Matthias Einterz ’22 — I’m currently in the sixth week of the Business Innovation Program this summer, and it has been an amazing experience. I joined the CIBE to learn about the ins and outs of the business world and prepare myself for life after Wabash, and I can confidently say that this program through the CIBE has surpassed my expectations and I have gotten even more out of these last five weeks than I was looking for. This last week, week five, was undoubtedly my favorite thus far, for both the quantity and quality of experiences and speakers we had. On Monday, we had Jacob Stone ’17 come to talk with us about a Havard Business School case study. Mr. Stone also shared some insights from his time so far working at Eli Lilly. On Tuesday, we traveled to Platform24 in Carmel to meet with Tony Unfried ’03. He spent some time talking about his company Archon Tech Strategies but spent the majority of our visit talking more broadly about his experience as an entrepreneur. This was perfect for me and most guys in the program who have at least a vague ambition of starting a business in the future. His main message was the importance of listening to costumers. This message was echoed in the afternoon site visit when we traveled a few minutes down the road to meet with Jim Engledow ’78 President and CEO of Engledow Group. He gave a phenomenal presentation on the history and development of the landscaping company, outlining how they expanded the business from residential to commercial landscaping and eventually into interior, events, holiday, and floral just by listening to their customer’s needs. He also had a great saying that really stuck with me: spend 20 years learning, 20 years earning, and 20 years returning. On Thursday, we were in South Bend, but it almost felt like we were at a Big Bash reunion. We had the opportunity to meet and network with 12 Wabash men throughout the day. We started the day at Trek10 with Shane Fimbel ’02 and Jim Abercrombie ’02, who sold us on the importance of some basic training in AWS and cloud computing, which reinforced the notion that the Wabash liberal arts education means your career doesn’t need to match your major. Afterwards, we went to enFocus and met with Pat Jones ’15, who explained the amazing work they are doing in South Bend with their fellowship program, which seems to be set up similarly to the CIBE. After lunch at enFocus with several Wabash guys in the area, we finished up our day at Cup Print with Todd Hoogland ’15 who talked about how he brought the Irish company Cup Print into the US market after working on the project for his thesis in the ESTEEM program at Notre Dame. This internship with the BIP has been such an informative and formational experience, and I want to sincerely thank Wabash College, the CIBE, and all donors and sponsors of the program.
