Luke Podgorny ‘20 enFocus – I want to thank enFocus for having me as an intern and the Wabash College Career Services for helping me find an opportunity that will give me a quality professional experience while expanding my skill set that will set me up to find a career post-Wabash College.

enFocus is a non-profit innovation organization located in South Bend, Indiana. enFocus offers 1-year fellowships and internships focused on attracting and retaining young talent in and around the South Bend and Elkhart regions. I have had the opportunity this summer to work with 14 other interns entering their junior and senior years of undergrad, and also many fellows the company has to offer. At enFocus I have had the opportunity to work with 2 different project sponsors, one being my 70% project (primary project), and the other being my 30% project (secondary project). The 70%/30% project model is the same used by Google.

The sponsors for my primary project are the ECCVB (Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau) and Vibrant Communities, a local group of about forty community leaders who have developed an action agenda to make Elkhart County a place you want to work, live, and play. During my primary project, I have spent eight weeks prepping for, and creating a Public Asset Map for Elkhart County focused on highlighting cultural and local assets to highlight activities and attractions that could be useful for residents and visitors alike. During this time, I have been working with a full-time fellow named Will and we have both been working together with the project sponsor to assure the product is what they want. Along with this project, we have had to do community engagement in order to receive feedback on our map. The two events we have had include an engagement breakfast with the Vibrant Communities Steering Committee and also a booth at the Elkhart Art Walk.

My secondary project is sponsored by the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County. We are focused on the 10,000-job labor shortage within Elkhart County. My primary duties on this project have been analyzing data from Employee Laborshed Surveys and also Employer Needs Analysis that were completed by fellows before my internship started. From the data, we decided to focus on local transportation and childcare specifically and then proceeded to do follow up interviews with specific employers based on their survey responses.

I have learned many valuable skills from my internship this summer. enFocus has provided work experience that involves a lot of self-guidance and freedom to complete your work. I have learned the communication skills needed to work as a team setting when in person contact is not always available due to sponsor meetings and other work-related activities. I have also worked on my public speaking skills having bi-weekly project presentations and updates to our whole enFocus team.

Again, I would like to thank enFocus for providing me with an internship that would allow me to expand my skill set while improving my public speaking and team working skills.