Brandon Strausser '16 - SPIRE Performance

Name: Brandon Strausser

Class Year: 2016

Major: Health Promotion & Fitness

Organization Name: SPIRE Performance at SPIRE Institute

Location: Geneva, Ohio

Internship Responsibilities:  During the spring semester, I had the wonderful opportunity to intern as a performance coach with SPIRE Performance at SPIRE Institute, which is an Olympic Training Site located right here in Northeast Ohio!  As an intern, I was responsible for leading our academy athletes from all over the world, local high schools, colleges, and youth athletes through movement and performance tests, warm-ups, speed and power teirs, strength training regimens, and recovery sessions.  I am also very humbled to have worked with Olympic caliber athletes, Wounded Warriors, and professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy from "Dancing with the Stars."  Along with this internship, I was given the opportunity to volunteer with Nike as a performance coach at their high school football combine in Massillon, Ohio.

What I Learned:  I have learned a great deal from working alongside the coaches, athletic trainer, and physical therapist here at my internship.  In fact, I could probably write 10 pages worth of information, however, I will not be doing that for the sake of the readers.  Some of the things that I have learned are how to analyze an individual’s biomechanics and approach their weaknesses through corrective exercises, understanding that some exercises are not meant for everyone, and to not be afraid to make mistakes, which has helped me to become a better coach and leader.  Probably the most important and biggest take-away from this internship is that I have entered into a field that I absolutely love.  The saying is true: "If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life," and this internship has proven that to be true!

Adam Piccin '15 - Lewis Center Business Association

Name:  Adam Piccin

Class Year:  December 2015

Majors:  Public Relations and Health Communication

Internship Organization:  Lewis Center Business Association

Internship Location:  Lewis Center, Ohio

Photo: This is a screenshot of a news segment I was featured on for Good Day Columbus the morning of the LC Summer Bash & Fireworks. I was interviewed by CW Star and ABC 6/Fox News reporter Alissa Henry.

Intern Responsibilities:

I reached out to the Lewis Center Business Association (LCBA) to assist with the association’s premier July 4 event, the LC Summer Bash & Fireworks.  I met with LCBA executives and proposed a five-part business plan to increase event ticket sales by leading public relations and marketing efforts for the festival, fireworks and concert featuring bands New Hollow, Liberty Deep Down, and headliner, multi-platinum recording artist Gavin DeGraw. Once hired on, I recruited, hired and supervised a team of more than 10 interns to promote the event and executed set strategies and tactics. I delegated tasks to interns, monitored social media content and responses, worked band meet  greets, gained experience working with the media via interviews for news pieces and also on television live with Good Day Columbus. At the actual event, I assisted bands individually, utilized crisis communication techniques and oversaw interns.

What I Learned:

I learned more about management in general and my own personal managerial style. I also realized that entertainment public relations is definitely a field I am interested in pursuing after graduation. I had an absolute blast working for the LCBA.

Ashley Junglas '16 - Ohio National Financial Services

Ashley Jungclas

Class of 2016

Major: Computer Science

Internship Site: Ohio National Financial Services

Location: Cincinnati, OH

Intern Responsibilities: As an intern, I worked with test automation to create programs that automatically ran testing of jobs for their Automated Work Distribution (AWD) Team. I also worked on a project for test automation so that regression testing would be a lot faster. Testing was taking weeks to months to accomplish because it was done by human testing, but test automation reduced the time down to 20 minutes. 

What I Learned: I learned a lot from this experience which included creating programs myself so that I could use them in my everyday life and help me with getting my work done faster. I plan on creating and executing more programs that will help my school work go faster as well as helping other people to get their work done faster. I want to make the programs accessible for everyone so that they can get through their work faster and more efficiently than they are now. I could see test automation being my first job as well as a giant step into the working world.

Ciara Atkinson '17 - Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities

Name: Ciara Atkinson

Class Year: 2017

Major: Psychology

Internship Organization: Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities

Location: Columbus, OH

  

Photo Description

We are photographed in front of the vision and mission statement of the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities. I am on the left and my supervisor, Alaina Herrel '12, is on the right.

Internship Responsibilities:

I had a multitude of job responsibilities during my time at the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities. Every week I was responsible for writing a newsletter that is emailed to over 5,000 people within the mental health and addiction world that includes state leaders, policy makers, and the Ohio General Assembly. The newsletter highlights current news, events, and research that are relevant to mental health and addiction. I also had the privilege of attending a mental health and addiction recovery conference, updating orientation manuals for new executive council members, assisting office staff in preparation for upcoming conferences, writing several blog posts for RecoveryIsBeautiful.org as well as running multiple quality checks to verify that the information and addiction and mental health resources were up to date. In addition, I got to take part in a planning committee for the 2015 Judicial Symposium on Addiction and Child Welfare. In planning for the Judicial Symposium I learned a lot about collaboration and working in teams. The planning committee brought together the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. These organizations do many different things so it was really awesome to see them come together and use their different strengths and knowledge to accomplish a goal.

What I Learned: 

Overall, my experience with OACBHA taught me so many things about the professional world that I would not have gotten from the classroom. I learned an immense amount about team work and its relation to the productivity and functionality of an office. This internship was totally worthwhile and has made me more confident in myself and my ability to succeed! I am incredibly thankful for the time I spent here and the skills I learned. Not only have I been changed for the better, but I also have a clearer idea of what I aspire to do post college.

Elizabeth Isaac '18 - University of Central Florida, Chemistry Department

Name: Elizabeth Isaac 

Class Year: 2018

Major: Chemistry

Internship Site: University of Central Florida-Chemistry Department

In the photo I am working with a small laser setup. I am practicing aligning and focusing the laser before using the larger laser in lab.

Internship Responsibilities: This summer I was excited to be a part of the Preparing Future Researchers program at the University of Central Florida. I was assigned to intern with the Kuebler group in the chemistry department. Alongside a graduate mentor, I assisted with the fabrication of micro scale devices called waveguides. These waveguides were created with a Ti:Sapphire femtosecond laser, and it was super fun to work with. The purpose of the waveguides we created is to transfer data via light rather than electronically, thus making chip to chip interactions in computers much faster. 

What I Learned: It was very exciting to join a group doing such ground breaking work. Through this experience I learned what it truly meant to be a scientist. There is a lot of failure involved in research before a successful outcome is achieved. For the first couple of weeks our waveguides weren't fabricating properly. Instead of being disheartened by the lack of results, my graduate mentor and I tried different methods until we finally found one that worked. It took nearly a month before we had any waveguides, but it was an extremely satisfying feeling to look in a microscope and see them on the slide. Through research I've learned that one must persevere instead of giving up when things don't go exactly as planned. There is often another route or direction to take to get your desired outcome rather than the one you originally undertook.

Braeden Sparks '17 - Portsmouth Ohio Police Department

Name: Braeden Sparks 

Class Year: 2017

Major: Computer Science

Internship Site: Portsmouth Ohio Police Department

Location: Portsmouth, Ohio

Internship Responsibilities: During my internship, I was able to assist detectives in various investigations in the Portsmouth, Ohio area. I visited homes of victims to collect statements, served a search warrant for DNA at the Scioto County jail and got approval from a suspect for collection of cellular data. I also called various locations for surveillance footage, responded to crime scenes and completed online searches for individuals pawning a firearm under disability. Other duties included assisting an individual for Sign Language interpretation, completed ride-alongs with officers and various office.

What I Learned: From this experience, I gained a great deal knowledge within the law enforcement field.  I gained in-depth insight from investigations including possible kidnapping, burglary, domestic violence, robbery, drug abuse, suicide, filing false police reports and sexual assault. This experience gave me the opportunity to understand and collect the proper knowledge needed for pursuing my career in law enforcement.

Kim Roseler '16 - The Ohio State University Athletics Department

Name: Kim Roseler

Class Year: 2016

Major: Sport Management

Internship Site: The Ohio State University Athletics Department of Event Management.

Location: Columbus, OH

Internship Responsibilities: I coordinate men's and women's tennis matches and provide on site management for the same. I also serve as a liaison for visiting teams and work to coordinate red coats, security staff and officials. I am currently doing research and will produce an action plan on risk management for all OSU event management interns. I work in conjunction with Assistant AD Mike Penner and all event management staff.

What I Learned: My Ohio State Athletics internship has been invaluable to me. Being able to work with the close-knit Event Management team while also having opportunities to interact with all of the other departments/offices within OSU Athletics has enabled me to hone my communications and networking skills, in addition to the most important lesson, time management.

Spending the last four years with Otterbein's Men Soccer team as their manager more than prepared me to move to Division I and be the student event manager for Men's and Women's Tennis. One of the biggest lessons I've learned is that regardless of the size of the athletic program or department, whether it be Otterbein or Ohio State, every single person who walks through the facilities has a hand in creating the environment for the athletes and fans. It quite literally is a team effort to run Ohio State Athletics events. It's fun to be able to sit beside the trainers, communications staff, coaches, etc. and listen and learn why they are where they are, and what motivates them every day. Running two Division 1 tennis programs (Men's and Women's), is a lot of responsibility. I've learned so much from the veterans around me, and I can't wait to see where my future takes me.