Micah Walker ’21 BBS/CCSI Intern – For the past 6 weeks I have been interning for Mike Simmons, an alumni of Wabash college, alongside Max Kurkowski, who also is attending Wabash, at the Union 525 building in downtown Indianapolis, IN. Max’s projects have been more oriented towards marketing, while mine have been within the fields of designing databases, strategy development, and strategy implementation. I have created an Excel document with 4 different sheets in it that contain a plethora of data, pertaining to community services, stakeholders, and priorities. In addition to that, we as interns attend business meetings (together, or separately) with Mike if it’ll help with the progression of our projects. So far, we have met people at: Martin University, Wabash College, Butler University, andthe John Morton-Finney Center for Educational Services. He meets with us separately for brief updates about our progress, and even sometimes takes us out to lunch somewhere downtown to discuss about things collectively.

I have already learned a copious amount of new material in the little time I have been here. Since these projects, on both sides, directly result in something long-term and ongoing he has planned, we both have been exposed to new business literacy, collaborative movements, and business partners centered around his goal. We have gained a (small, but effective) level of intuition of certain things within this environment that we never would have known otherwise. Mike has allowed us free enough space and time within our work to do all the research and studying of things we need to help us progress in our projects, while also being a great asset of clarity to us when we have questions. I personally have learned terms like “stakeholders,” and “machine learning,” along with their concepts and how they apply to my work. I have developed a means of understanding certain processes involving the city’s methods of data collection and storage, and how they strategize their community elevation. This was assisted by me having to study 6 different quality of life plans within the city of Indianapolis, over the years of 2007-2011 and beyond. Most importantly, I have become more equipped in Excel Spreadsheet, having to create databases full of the information needed for my projects. Being able to self-teach through trial/error has allowed my skills in Excel to increase greatly. I am hoping that the remainder of this internship allows me to grow and become a more valuable asset, not only to the workforce and my [future] bosses themselves, but also however I can be in the world after I graduate from college.