intern that focuses on graphic design for Blue Marketing in Crawfordsville, Indiana. I do a variety of things for them, from creating web graphics and advertisements, to shooting and editing videos. I assist with the management of 6 of our clients Facebook pages by creating graphics for them to post and scheduling when they will be posted. This has not only enabled me to explore my creativity in a professional setting, but also helped me greatly with my time management. In order to increase the presence of our clients in the social media realm, I have done extensive research analyzing the frequency and types of posts made by our competitors. This taught me much about the process of competitor analysis, which will be an important skill to have no matter where I end up after college. I have also dabbled in blog writing for our clients and us, which has allowed me to explore new creative territory aside from the Adobe creative cloud that I am using for the more visual forms of marketing. While this was not something that I had done before, it did not push me out of my comfort zone quite like the video shooting and editing. Composing shots and really delving into the specifics of Adobe Premiere are just two of the skills that I am thankful for acquiring as a result of this! An eye for composing aesthetic shots and general photography is a highly sought out skill in marketing and the video shooting has primed me for success in those regards.

On top of the visual skills I have been improving upon, shooting interviews also required me to think about all aspects of what I was filming including the content of the interviewees. My interpersonal skills have benefited from this as I have had to talk to people of all types throughout this interview process such as some farmers who are not necessarily used to being in front of a camera or being in a very social setting in general. In order to be able to produce a good video I had to talk through the interview process with the interviewees. Whether I needed them to stop fidgeting or speak in a more concise manner, learning to identify what would make for a better final product was definitely a new way of thinking for me that enhanced my ability to think about problems and projects from multiple perspectives. Not only have I been able to capitalize and improve upon my old skills, but I also have new ones to add to my portfolio that will greatly benefit me heading forward. I am looking to go into marketing and branding, so knowing as many aspects of the field as possible will certainly benefit my future. This internship and all of the skills I have gained from it would not have happened if it weren’t for the Lilly Endowment so I am very grateful for that.

Adam Kashin ’18 Triton Brewing – As an intern at Triton Brewing Company, I have had the pleasure of learning about how all components of the brewery operate from day to day. This internship is an exploration of how the brewing industry is arranged and maintained, and more broadly about how a small business operates successfully and efficiently. Triton is a small business of about 15 people and each employee performs numerous tasks in each segment of the business. One employee may be expected to maintain customer account data, upcoming systems management projects, quality control on products, and a significant portion of the business’ social media presence. Beyond the size of Triton, producing beer places the company in the limelight with state and municipal authorities with respect to alcohol control laws and food and beverage codes. These legal constraints allow the state unusually broad access to the brewery establishment and information on sales. Moreover, I have necessarily become much more familiar with the laws regarding serving and selling alcoholic beverages as I have moved through this internship.

I have had the opportunity to be the face of the company on a few occasions. As a part of the sales team, I scheduled samplings at a few retail establishments around Indianapolis and talked to potential customers about various aspects of each sampled beer. I learned quickly how to talk to different people, given each individual’s particular interests. Customer relation skills translated well when I began working in Triton’s tasting room as a server. I used my experience selling individual beers to do exactly that in a much more immediate form. Having worked for larger, national corporations in the past, I had to develop different customer service skills considering how important each customer interaction can be. Word of mouth carries weight for a small, local business. I have come to appreciate the value of relationships in the world of small business as each interaction, whether it’s with a distributor, store manager, bar owner, or a family in the tasting room, adds value in some way to the brand. I think the most important factor for success in the brewing industry is understanding what people are looking for at any given time of the year and in any part of the state (or given distribution area).

I would like to thank the Lilly Endowment for affording me the opportunity to work at Triton this summer. It has truly been a unique experience and I am excited to see what my experiences can push me toward in the future.

Lucas Holstine ’18 Hanapin Marketing – My experience interning at Hanapin Marketing this summer has been an absolutely terrific opportunity to learn about what the “real” world is like after graduation. I applied for the position with a keen interest in trying to find out what kind of job I would be interested in after my education at Wabash, and Hanapin has provided this for me. I have garnered a lot of interest in the field of digital marketing while working here, but have also realized professions I don’t see myself having, such as sales.

My position at Hanapin is on the Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) team. While the rest of the company operates on Paid Per Click (PPC) marketing that works to drive traffic to our clients website’s, the CRO team gets traffic through the website by making pages that are easy to navigate and ensuring that the goals on the site are clear and easy to reach by the traffic. Some of the projects that I’ve worked on have had me looking through analytics data to try and understand the experience that the user traffic has and to prepare presentations for clients to communicate these ideas clearly. I’ve also partaken in projects to organize data from previous tests that the CRO team has ran on client’s websites in order to make it easily accessible for future use to help make the team more efficient and effective. Most of the tasks that I do are time consuming tasks. The CRO team have also familiarized me with some of the big projects that Hanapin are conducting currently.

I have been very fortunate to have been sponsored by the Lilly Endowment while working at Hanapin. By being offered a full-time and paid position, it allows me to be fully immersed in the company culture and to build more relationships that part-time internships fail to provide. Hanapin has been terrific at making me feel like a member of the team with company wide picnics and team-building training sessions that have allowed me to connect with many other coworkers that I don’t normally have contact with. This experience has been something that I’ll never forget, and has definitely helped me build a solid foundation for my future endeavors.

Collin Graber ’18 Wabash Brewing – This summer has been extremely enlightening and productive working with Wabash Brewing.  One of the best parts of this internship is how hands on and involved it can be.  Working in a brewery isn’t exactly the typical internship and it can be hard to describe a “normal” day at work just because there are so many different things that have to occur on a daily basis for things to run smoothly at a small business, and especially a microbrewery.

Since I started late May, I have helped with everything from large-scale production and small batch experimental beers to marketing and selling to various restaurants, pubs, and bars.  This has helped me gain a new understanding of what it takes to produce a quality product and what it takes to effectively advertise.  Effective time management and adaptability – two things I’ve learned at Wabash College that I’ve successfully applied at Wabash Brewing.  On days that we brew there are usually several different things occurring all at once and they all require attention simultaneously.  For example, on brew days we will have a water profile already prepared and the recipe ready to go, but we will measure out salts, hops, and mill the grain the morning of so everything is as fresh and the highest quality possible.  During this time we will also work on cleaning and ensuring various pieces of equipment have been sanitized before any material comes in contact with it.  A typical brew day is usually busy for a short amount of time, and then there is a break where you just have to let things happen, and then it will get busy all at once again.  The down time, if effectively used and nothing goes wrong, allows for you to get the cleaning and sanitizing done with ease, but it’s a rare occasion that everything works out absolutely perfect from start to finish.  Again, this is where the adaptability and ability to stay calm amid a chaotic situation really help.  Going through these last couple of weeks has really tested my ability to prioritize and adapt to changing situations and make a decision based on the information I have and what I know needs to happen.  In addition to these, when working at this scale, attention to fine details is extremely important because all it takes to ruin a full batch of beer is as simple as not having the right O-ring between two parts.

Knowing and having learned these lessons is going to be extremely beneficial in the next couple of years as I decide exactly what I want to do and whether I decide to open my own business or continue with some form of graduate school.  Regardless, this summer has been an incredible opportunity and I would not have been able to do it without help from Career Services at Wabash College and also the help and funding through the Lilly Endowment.

Logan Kleiman ’18 Crawfordsville Mayor’s Office – Working at the Mayor’s office has been one of the best experiences of my professional life. I grew up in a bigger city and had always been interested in government. My grandma often told me when I was little that I’d be President. We’ll see if this comes to fruition, but if not this has been as close as I’ve come to this idea in my life.

Mayor Barton and all of the fantastic people at town hall have showed me how there are even simple things you can do that can really impact the community, and they have taken me in as one of their own. In my experience, I have been granted the opportunity to go to every meeting with the Mayor and see exactly what his job entails. I’ve learned how each local agency is efficiently operated and some of the day to day efforts of each department. I’ve been able to interact with local businesses and see what exactly they do in Crawfordsville, how they work in the community, and have even been able to share my millennial perspective with these groups.

Another key piece that I have been privileged to watch develop is all the Stellar projects happening in the community. For those of you who do not know what Stellar is, it’s a large grant that allows for smaller communities to undergo various developmental projects to help improve the community. The city is really capitalizing on these as the Fusion 54 building, Ben Hur Building, restoration of the Whitlock neighborhood, and various parks and trails are undergoing renovations and will soon be completed. These projects will only propel Crawfordsville further and the city will become a go to destination in Indiana.

Between the meetings, I have still managed to stay busy in the office. The city granted me the ability to run their social media accounts on all platforms. This included starting a YouTube channel and Instagram account to really showcase what is going on in Crawfordsville. This city needed to be highlighted as not only is development happening at an exponential rate, but there are gems in Crawfordsville that I did not even know about like the fantastic golf course and airport. Gathering content for these outlets and the other accounts has never been a struggle due to the city’s efforts.

I really want to thank the Lilly Endowment for this opportunity and for allowing me to be engaged in my community in a way that I really have not considered the past three years in my time at Wabash. This experience has really allowed me to see my future political science degree in practice and understand business better as a whole. The city of Crawfordsville was awarded a Stellar Grant for a reason and even within five years the people will see just how much the city has changed and will continue to evolve as time passes.

Jordan Hansen ’18 Huntbridge, Inc. –  This summer, thanks to the Lilly Endowment, I have had the luxury of working alongside Wabash alumnus Jeff Perkins ’89, as a Research Associate for his executive search firm Huntbridge, Inc. allowing me the first-hand insight into the ins-and-outs and challenges a small company faces within the rigor of corporate America.

While talking about my experience with people, I often have to answer what a Research Associate is. It’s more than strictly research—unlike its title may suggest. This summer, as part of being an associate, we have been tasked with engaging, strategizing, and extending relationships with both current and potential clients of our firm. Clients ranged from Amazon to GlaxoSmithKline to ViaSat to the Indiana Bioscience Research Institute—from Technology through the Life Sciences. The mission was to spark a conversation or rekindling a connection that can lead us to form a partnership. What I mean by a “partnership,” is, for them, filling or outsourcing services that would allow us, Huntbridge, to hire the next executive team for their company. Hiring positions range from CEO or CFO to Vice President and beyond. As you can probably infer, it is not a quick or easy process. Due to the fact that the diverse candidates we place, are in integral part to the longevity of many of these large companies. Secondly, partnership can entail additional services that allow us to better place candidates and strategy based on their specific workplace needs, current culture, and vision for the future.

This brings me to my first important “in” or lesson when working for a small company in this environment. My boss, Jeff Perkins, day in and day out, in meetings or in just passing, reiterates the importance of sustaining an exceptional reputation – reputation in the sense that how you interact, conduct work, and follow-up is a direct representation of your brand, both personal and as a company. Therefore, every day that you come to work, it is important to be cognizant of how you are representing and furthering the name of our business. Moreover, it means consistently going above and beyond for the client you’re directly in contact with—the more trust, authenticity, and important you make them feel, the more you can cast a positive light on who you are. In action, this means following-up, handcrafting particular communication or work, and being genuine with previous and current clients to ensure a high-level of customer service and experience.

My main project this summer has consisted of sourcing, researching, and consulting with the Indiana Bioscience Research Institute on the future of their company. I have been a part of a task force that is currently in the process of hiring their next Senior Vice President, Development & Partnerships as well as Director of Research Operations. Additionally, consulting and providing workplace strategy to ensure the company’s mission and team align with the greater vision of the Institute.

This leads to my second takeaway from the summer thus far, adaptability. Being adaptable—calm, cool, and collected—is something that weighs heavily both in the eyes of the employer and in a small company. When working in an arena that is foreign to you (i.e., for me Tech of Life Science), it is important to be adaptable to many types of situations that may arise. For example, one day may include strategy, planning, and collaborating to setup a plan for the client to use at an upcoming board meeting. While another day may consist of contacting potential investors, who are in the market for providing investing for grass roots or pre-clinical research; as a part of the next round of endowment. Here, in two days we have similar, but different tasks. However, being adaptable and possessing the bandwidth to participate and contribute allows you to be a fully engaged and valuable member of your team. In a small business, this pays dividends because it leverages you as a reliable and capable to keep the company moving forward. To me, this example is similar to the epitome of the Wabash liberal arts education. One minute you may be having an in-depth discussion in Ancient Philosophy about Aristotle’s role in happiness to the next day discussing and researching the role of CRISPR for the future of gene editing—adaptable and able to excel in both cases.

As a political science major and history minor, working within the space(s) of biotech, bioscience, and pharmaceuticals has been a bit of a learning curve. However, after research into current trends, guidance by industry leaders, and the Lilly Foundation I have fostered and enhanced my capacity to contribute to these ever-growing and important scientific fields. Pairing this with my Wabash liberal arts education, while working with the Indiana Bioscience Research Institute, has allowed me to ask questions and provide a new and unique perspective, outside the confined borders of the science(s). Additionally, it has lead me to become more and more intrigued with the current life science space and how it relates to the future of America—as medicine, vaccines, and healthcare continue to be a toxic topic in everyday conversation, not just limited to politics.

With just a glimpse into the interaction and daily operations of a small company and corporate America, I am ready to be immersed fully in it post-graduation; to make an impact on the greater good and those around me. From soft skills like reputation and adaptability, I am fully confident that Wabash College and the Lilly Endowment have furthered my interest to springboard me for future endeavors.