Feeling the IMPACT, Part I

Indiana INTERNnet hosted the seventh annual IMPACT Awards Luncheon yesterday at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. This year, we received more nominations than ever before, and it was a sold-out crowd with 250 attendees. We’ll recap the event over the next few days. If you didn’t join us this year, we hope to see you in 2014!

Gerry Dick, host of Inside INdiana Business and IMPACT Awards emcee, tweeted us immediately following the event yesterday: “Don’t think there’s talent out there? Should have been at the IMPACT Awards. Wow. Impressive young professionals.”

We couldn’t agree more. Indiana is a hotbed of intelligence and talent, and that’s exactly what we celebrate every year at the IMPACT Awards Luncheon. This year, we were blown away by our rock star interns, employers and career development professionals.

College Intern of the Year Cody Adams made significant contributions to Roche’s HR department. He was instrumental in the development of first annual summer camp for employee’s children. He led the Intern Service Committee. Finally, he helped land Roche in the #89 spot on the Fortune 100 Top Great Places to Work list by assisting with the nomination process. Wow!

Alison Mansfield was responsible for the monthly e-newsletter, blog and communications materials for Lendingahand.net. Alison also single-handedly created videos of partner charities for Lendingahand.net to use in online marketing. With those accomplishments, it’s hard to believe she’s still in high school! Alison is our High School Intern of the Year.

Casey Spivey, Non-Traditional Intern of the Year, is now working full-time with the Indiana State Personnel Department as a result of her successful summer internship. Her nomination was chockfull of the significant and creative tasks she completed with branding, sourcing and employee engagement. Reading her accomplishments, we couldn’t believe she did all of that in 12 weeks!

Slingshot SEO and The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis were our Employers of the Year for their stellar internship programs. What stands out about these two companies is the heavy emphasis placed on mentorship. Both companies make it very clear that career development for their interns is top priority.

Finally, Sara Pennington-Busick of Indiana University-Bloomington is our Career Development Professional of the Year. Since beginning in 2006, she has created several initiatives for her department, been engaged in the community and even taught a class.

Hearing these stories, along with all the nominees’ stories, was truly inspiring. There are so many great things going on in the internship and career development community.

Check back tomorrow for a recap of our fabulous keynote presentation by Caroline Dowd-Higgins, Director of Career and Professional Development, Adjunct Faculty at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, author of This is Not the Career I Ordered and host of a national weekly CBS Radio show, Career Coach Caroline.