Well, this is it.

What just happened? I think 8 weeks went by, but I'm not sure. There's no way.

This week I've been tying up loose ends before I head back to Mount Union. Kathy asked me to recreate the Customer Service bulletin board materials to be sent to CST in South Dakota and Elyria. I included packets of instructions for carrying out the Customer Service and De-Escalation Training reinforcement activities and knowledge checks that the supervisors will be helping with over the next month.

While my projects and tasks have been dying down as I complete my final week, a lot has been happening within the HR Department. This week, Jessica began her three week CST training for the new hires. She is being shadowed by our two new trainers, Beth and Andrea. As a former team lead for CST, Beth was an internal hire. Andrea is our new junior trainer. I have essentially been doing her job all summer, so her joining the team this week came at a great time. Also, our new VP of HR started on Thursday.

In order to make space for all of these wonderful new HR team members, Jessica, Beth, and Andrea are moving into an office together on the fourth floor of the Berea building. I had the awkward task of trying to help the movers rearrange the office at 8:15am while Jessica was in training. Mind you, I had no key fob access to the room, no idea where to put all the extra conference tables, and wasn't exactly sure how the whole cubicle break-down and rearanging thing worked, so I was basically in panic mode trying to direct the poor movers. Naturally I resorted to, "I'm so sorry, I'm just an intern..." (Help, help, help...)

The office saga continued when Jessica, Beth and I returned later that day to scrub dry erase marker off the walls. I should note that the walls of the office were covered in a paint that is specifically made to be written on like a dry erase board. I was not implying that ETC promotes the use its walls for notetaking. The marker had been on the walls so long that we ended up going through three containers of Clorox wipes to get it off. We joked that a permanent marker was used on my wall, because the writing was going nowhere. It's been three days and my fingers are still blue. Another side note, the HR department did NOT torture me as an intern. Don't worry Jessica, I won't tell everyone that I was not scrubbing your walls all summer :) But, now you can think of me everytime you look at those sparkling, Clorox scented walls...

On Wednesday, Jessica organized a happy hour for my going-away at the Upper Deck. It was so much fun! Andy and Tiffany came from Elyria, and, due to the CST payday happy hour tradition, many of the CST members I worked with were there. It was an awesome way to get to spend time with everyone I worked with this summer. I really appreciated it!

Summing up how much I appreciated this experience would be incredibly lengthy, so I will do my best to keep this short. I cannot imagine having spent my summer any other way. Being a summer intern for Equity Trust Company has been hands down the most valuable experience that I've had in my college years in terms of making strides toward a future career. I was given so much more responsibility than I had anticipated, which really enhanced the experience. I grew close with everyone I worked with and truly felt like a part of the ETC family. Not once did I feel like a temporary employee. So, a HUGE thank you to ETC for everything you have done for me. I would enthusiastically recommend this internship program to anyone!