Farewell Intern Mary

As I am wrapping up my internship at the state, I am so thankful for all of the experiences that I have had. I am so grateful for all of the agencies taking me in and letting me learn about the things they do and the problems that they face.

A special thanks to the talent acquisition team: Thank you for taking me in and allowing me to grow as an HR professional. I valued my weeks in W161 because I knew that you were all people I could trust and would walk me through any issues I had. I will miss all of the talks between the cubicles, going to lunches on Friday, and just being able to have other people to bounce ideas off of.

Dawn: I don't even know where to start. Just to put it simply, I am so grateful that you were my mentor during this internship. Thank you for always believing in me and pushing me to try new things. I know I probably asked you way too many questions, but you were always willing to help me and set other things aside to take on my problem first.

Ryan the Intern, Dawn the Intern Mentor, and Me!

Also, a special thanks to all of the agencies that took me in:

Pendleton, Dept of Corrections (DOC): As this was my first rotation, I wasn't really sure what to expect at first. Thank you to the whole HR team for trusting in me to get things done and allow for me to take things on with as little guidance as possible.

Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI): Heather, thank you so much for talking through things with me and always involving me on the issues that were brought up to you. I loved job shadowing you, learning about the problems you face and your path within HR. Because of you, I began to actually consider becoming a generalist.

Dept of Child Services (DCS): I was allowed to take on a critical function of HR. Thank you for allowing me to sit in and see the importance of an I9 for an agency. It was also very fun to learn more about what each person within your HR department did.

Department of Health(ISDH):  I was able to shadow their HR team. I really enjoyed being able to sit in on some of the employee relation issues. Jon allowed me to be involved in many of his daily problems that he faced and included me on many discussions that happened around resolving these issues.

Adjutant General’s Office (AGO): During my time at AGO I got to complete my coolest project. I was assigned to do a job competency project on three of the positions they have. April and Julie gave me all of the necessary documents and I just ran with it. Every now and then I would go to them for suggestions and to ensure that I was doing things correctly, but they fully trusted my work and opinion. I also had the privilege of job shadowing April during our HumanaVitality tour. She told me about her job and what makes it unique because of her agency. I also got to see some of the barriers that she faces while we were at the different locations.

This opportunity is so beneficial to any student considering going into HR. I don't think I could express that enough. This opportunity with the State has been more than I ever expected it to be. I have gotten to take the things that I have learned in the classroom and see how they are applied in different HR settings. The best part of this internship is the rotational aspect. As an intern you are put into a different agency on certain weeks. Within that week you can learn about the different problems they take on, see the different culture and learn varying HR practices. This experience has been so unique and allows college students to really grow and gain some professional experience. I am so thankful for all of SPD, for allowing me this opportunity.

Signing Off

Mary the Intern