An Outstanding Opportunity

As my internship comes to an end this week, I begin to look back on my time at Equity Trust. I've made great friends and contacts for the future, I have had the chance to improve the company's multimedia communication as well as aid in the preparation for the networking conference event plus much more! I have learned a lot about the undertakings of a company and the accountability that everyone holds in order to succeed and grow. I have had many chances to showcase my work to the executives and managers of ETC through presentations, meetings and social outings and it has been quite rewarding to see the impact that one can make in just a couple of months. Collaborating on a group project has surely taught me to respect opinions and that it really is a team effort. My time here has been busy, exciting and fun and I'm glad that I received the opportunity to have such an unforgettable summer experience.

Final Week

This is my final week at Equity Trust Company. Last Friday we presented our projects to a group of managers, supervisors, and executives. It was a great experience to speak in front of so many high-level individuals and share my work. This presentation was a great way to evaluate my impact on ETC this summer and was very fulfilling. Also being able to get an in-depth look at what the other interns had been working on all summer was very interesting. I especially like Adam's presentation of the new website he built, very impressive.

I am putting the finishing touches on a Knowledge transfer project and waiting to present our findings for the Account Open Process. But things are starting to wined down and the end of the summer is approaching fast.

End of Summer Rush

Over the past two weeks I have been immersed in the Client-Sales eVantage Integration project. The requirements gathering and testing have kept me so busy that occasionally I work 10+ hours a day to finish my weekly deadlines for our agile project methodology. The latest requirements I have been working on include trying to automate the Coverdell Education Savings Account (CESA) application into eVantage and working on prototype web page for online Bill Pay. I will be presenting these requirements in my weekly Friday project meeting.

Tomorrow also marks the final day with my fellow interns at Equity Trust :(
We will be presenting our final presentations to the executive team and all of the supervisors and mentors that have worked with us this summer. It should be a very fun and emotional day as we will say goodbye to several of the interns/friends that have successfully completed their internship at Equity Trust. It has been an amazing experience working with all of the interns and I will definitely miss working with them on a regular basis. It truly is remarkable that Equity Trust has not only left us with a memorable work experiences but also memorable relationships.

The Final Week...Or Not!

This week was technically supposed to be my last week with Equity Trust, which when I come to think about, is kind of sad. However, I recently had a change in school plans, and am not going back to school until January of 2011. I spoke with my manager and was able to get an extension on my internship! The accounting department is expected to be extremely busy within the next couple of months with their conversion to a new type of accounting software, so I knew it would be appropriate to talk to my manager about continuing with the company. Plus, I was going to be available, so it just seemed to work out.

On other topics, with this being the last week of work, we (all of the interns) are required to do a final presentation to the executives and managers talking about our experience with ETC. It is always fun getting together with all of the interns because we all get along so well, even if it is something like working on a presentation. Our next couple days are filled with lots of presentation practice, and then we present on Friday. It should go pretty well, everybody seems to do well with presentation skills. We shall see! :)

Final Details!

Last week, we had the college meet and greet, which was a lot of fun. Each intern was to try to invite a advisor, professor, or other representative from our home schools, as well as individals from other universities and colleges. I met a few very helpful people, and everyone was very excited to hear all about what Equity Trust Company has to offer regarding internship opportunites, and sales and customer service opportunies for recently college grads!

So now, It is my last week of my internship at ETC! I must say, these past 12 weeks have gone by just too fast. This week I am finishing up any last deatils to my projects, as well as preparing my presentation about my experience. All the interns are to present a 20 minute presentation to the management teams. I am very excited to share all that I have been working on all summer!

ETC Culture & Presentations

My agenda for the second to last week at Equity Trust is to collaborate with Adam, one of our HR interns to make a video for the website that will exemplify the culture of the firm. It has been nice to work with another person on a project and share ideas and opinions of how the package should be portrayed. Everyone should check out the video on our new career website! Not only does the video have a 3 day deadline, which is quickly approaching, but also the six interns are preparing to present our final presentations to the executives, managers and mentors of the company on Friday. We each will speak for 15-20 minutes about our experience and what we have learned along the way...and believe me, there's a ton!
I have truly enjoyed my summer at Equity Trust and I have gained amazing real world knowledge that I can apply to aspect of my life.

Working on financial close

Since I have started working at ETC as an intern, I have helped others in the accounting department complete some of the tasks in the month-end close process. There are many steps to take that I have been responsible for each month. When I first started, these processes were very confusing to me, and much guidance was needed in order to finish. Last month I still needed quite a bit of guidance. This month, however, I was able to complete the bank reconciliation and the cash proof for both companies with much less assistance than prior months. I still asked quite a few questions, but that is expected as an intern. It was really rewarding to be able to do this on my own (for the most part) and really contribute to the efficiency of the whole process. It is also nice to see my own progress from within the first couple weeks to just a few months later.

This week I am back at the Berea office working on a new project. I am enjoying the ability and opportunity to work on different project with different people. It is allowing me to develop different skills and providing me with different experiences. The project itself has been very enjoyable and my input has been utilized. Although I am new, I feel I am adding value to the project. Once complete we will present to a team of managers, supervisors, and executives. This is another great opportunity for me to gain exposure with in the company and will be very beneficial for me and my career. More to come!

An experience like none other

Today, all of the interns had to present at a meet and greet that the HR department at ETC was putting on for various Ohio and Michigan colleges and universities. We each had to talk a little about our background, our past and current projects, and our overall experience at ETC. One of the things I mentioned about my experience at ETC is networking. I know this is beat into our heads all the way through college, but the professionals I have had the opportunity to network with on a daily are truly inspiring. Everyday, when I come into work, I speak and interact with the Controller and Assistant Controller of the organization. I work on projects with bother of these individuals as well as the CFO of Equity Trust. I have not heard of many internships, if any at all, where this type of experience is gained. Each one of the people I have had the opportunity to work with in the accounting department are extremely professional, helpful, knowledgeable, experienced, and intelligent. I know that my daily interactions with all of these people make my experience here at ETC one-of-a-kind.

Hi my name is Tealla from Equity Trust Company...

So today I had the pleasure of following up on attendees of last years networking conference. It was a nice change of pace from my normal day to day activities. I was able to speak to people from all around the United States and help them to decide to return to this event. My co-workers are putting so much effort into this event it only seems necessary for there to be a great turnout-which there will be. There are so many new sessions and exciting things planned for this event it seems crazy not to go. Now I can truly see how much work is needed in planning an event for hundreds of people. From the graphic designs of multiple banners, to the guest speakers, to the food, it all has to compliment each other and flow with ease.

Fun in and out of the office!

Today is the middle of week 10 for me, and there is still so so much to do! All last week I was focused on creating and administering the Employee Mid-Year Survey. This survey is a follow up to the Annual Survey, and it is to see if our goals and action plans are being proven effective to maintain employee satisfaction here at ETC. I have recently started to analyze the results, and it is very interesting being on this side of things.

This week I am re-organizing a folder on the network that hold all the job descriptions and score cards for each titled position. I have met with most of the supervisors to review specifically what I need updated, in order to make the new folder clean and up to date.

Yesterday was birthday treat for July Birthdays, and so ETC had an ice cream truck come to each office and we all got to choose a ice cream bar! It was a perfect treat! :) Also today is the Happy Hour at Champs restaurant with the Interns, Executives, and Supervisors, that I know we are all very excited for! Earlier in the summer, when the second group of interns came, there was a lunch scheduled for all of the interns with the executives, and I wasn't able to attend, so I am especially excited for today!

New Offfice!

As of Monday, July 19th, I have been working out of the Elyria office. This switch came when I started working on a knowledge transfer project where I am writing work instructions for different processes. This project has given me some new opportunities and a chance work more closely with different people from different departments. Everyone I have encountered thus far has been very helpful and outgoing. Although I do not know how long I will be working out of this office I am glad I have the chance to work out of both offices. Both are unique and have found things I like and dislike about both. Being able to adapt quickly to this new environment has been seamless and easy.

Project I: Complete

Last week the deadline for the functional specifications of eVantage commenced as the next phase of the eVantage re-factoring project kicked off. I was given a one day notice by my supervisor to complete these functional specifications for the presentation in the project launch meeting. I successfully completed the document by the meeting, where the role of the document became more clarified. The following day, I met with the lead Business Analyst on the project team to discuss the information contained in the document. Such information included existing system functionalities, controls, data entry fields, data retrievals, and a corresponding screenshot. This information will be used to ensure existing eVantage system functionalities in the newer re-factored version that will be rolled out in December 2010. Thus documenting these functionalities is extremely important in not damaging the core value of eVantage.

As the project moves forward at a rapid pace, these functional specifications should prove useful in the gathering of the Business Requirements and User Stories for the revamped application. Assisting in such requirement and user story development appears to be the next set of tasks in this project development, and I am extremely excited and anxious for more IT development opportunities!

Deadlines

As I finish my 6th week of my internship at Equity Trust I can't believe how fast time is flying. It seems like yesterday I met my fellow interns and started working on my marketing projects. During this week at ETC, I produced a promotional video for Sterling Trust Company. This video will be sent out to certain potential clients in hope that they decide to choose Sterling Trust as their new custodian.
There was a strict deadline that the company needed the video finished by which created some stress since many revisions arose due to the difference in opinions of what the video should exemplify. Not to mention, once again there were operating system issues along with applications concerns. It turned out that one of my supervisors was able to lend me her Mac in order for me to accomplish my job. Without that laptop I would not have been able to finish on time and I greatly appreciate her help as well as the continous help from my mentor. The employees here are always lending a helping hand even if they have lots of tasks to finish as well. Overall, the video was finished on time and I hope that it can meet its objective once it is released to the public.

Practical Wellness for the Workplace

As other interns have mentioned, over the past week, we have been working with one another in sharing practical tips and tools about stress, nutrition, and exercise in the workplace. It was a great experience to be able to work with interns from across the company in developing an interactive presentation for all of the employees of ETC.

We are also gearing up for our College Meet and Greet that will happen on July 30th. At this event, college career service representatives will learn about career opportunities for undergraduate students and for recent college graduates. In promoting this event, I had the opportunity to interview college graduates within the company and then create an informational video that will be sent to all of the colleges and universities.

This week, I'll be continuing on the website, hoping to tweak some of the details of the site before it goes live in a few weeks. I've recently been working on creating a "Connection" page which draws in our facebook, twitter, and linked-in page. It has taken a bit of work to create an interactive and useful design, but it's a great challenge.

Can't believe that the summer has gone by so fast!!!

Promoting wellness in the workplace!

Today was the first normal day back to work, because for the past week many many things have been popping up. Last weekend ETC participated as a team in the Relay For Life, and all last week myself, Adam, and Recuriter Rachel were contacting businesses for donations, as well as making gift baskets for the raffle. Earlier this week, myself and the other interns were preparing for our company- wideUniversal Training Presentations that took place on Wednesday July 14th and Thursday July 15th.

We chose the topic of Wellness in the Workplace: How To Manage Stress, Improve Nutrition and Diet, and Implementing Exercise throughout your day. Our main goal to our project was to express to ETC employees that living a healthy lifestyle can be very easy and practical. We prepared a powerpoint, gave a stress test, made a short video about Do's and Dont's to be healthy in the workplace, as well as provided the employees with maps of close metroparks, and a calendar of designated days to "Choose Fruit, not Coffee", "Meet a new Co-Worker", etc. 8 presentations in 2 days! It definately flew by! I cannot believe what we were kind of anxious for passed so fast, and very smoothly. The 6 of us worked together very, very well, all bringing something different to the presentations. Our personalities are all so different from eachother, but truly fit together very well! I think we did a fantastic job, and I believe the employees also agree!

Working With Wellness

The past few weeks have been primarily dedicated to the 2010 Summer Internship Group Project. The expectations for this project were for all 6 interns to research and present a topic of importance to the Equity Trust workplace. Following the latest trends in corporate training, we identified Health & Wellness, in particular Stress, Nutrition, and Exercise as our research topic. We developed a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation elaborating on ways to manage workplace stress, eat healthier, and exercise before/during/after work.

One of the really exciting aspects of working on this project was that each intern had a completely different skill set that brought value to the project.

This collaborative approach with IT/Accounting/Marketing/Service Excellence/Human Resources interns was very enlightening and fun! (See the fun in the video below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWijyuAIyf0

The greatest part of this project was the opportunity it gave us to connect and provide useful information to all the employees as well as helping the company to achieve greater productivity and value. If our presentation made an impact on just a few employees and helped them to seek out healthier lifestyle choices, this ultimately provides greater value and productivity to the company. I truly hope our project had the kind of impact!

Health & Wellness In The Workplace

Group Projects. In general, a great big pain and hassle. However, this is not the case at Equity Trust Company. When I started my internship I was aware of a group project that needed to be completed by the middle of July that would be presented to over 200 employees at Equity Trust. At first I was nervous to see how everyone would interact and how cohesive we would be as a group. From the second we started collaborating on it I could tell this was going to be a easy and seamless process. My teammates were superstars! We all worked and put forth an equal amount of effort and not one person did more than the other. It was quite an experience giving this presentation 8 different times to the departments. We came ready to work, ready to present and ready to have fun. In the end everyone walked away with a valuable pieces of knowledge and we were happyto have been able to implement health and wellness within Equity Trust. Not only did we evaluate everyone current stress levels, tell them ways to handle the stress, facts about the new 2010 food pyramid, ways to improve their diet at work and showed them how to exercise while at work but we also made a video to illustrate these points. Below is the link if anyone would like to view it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWijyuAIyf0


I can't say enough about how nice it is to have hard workers and strong leaders in a group setting. It really does make a difference in the outcome of the final product and I'm glad that Equity Trust has the mindset to choose determined, focused interns.

Wellness in the Work Place

For the July Universal Training session, the Summer Interns put together a presentation on wellness in the work place. The main topics discussed were stress, nutrition, and exercise. We presented 8 times over 2 days to all Berea and Elyria employees.

The experience of both preparation and presenting was not only valuable experience but very enjoyable. It was great to get the work will the other interns on a large project. We all got along really well and work well together as a team.

The best part of the presentation in my opinion was the video we created showing what to do and not to do in the work place. We got some very positive feed back from the video and presentation as a whole. We posted the video on you tube and I have posted the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWijyuAIyf0

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Growing Company for Creative & Developing Minds

The future of investing from the company that few know about. This company is a hidden gem, offering self-directed non-traditional IRA investing to their customers through online investment services and educational services. I had the truly unique and unexpected experience of finding this company on a TWITTER search for "IT Internships". Now after learning so much about this company I can't believe that I stumbled upon such a truly good financial company that has its customers and employees needs at the core of its mission

I am currently working on gathering and detailing the Functional Requirements for Equity Trust's core customer system "eVantage" in addition to their subsidiary company's system "Sterling Trust Online". Such requirements should provide value and assist in a more elaborate plan by the company to merge all core systems. This plan, as well as the company's online services has allowed IT operations to be at the forefront of this growing company. The IT operations employees are among some of the hardest working individuals I have ever met. They are at work constantly in the office and at home. It is there that they work on various projects trying to integrate and expand the company into the future.

But the most intriguing aspect of Equity Trust's IT operations is the ability to be creative and have an instant impact on the company because of it's size. These IT projects are creating instant value to the company. I personally have been able to assist in testing system enhancements to eliminate bugs and defects in the various systems that will be deployed within the the month! This internship experience I believe is unmatched with even the biggest firms and budgets that can offer college students the so-called "best training" and "experiences".

I can't wait to see what else awaits me in the remaining 6 weeks of the internship!

STAY TUNED

My Internship Adventure

My first 4 weeks at Equity Trust Company have been wonderful. This is my first internship and it has taught me things which can not be learned in the class room. I feel much more prepared and confident for life after college, which is coming much too quickly as I am going into my senior year at Ohio University.

I am currently serving as the Operations Intern and have the opportunity to work with the Service Excellence team in the Berea office. This role has allowed me to be flexible and work on several different and diverse projects simultaneously. From working with Trust Connect and Project Turf to a Lean Layout cost Analysis, my assignments are putting my skills and knowledge to work.

My favorite aspect of the internship thus far is working with the other interns. Having the chance to work with 5 bright and motivated young professionals has been a real bonus for me and I am learning a lot for each of them. We are putting the finishing touches on our Universal Training Presentation which will be take place July 14th and 15th. My internship adventure is just beginning and a look forward to what else Equity Trust Company has in store for me.

Applying what I have learned

As my internship continues here at Equity Trust Company, I wanted to share with you one of the main projects I have been working on since I joined the ETC accounting team. As I have learned, there are many different entities within ETC that all have their own set of accounting books. Included in each of those sets of accounting books is an individualized chart of accounts. Each of these chart of accounts are quite similar, but they each have their own little differences. Each person coding transactions in a different department may have a somewhat different opinion as to what might be included in each account. With consistency and comparability being a main principle in accounting, it is important that all users know how to use each account and use it consistently in order to have comparable statements from year to year.

That being said, the accounting team and I are currently in the process of making a chart of accounts manual that will aide ETC employees in more consistently coding transactions to the general ledger. When I began this project, the knowledge I had gained from my accounting courses in college helped me tremendously in creating definitions and defining what each account should be used for. Once we are completed with the manual, it will be handed out to all employees for their daily use.

It is nice to know that my knowledge and abilities are being utilized within the company to help make a difference for the future. I am not doing mindless, meaningless jobs to simply fill my day. This manual will be used on a daily basis to help those not in the accounting department better understand the goals we have for the chart of accounts. Overall, it is reassuring to know that the knowledge I gained in college is useful in my everyday projects here at Equity Trust Company.

title="HR Career Webpage"- Adam, HR Intern

I can't believe that it has already been six weeks since we have begun our internship 'journey'. I currently serve as one of the HR interns for Equity Trust. One of my main responsibilities for the summer is to re-vamp and update the ETC careers page.

Much of my time so far has been researching some of the best careers web-pages, and then taking ours a step above. It's been a tough, but fun challenge. I have had some experience with HTML in the past, but this experience has truly shaped and enhanced my skills in this field.

I've also had the opportunity to sit in with the HR Recruiter to phone screen some of our new employees. I've learned a lot about the application procedure and the details that go into phone screening and background checking every interested applicant.

I still have quite a ways to go with our website, but am ready to take on the challenge. Through the guidance of those in the Marketing, IT, and HR team, I've had a lot of support with my project. It will be great to know that I have helped in contributing to the organization in a significant way.

The Life Of An Intern At ETC-Tealla, Marketing Intern

I started my journey at Equity Trust Company in June and since then I have enjoyed the experience. I am learning and living in a real world business setting and it only reassures me that what I'm learning in school can be directly applied here. I will be a senior at The Ohio State University this coming fall and I realize the importance of internships. There is something here at ETC that I could not and will not find in the classroom. It is the people, the projects and the potential to achieve something great all make working here worthwhile. As the company continues to grow exponentially, I have had the opportunity to meet and go out to lunch with the president and senior VP of ETC, take a tour of a printing company, attend department lunches and I've been able to interview everyone in my department to view their daily routine. Aside from ETC's hospitality, I have spent the past two weeks working on the Equity University Networking Conference Video. This video was sent to all clients and is available for the public to view in order to promote the conference that is held at the end of September. It has been quite an experience editing the footage and making revisions based on my supervisors requests. I was able to see the process that assignments follow and the cooperation of the employees to complete the final product. I can't wait to see what other invaluable things I can learn while I continue my internship journey at Equity Trust.

Cailin: The soon-to-be Excel Guru

Hello all! My name is Cailin Menke, and I am the accounting intern here at Equity Trust Company. I recently graduated from The University of Toledo in May 2010 and am glad to have gotten the chance to intern with ETC this Summer. I had an internship in public accounting in the Spring of 2009 and knew that I wanted to try something different before I started earning my Master's degree at Cleveland State University in the Fall of 2010. So far, I really enjoy (most of) the work I do in the accounting department.

I have gotten a lot of different experiences working with the accounting department and have met many smart and experienced accountants. I sometimes wonder how they have all gotten so smart. :) I currently do accounts payable, help with the month-end close process, assist in setting up a new chart of accounts, as well as many other small projects on an as needed basis. It seems that all of the projects I do, no matter who they are for, I am using Excel. I learned more about that program in the first week I was here than I ever thought I would! By the end of the Summer, I am pretty sure I will be an expert!

Time to get back to work! I will keep you posted.

No coffee and filing for me!- Amanda Mirth, HR Intern

First and foremost I have to say that I am so very thankful and appreciative to have been given the opportunity to intern at ETC. I am Amanda Mirth, and I am the HR and ½ marketing intern for summer 2010. How am I half marketing? Well, in my interview I stated that I am a business student at University of Toledo, switching my major from Speech Therapy. I did not know exactly what aspect of business I wanted to go into, so I kind of got a custom-planned internship. 3 days a week I am at one office doing HR and 2 days a week at the other office working with the marketing department. I can honestly say that I feel like I have learned more in the past 5 weeks through this experience, than I have in my past 2 years of school. Of course, it’s a different type of learning- this experience has been all application of what I already know, and what I am able to learn. I am so very happy that I am not the coffee-getting paper-filing girl just hanging out for the summer. The summer is halfway over, tomorrow being our 6 week follow up, and I am only more excited to see how the rest of the summer will go, and what I will be able to walk away with from this experience!

Happy to be at Equity Trust!

I am so happy to be working with the HR team!

2010 Summer Interns

Please welcome our 2010 Summer Interns:
Cailin Menke~ Accounting
Adam Sheldon~ Human Resources
Amanda Mirth~ Human Resources
Edward Synek~ IT
Tealla Scrofano~ Marketing
Andrew Vanderlind~ Operations