Interning in Indianapolis

School is officially in full swing. I am always excited to get back to school, but this year I have come back to campus with a renewed excitement.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to intern with FLM+ in Indianapolis, Indiana. FLM+ is a strategic consulting, marketing and communications company serving clients who specialize in the business of agriculture and the life of rural communities. In the Indianapolis office, I had the unique opportunity to work with Asurgo functions. Asurgo, an FLM+ company, is a strategic organizational development, learning services, and consulting group. Throughout the summer I was exposed to many different aspects of their business. I was able to gain experience doing market research, developing training and curriculum, attending client meetings, and observing the strategic planning process, among other things. I was able to observe how our functions in the Indianapolis office interacted with and even depended upon those functions of the company that are primarily housed in the Minneapolis, Columbus and Washington D.C. offices.

As a part of my internship, I completed a Capstone Project which was an assigned project that aligned to my interests while also adding value to the company. My Capstone Project consisted of three main components: 1) an assessment of an existing training program, 2) conducting research on digitally delivered training, and 3) designing, implementing and analyzing data from a survey of inexperienced agricultural retail sales professionals about their training experiences.

Throughout this experience, I learned a lot about myself – including my strengths as well as areas in need of improvement.  Before this internship, I had never experienced – and in some cases never even heard of – the type of work I was doing. It stretched me far outside of my comfort zone and challenged me in ways I had never been challenged before. All of my experiences during this internship combined with a great deal of reflection have led me to determine a more specific career path which is the source of this renewed excitement for the future.