6th Annual IMPACT Awards Wrap Up

February 21st marked the date of the 6th annual Indiana INTERNnet IMPACT awards, honoring outstanding employers, career development professionals, and interns. This year, the awards luncheon was held at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in downtown Indianapolis. The awards were such a popular event this year that it sold out!

The afternoon began with a delicious soup, salad, and dessert lunch. Nancy Ahlrichs, vice president of talent management at United Way of Central Indiana, spoke about the importance of interns and the outstanding employers willing to mentor interns. Next came a short video featuring interns and employers talking about their internship experiences.

The awards followed the keynote address. The first category was for outstanding career development professional. Several mentors were nominated for their excellence in assisting students with their career paths, however the award went to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods’ Susan Gresham. Susan is the director of the Career Development Center and is known for her high energy, positive thinking, and creative advising.

The next award went to the non-profit employer of the year. This year’s award went to The International Center. The International Center is noted for its excellence in providing interns a meaningful hands-on experience. The International Center is also praised for hiring a wide variety of interns including: high school, college, graduate, and international students.

The next award was also an employer award. Like all the other categories, this one was filled with nominees. This goes to show how many great employers there are and how much the interns appreciate their mentoring. This year’s award went to ExactTarget, who has a unique and great internship program. They choose interns based on the student and their strengths, not on the roles they have to fill.  Each intern is given an ExactTarget ambassador as a mentor. They are also guaranteed at least two resume worthy projects. ExactTarget is an outstanding company with a great internship program to match.

The intern of the year awards were next. Like the other categories, there were several outstanding interns nominated. In the college category, the judges couldn’t choose just one winner, so two awards were given. The first went to Josh Bloxsome, who was an intern at Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC during the summer of 2011. He was praised for his work on the HH-60G Helicopter Avionics upgrade project. He developed procedures that made this work easier and allowed the project to be completed ahead of schedule and under budget.

The next college intern of the year award went to Ashley Herring. Ashley was an intern at the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce in the spring of 2011. She was honored for her work ethic and development of software to manage events. Ashley said she was completely shocked with her win. She loved the IMPACT awards and felt they were a great way to honor the all the outstanding interns and the employers who make it possible. She is extra thankful for her internship, because it led to a full time position as events manager at the Indianapolis Chamber.

The final award went to the non-traditional intern of the year. This award went to Alex Miser who interned at Indiana Humanities. Alex was honored for his work on the “Food for Thought” campaign at the Indiana State Fair. He organized volunteers to staff the event and went above and beyond to make sure the experience was a positive one.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees at this year’s IMPACT awards! I would also like to thank everyone who attended. The IMPACT awards were a huge success, and we couldn’t do it without your support!