Recent News

Yesterday, Allison, Karissa, and I volunteered with the Catch the Stars Foundation, to help them get ready for their 12th annual Back to School Celebration!

The Catch the Stars Foundation was founded in 2004 by Tamika Catchings and her sister, Tauja Catchings, who serves as the Director of Operations. The Foundation coordinates multiple programs to support local youth “with a specific emphasis on supporting and assisting under-served and low to moderate income communities throughout the city,” according to their website.

One of their efforts, the Back to School Celebration, is a community event to motivate students and get them excited for the school year. This event will be held on Sunday, July 23, at the Washington Park Family Center. One thousand pre-registered students (grades K-12) will receive a free backpack stuffed with school supplies. The celebration is open to the community, there will be free food, entertainment, prizes …

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Indiana INTERNnet, managed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, is a statewide organization focusing on talent retention through increased work-and-learn experiences. Over a decade ago, Indiana INTERNnet began the tradition of celebrating internship excellence by launching the annual IMPACT Awards program. Each year, the program continues to grow in size and success.

The IMPACT Awards, presented at an annual luncheon, honor three categories: Interns of the Year (high school, college and non-traditional), Employers of the Year (for-profit and not-for-profit) and a Career Development Professional of the Year. Indiana INTERNnet will celebrate its 12th group of awards, nominees and winners on February 7, 2018 at the Ivy Tech Corporate College and Culinary Center. Registration will be open soon.

Nominations for IMPACT Awards are submitted by the public, and winners are chosen by a panel of impartial judges. Submit your nomination(s) in any or all of the categories by October 20. Employees …

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Get familiar with your schedule

Adjusting to your daily schedule is one of the most essential parts of being a put-together student! I’m sure you’ve already forgotten what classes you registered for, so pull out that schedule and try to envision what this semester will look like for you. When will you have time to study? Work? Exercise? Do extracurriculars? Get a trusty planner and figure it out.

Get organized

Let’s be real, you’ve probably blocked out all thoughts of school this summer—I don’t blame you! Save yourself the stress at the last minute and figure out what needs to be done before you start school again. Do you know what you need for your dorm/apartment? Do you have notebooks, pens, pencils, folders? Are your textbooks ordered?

Get back on a schedule

Unfortunately, your daily schedule at school is probably more demanding than the summer schedule you’re on …

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Madison Stis was nominated for the 2017 IMPACT Awards for her outstanding work at her internship with the Indiana State Fair Commission. After her Employment Office internship, she was hired as a full-time assistant manager of human resources. Stis graduated from Indiana University with a major in health administration and a minor in human resource management.

Indiana INTERNnet: Describe your internship with The Indiana State Fair (ISF). What was the most valuable experience?

Madison Stis: My internship at the ISF was the best experience I could’ve had. I was shown major aspects of human resources in a very short time period and received excellent hands-on experience. Mark Anderson, the director of human resources at the ISF, really helped me grow and realize human resources was the field I wanted to pursue. The most valuable experience I had at the ISF was the ability to hire and schedule the employees …

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While you’re waiting to hear back from employers during your internship search, it can be easy to forget that communication goes both ways. Employers appreciate the little things like a thank you email after an interview. Plus, an email that takes you five minutes to write can make a huge impression and help you stand out. Below is a list of the four essential emails you’ll need during your internship search.

The “post – interview” email

Regardless of if your interview was casual and over lunch, or a grueling hour – long panel, you should always send a thank you email. Sometimes, if the top two candidates are neck and neck, the final decision could be based off something as small as whether or not someone thanked the interviewers. You don’t want to have an amazing interview, only to lose the position to someone else because you never sent a …

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With the growth of local pride and demand for “homegrown” products, there are many opportunities to experience true Hoosier culture. Whether it’s restaurants, attractions, shops or anything in between, we’ll showcase some of our favorite gems that make Indiana a great place to live and work.

The past few summers, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce has treated their employees to a daytime baseball game at Victory Field. It is a great way to step away from the computer and connect with co-workers. The sunny weather, hot dogs and peanuts only add to the fun!

If you haven’t attended an Indianapolis Indians game, I highly recommend doing so. There are plenty of great seats to choose from, you can even have a picnic in the lawn seating. The non-sports fanatics will enjoy lively entertainment throughout the game: awkward kiss cam moments, bad dance moves and silly games for …

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Hattie Hynes is a Recruiting/HR Marketing Intern with Milliner & Associates. She will graduate from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 2019.

This week with Milliner & Associates has been full of amazing stories. To give back to the community, our team takes the skills we practice every day at the office and put them to work with high school students. Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) is our corporate social responsibility partner. JAG is a state-based not-for-profit organization that helps at-risk students and preventing dropouts. It’s a three-year program that assists high school students during the Junior and Senior years, as well as one year after graduation. The program focuses on gaining practical, real-world experience with career prospects, interviewing, resumes, cover letters, scholarship applications, college applications, and anything else they may need along the way.

The final project in Decatur Central High School’s JAG class is an interview that is …

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Last Wednesday, Indiana INTERNnet and the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis hosted an all-day professional development event at the museum. Local interns got the chance to participate in sessions including personal branding, resume review and a mentor roundtable.

Interns also had the opportunity to explore the Children’s Museum throughout the day—the Museum is the largest children’s museum in the country! There was a photo scavenger hunt, planetarium show, and special behind-the-scenes collections tour. In the collections tour, interns got to see a large number of items not currently on display in the museum, such as dinosaur bones, famous movie props, and vintage Barbies, to name a few.

Chelsea DuKate, founder and president of Red Envelope Consulting, conducted a personal branding seminar at the event. “Events like this are important because it creates engagement and gives interns a viewpoint of another place to go, an experience,” she said. “It also gives them …

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 Indiana INTERNnet celebrated internship excellence on February 8, 2017, at the 11th Annual IMPACT Awards Luncheon. Though the event is over and the winners have been announced, we are continuing to celebrate the nominees’ successes.

These are their stories.

Brittany Ulman is a graduate of Ball State University with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. She completed a marketing internship with International Floral Distributors, Inc.

Indiana INTERNnet: How did you become interested in pursuing your degree?

Brittany Ulman: When I first started at Ball State, I was a dietetics major with the full intention of completing my internship in a hospital and becoming the dietitian in an Intensive Care Unit at a hospital close to my hometown. However, as my freshman year progressed, I evaluated my career choices and contemplated whether I would want to work in an ICU for the rest of my life. I knew I could enter into …

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The concept of high school interns may seem strange. Don’t most high schoolers work at fast food restaurants or mow lawns, if they have a job at all? When you think of a typical intern, you probably think of a college student or a twenty-something trying to ease their way into a full-time position. High school interns are becoming more common as the job market becomes more competitive and the demand for more relevant work experience increases.

When I was 17, I got an internship at VYPE Magazine Central Indiana, a local branch of a national high school sports magazine. My dad occasionally took photos for the VYPE magazine and web site, and I jumped on the opportunity to work with them. I was a senior in high school and I knew I wanted to go to college to major in journalism, but I had no idea what I wanted …

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Hattie Hynes is a Recruiting/HR Marketing Intern with Milliner & Associates. She will graduate from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 2019.

Through my internship with Milliner & Associates, I have access to many resources through the American Staffing Association (ASA), one of which are webinars on their web site. These webinars are conducted by professionals around the nation who are experts on what they teach. From marketing and social media to employment law and employee engagement, these webinars offer a variety of content with wonderful advice for businesses and people alike.

This week, I had the opportunity to watch a webinar conducted by Jamie Notter, founding partner of Culture That Works, LLC., entitled “The Power of Millennial Alignment: Understanding the Future of Employee Engagement.” Notter had a lot to say about shifting the older generations’ views of Millennials from an attitude of complaining to an attitude of learning, but …

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Last Friday, the Indy Chamber hosted Indy Intern Connection in partnership with Indiana INTERNnet at the Fountain Square Theatre Building. Employers and interns from all over the city were invited to hang out on the rooftop garden, play duckpin bowling, and network.

The Director of Policy & Civic Engagement at the Indy Chamber and Indiana INTERNnet Board of Directors Member, Matt Impink, played a big part in organizing the event. He said that one of the main goals of the event was to encourage connections between interns, who will ideally be the future professionals of Indiana. He, and many other groups in Indiana, hope to encourage young Hoosiers to continue to live and work here. This combats the “brain drain” issue—that many of Indiana’s best and brightest leave Indiana to work elsewhere.

Many interns were from Indiana, but there was a decent handful who weren’t. In addition to encouraging current Indiana …

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Indiana INTERNnet celebrated internship excellence on February 8, 2017, at the 11th Annual IMPACT Awards Luncheon. Though the event is over and the winners have been announced, we are continuing to celebrate the nominees’ successes.

These are their stories.

Mason Hammock is one of the first graduates of the business analytics program at Ball State University. He completed an internship with Ontario Systems.

Indiana INTERNnet: What made you interested in pursuing your major?

Mason Hammock: I am a business analytics (BA) major, with a minor in economics. I thought that BA was a good pairing of technical knowledge and high-level business leadership and communication. These are two skills I identified in myself when I decided to pursue a business-related career, so the major was a pretty natural fit.

IIN: Describe your internship experience with Ontario Systems.

Hammock: I could not have begun my career in a better …

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Hattie Hynes is a Recruiting/HR Marketing Intern with Milliner & Associates. She will graduate from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 2019.

Through my internship with Milliner & Associates, I have ample opportunity to network and learn about the community of Indianapolis businesses. So much so that I was able attend an afternoon job shadow with seven different human resource (HR) representatives at Finish Line, Inc.

Finish Line is an Indianapolis-based company that brings primarily athletic shoes to the consumer in retail stores nationwide. Employing over 10,000 people at over 900 retail locations, Finish Line prides themselves on delivering “the epic finish” to all customers. There are six full-time Milliner & Associates employees and an intern (that’s me) heading over to such a massive company for half a day was a shock to say the least. I’m not going to lie to you guys… I was a bit nervous going …

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I went to a small high school with extremely limited class choices. The only language available to take was Spanish, and the electives didn’t go much beyond drama or choir. When I decided to go to Indiana University, I was so excited to have a variety of options. IU is huge—I could learn anything I wanted to! I could learn how to write code, then turn around and read about famous Mexican muralists, then get some advice from a Pulitzer-winning journalist. (All things I’ve done, by the way. Thanks, IU!) The possibilities were endless.

As I progressed in my college career, I realized how difficult it is to master more than a few skills or subjects. It seemed like every job opportunity I came across wanted me to have infinite abilities—writing, editing, graphic design, social media, videography, photography, web design, event planning, marketing, and the list goes on. Overwhelmed by …

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