Week 11 Completed!

Week 11 has come to an end and now we are moving onto the last week of our internship. However, my manager has asked me to extend my internship! Unfortunately, I will be only able to extend one more week, but it is good to know that I have been able to help the Accounting department enough that they want me to stay longer. This will allow me to help them with the entire month close for July, along with just wrapping up everything I have been doing throughout my internship.

There are several projects I have been working on that the accounting department needs to learn; FRx is one of those projects. It is important that everyone can utilize FRx easily and properly. In addition, updating procedures for my streamline report and supporting schedules also need to be taught.

I hope that everything goes smoothly over the next 2 weeks!

Presentations

Our intern presentation went really well yesterday, but we still have one more presentation to make! Next Friday (our last day!) each of us is presenting the individual projects we have been working on in our various departments. The executives will be there again as well as our mentors and Human Resources. I'm excited to show them what I've accomplished these past 12 weeks and how this internship has prepared me for future endeavors. Presenting in front of management can be a scary thing, but as long as I have been preparing ahead of time, I know it will turn out a success. Having the opportunity to present to them is something I know will benefit me since this is probably not the last time I will have to deliver a project or results to managers.

Time to exhale

We did it! Our intern group project has been completed. Yesterday morning, we presented our crisis management plan to a room full of the company's top executive. Our initial nerves gave way as soon as we began to present. We had practiced, practiced, and practiced which made it easy to relax and deliver our proposal. As with most topics, the more you know, the more comfortable you are talking about it. We had worked on this crises management plan for so long that we knew it inside and out. This allowed us to be loose and deliver our points effectively. More importantly this prepared us to answer the questions the executives threw our way. It could be quite intimidating to sit there and try to defend your proposal to high executives, but I think we all did such a great job preparing that when the questions came we were able to answer them with very little trouble. I was real proud of the way everyone performed.
Now all that is left to do is continue to help out with little things within my department, tie up loose ends, and put together my individual presentation. The individual presentation is on the last day of our internship. We are expected to all the interns' managers and mentors on our experience at ETC this summer. It will be fun to see what all the other interns have been up to and hear their thoughts on their experience here at ETC.

Presentation Day

Today was presentation day! FINALLY! :)

But, before I get into that, This morning we had our quarterly meeting at Lorain County Community College (LCCC), Jeff Desich was the main speaker during this meeting; however, most of the executive board did get up and say a few words about how the quarter has been going for Equity Trust as well as where we are going for the second half of the year. Although it was at 745 this morning it was a really good experience and really was quite fun.

Now, back to our Crisis Management Presentation; even though I was a bit nervous it went really well and they really appreciated all the effort we put into our project as well as our recommendations. I believe the presentation really opened their eyes to the posibilities to what could happen if Equity Trust is not prepared to the best of its ability for a crisis. From the information we have given them I believe they will pick up where we left off and implement our recommendations to help make Equity Trust more prepared for any problems the company many encounter in the future.

After our presentation all of the interns went out to lunch together and talked about how fast these past 11 weeks have went and about our indivdual presentations next Friday. It is crazy how fast the internship program has went and how much we have learned in such a short period of time.

Great Job Interns!

Today was the day that all the interns presented our group project on Crisis Management. We have been working on this project since the very beginning of our internship and we did a GREAT job today! The sense of accomplishment that I had after we presented was amazing.

Although it was nerve-racking at first, we all delivered our parts perfectly and I believe that the executives were very impressed! Our group manager Joe and the Corporate Recruiter Tiffany were impressed as well! I'm glad we were able to make them proud. Afterward, all the interns enjoyed a lunch together at Applebees!

In addition to our presentation, we also had the 2nd quarter meeting today at Lorain County Community College (next to the Elyria building). There was a great sense of company camaraderie and pride. It was nice getting together with everyone to discuss all of Equity Trust's accomplishments, along with recognizing all the employees who have gone above and beyond in the jobs!

Ten Weeks Down and Only Two to Go!

There's still so much to be finished up in just two short weeks!

My main priority has been my social media project - managing facebook, twitter, and the company blog. Seeing how important it is to stay up-to-date with these, I'm so happy we have a new member of the marketing department - our copywriter! She just started at the end of last week, and in addition to her other roles, she will be taking over this job after my internship ends. I met with her and we reviewed what I do on a day-to-day basis.

My second major project involves the marketing collateral. The finishing touches are being put on this. Our graphic designer is getting some final webinars converted for me and then I will be uploading the rest of them onto the Equity University eLibrary. After spending some time on them last week, the physical files we have here in the office look much more organized and no longer crowded together. Working closely with the collateral has given me a chance to see the different pieces they have used over the years and how the department has improved upon some pieces while creatively coming up with new ones.

Our final intern presentation is in 2 days!! I can't wait to see what the executives think!

Ready to Present

Work has been flying by these last few days. I've been busy collaborating with several other employees here at ETC to put together a report for the executives to use to make decisions on the company's future. It was a great experience having to get information from different employees, from different departments and then pull it all together to present to the VP's. I was able to see first hand how important teamwork can be in the work place. Everyone was so great to me, sending me their information as soon as they could and offering me a great deal of help. Everyone really is on the same team here at ETC, working together to get the job done. Once we were able to complete the report we had a meeting with one of the executives and supervisors to discuss the data and talk about options for the company moving forward. Once again this was great experience for me to be in an environment like this, giving me invaluable experience for the future.
Tomorrow is our last day of practice for our crisis management plan. We are all very comfortable right now with the project we have completed, now it is just a matter of being comfortable when we are placed in front of a room full of executives. After tomorrow, there is no turning back. We present Wednesday morning and then our long crisis management plan will be complete. In addition to our crisis management presentation on Wednesday, we also have Equity Trust's quarterly meeting. This will be another experience to add to the list of valuable ones I've had here at ETC.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Week 10 is now over and we are into week 11! I have a feeling that the next 2 weeks are going to fly by! A lot of last week was spent practicing for our group project presentation on Wednesday. The interns from Berea were here on Friday and we all went out to lunch at Panera before coming back to Elyria to run through our presentation! They will also be here tomorrow to run through everything a final time before our presentation for the executives on Wednesday! After going through it a few times with everyone, I feel very confident that we are going to do great! I can't wait!

I also will be beginning my final presentation which is a review of everything I have done throughout my internship. This will be presented our final day here at ETC.

It's hard to believe my internship is almost over, especailly after everything I have learned. I will really miss Equity Trust!

Cedar Point Outing

This July, Equity Trust is having an outing at Cedar Point with employees and their families and friends. We have over 300 employees attending! Our outing allows employees to have a discounted ticket and free lunch in the park. This week I helped our HR Generalist, Carly, prepare the tickets and information for all attendees.

Preparing all the information for each employee has taught me how to prioritize my time. I have divided up the work I need to accomplish into manageable portions so I can finish on time without feeling overwhelmed. I have enjoyed helping Carly out and seeing the exited looks on employees' faces when they receive their tickets! This event is going to be a great way for employees' to meet each others family and friends, while having a great time at an amusement park!

Corporate Challenge

We are half way through the events for the Cleveland Corporate Challenge! As first year participants, Equity Trust is doing well. We are currently in the top 10 teams for our division. This weekend we participated in Cornhole and Soccer. Each team gave it their all to make our Equity Trust family proud!

Tonight begins the three-day basketball tournament at the Ohio Nets Sports Complex in Parma. Equity Trust has two teams playing in the games tonight because several employees expressed interest in playing. I wish both teams the best of luck tonight! I hope they can bring Equity Trust home a win (or at least top 3)!

Events Projects

For the past week or so, I have been helping out with the planning for our 7 Tax-Free Wealth Seminars that will be held from August through December. We already have the cities set (New Orleans, Baltimore, Newark, Brooklyn, Orlando, Atlanta, and Cincinnati). I've researched hotels that are within a certain distance from each of these cities' airports so that we have hotel options already available for guests to make reservations at. It's important that they're both easily accessible for guests as well as affordable and have good standards. Our Events Coordinator is calling the list of hotels I gave her this week to finalize details. Another task I just finished up is finding the area codes within these cities as well as their surrounding cities and bordering states. I made sure maximum drive time is only around 2 hours or so. I then sent this to our Database Coordinator who will be taking these area codes and pulling clients and prospects located within these areas. The marketing manager will then be sending this final list of people information on the seminar so they can plan to come. Of course, anyone has the option of attending as we keep our events page on our website up-to-date with these events! It's easy to see with this project how it takes multiple hands to help out and complete a final project.

Go Time

We have a date for our intern group final presentation! A week from Wednesday, us interns will be presenting our crisis management plan to the executives. The project is a long time in the making and it will be very rewarding to present to the top executives of the company. It's amazing to think back to when we were assigned this project and how lost we initially all felt. At that time we all barely knew each other, and had no idea where this project would take us. Now, we have become one cohesive unit and have created a thorough plan that I'm excited to present. The Berea interns will be traveling to Elyria one more time to practice later in the week. We'll be able to fine tune our presentation one last time before it's game day. This group intern project has been such a great experience for me over the last several weeks. I no doubt will have great experience to rely upon during my future job hunt, which is exactly what I wanted out of an internship.
Along with the Crises Management plan I putting together a report and making a recommendation for the company regarding their processing service levels. I really enjoy the processing of taking data, analyzing it, and making a decision based off of the analysis. ETC has provided me with several opportunities to do this throughout the summer which makes me a very happy intern.

Week 9

Week 9 ended on Friday. Time is flying by! I cannot believe that I will only be here at ETC for 3 more weeks!
Last week was busy with various tasks for the accounting department including comparing published financials with those generated with FRx. In addition, I have been reviewing and documenting various services agreements.

In addition to that, the other interns and I have been practicing a lot for our group presentation. Our presentation date will be next Wednesday, July 27! I know that we will be ready and give a great presentation to the executives.

This week, my mentor Loretta will be on vacation. While she is gone I will be doing some of her day to day tasks including the Stratification Report which is completed every morning. I will be putting this report together for both ETC and finishing the report for Sterling Trust. I'm glad that I am able to help out while she is gone!

Well, back to work!

My Projects

As our internship at Equity Trust Company comes to an end, I am tying up loose ends on all of my projects. Before the interns depart, they will present to the executive team the projects they have worked on throughout the summer. In order to prepare myself for final presentations, I must finalize all of my projects. In particular, I am finishing revisions on my social media content schedule and I am formulating two proposals. The first proposal is a new hire on-boarding package, and the second a culture project.

This internship has been extremely beneficial because I am sharpening many skills and developing new ones. I have made very few formal proposals in my lifetime so it is great to be able to practice this skill. I am so glad I've had the opportunity to grow at Equity Trust.

Network and Take Advantage of Your Resources

This being my 9th week here as an intern at Equity Trust, I've come to the realization through my various projects that it's so important and really pays off in the long run to set plans and due dates as soon as a project is being implemented. It takes both time and often preliminary research, but having something to look back on and reference for minor details makes everything easier. Some people might find project plans tedious but I actually enjoy putting them together and keeping up-to-date with them. This has lead me to an interest in some sort of project planning. Although I've already met with my mentor to talk about her role in the marketing department as a project specialist, I decided to seek out another employee here at ETC. I had the opportunity to meet with the project manager in our ETS (Equity Technical Services) department. Still having one more year of college, it's difficult to fully know yet specifically what I want to do after graduation. But he provided me with a lot of valuable information from his professional experiences that I wouldn't be able to fully understand from an ordinary job description. The employees here are always willing to help others out and the interns are never excluded from this. They want us to take advantage of the resources provided to us, and I really value this.

Moving Along!

This week I found that I am really starting to get a hang of everything that I've been doing over these last 9 weeks! Things are beginning to come much easier and I am able to do a lot more things by myself. At the same time, my internship is coming to a close with only 3 more weeks left. I cannot believe how fast time has flown by!

FRx was used to publish statements this month. We did find a few kinks that I had to fix, but now I think that everything is going to go very smoothly!
In addition, I was able to code and post all the credit card entries this month by myself. Last month I was having some issues and had to ask a lot of questions. I was happy that everything worked out easily this month!
I also have posted June data to our new unit accounts that I helped set up!

Looking back at all of the things I have gained experience in throughout this internship, I am so thankful that I am with Equity Trust Company!

Mid-Year Survey

As the Human Resources intern, I have been working in all areas of the HR department. Last week, I was working heavily to recruit for positions in our new Sioux Falls location. This week, I am helping prepare our 2011 Mid-Year Survey.

Equity Trust sends out surveys bi-annually to their employees. Our employees are very important to us, so it is vital to conduct surveys twice a year to see how they are doing. I have been working closely with our HR Generalist, Carly, to formulate questions for our survey. As a starting point, we are reviewing the results from the 2010 survey and benchmarking from there. We have identified areas of opportunity to focus on, as well.

Our goal is to make Equity Trust the number one place to work! We can achieve this by listening to our employees.

Daily Line-Up

Every day at ETC each department gets together to go over the "Daily Line-Up". The Daily Line-Up is document created each day providing information on company news, birthdays, anniversaries, fun facts, and highlights an employee exemplifying a company core value. This is a fun way to bring employees together and have everybody on the same page for the day. Although all of us interns have departments, none of us had ever taken part in a Daily Line-Up. Being the highly motivated employees that we are, we took it upon ourselves to create our own intern Daily Line-Up. Each day, at 9:30 the Elyria interns gather at my desk, read through the Daily-Line-Up, and go over what we want to get done for our project. This has been a fun addition to the work day that has brought all of us interns closer together. The other day, we were fortunate enough to have the Berea interns join us for the day and take part in our Daily Line-Up. It was great to feel like one big family.
The intern project is basically ready to go, we are just putting finishing touches on our presentation and waiting to get the final date of when we actually present. On my own, I am working on a report that will help ETC make a decision regarding the future of their fees that they charge customers. Along with that, I am also creating a survey to send clients to gauge their interest in selecting their service level. These are both interesting projects that will hopefully help the company make some changes for the better.

Recruiting for South Dakota

Equity Trust announced that they will be opening a new call center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The office will be opening in September so HR has been busy recruiting! On Monday, three Equity Trust employees are traveling to Sioux Falls to conduct interviews for their new office. Equity Trust is hosting a Career Open House where they will conduct on the spot interviews.

This expansion has given me the opportunity to try my hand at recruiting. In order to prepare for my co-workers arrival in South Dakota, I am helping get the word out about our positions. Everyone has been working diligently to advertise our open Client Service Representatives positions in Sioux Falls. My co-workers are preparing newspaper ads, radio ads, and more. My task has been to recruit through social media. I have been posting on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to advertise the position openings.

I am quickly developing recruiting skills which is great experience for me. Our VP has set recruiting goals for us that we are on our way to meeting! I am excited to see the results. Time to get back to recruiting...

Presentation Planning

Our intern project presentation is coming up quick! Within the next week or so, we will be presenting our ETC Crisis Management Plan to the executives and management team here at Equity. All of us interns have been working hard to get everything that we need together and finalized!

We have divided up the presentation into several parts (one for each of us to present). We each made slides for out topic/topics and are in the process of merging these together into one presentation.

The interns from Berea will be in the Elyria office either the end of this week/beginning of next week so that we can all practice together in front of our project manager Joe and recruiter Tiffany.

Hopefully everything will work out as planned!

Pulling Together

I hope everyone enjoyed their long holiday weekend! So far this week, I've been working a lot on our Equity Trust Company blog. Even though my mentor and I had set up a content schedule for topics and when to post, there are always other things that come up. For instance, we like to incorporate various articles into general information to make it more interesting and provide something that clients and prospects can hopefully relate to. But there are times when a blog was not planned, and someone finds a really useful article to take advantage of using. Yet, other times, I have a plan to find an article that ties in with a certain topic, and it's not always an easy task to find one. Not being as familiar with the company as my mentor and manager are, sometimes it is a little more difficult for me to know the best sources to use. Thankfully, though, they are really helpful and keep an eye out for news stories and articles that will be useful for these blogs. I enjoy keeping up with our company's blog as it teaches me different approaches to use when writing for the public to read.

Home Stretch

Our intern Crises Management project is coming to an end. We have put in a great deal of time on this project and it is very rewarding to see it all come together. It can be very challenging to work in a group at times, but we have really learned a lot along the way about the most efficient and effective ways to work as a group. With any group project, we have had our share of disagreements, but the work and insight each team member has brought to the group is invaluable. We have the project just about complete and are looking to start practicing our presentation at the end of this week or early next week. It has been such a fun experience working with all the interns. When I was being interviewed I wanted to know if the internship at ETC had interactions between the interns or if you were more confined to your department. I was told that the internship would feature both and am pleased to say that is completely true. I love working on tasks or projects for operations, but our intern meetings are always something I look forward to.
I was able to get some clarity on my new project. Currently ETC offers an same day service to its clients for a fee. What we want to find out is if it would be beneficial to offer our clients different service levels such as two day service, three hour service, or things of that nature. This will require a good deal of research and some data analysis which I am looking forward to. It should be a little challenging, but after our intern project is complete, I plan on diving head on into my new project.

Crisis Management coming to an end

Today is going to be a busy day for the Crisis Management intern group project. We have a group meeting at 10:30 to go over any final problems or questions and then a meeting with our project manager Joe at 3. Today, we also have a deadline to turn in our powerpoint slides to the HR intern Leisa so she can put all the slides together in an orderly fashion and finalized, and then tomorrow Casandra (who is also in the Berea office) and I are going to the Elyria office to practice our presentation with our fellow interns and then later in the day with Joe and Tiffany (who is in charge of all of the interns) before our big presentaion next week with the executive board. The final product is really coming together and I am excited to present tomorrow for the first time!

Week 7 Update

The celebration of ETC’s 50 NPS score was wonderful yesterday! We all enjoyed all of the things that were put together for us. There was a piñata, cake, candy, and lots of food! Always a great time!

Today, I have been helping out with the month close by entering bank transactions for the reconciliation, along with updating the streamline and the payroll database with June data.

Currently, I am doing some research for our intern project. We are beginning the process of putting together our presentation for the executives and managers. We are going to start rehearsing next week! This project has required a lot of time and effort, but hopefully it will all pay off in the end!

The new accounting system that I have been implementing since the start of my internship will now be utilized in full force starting on Monday to create our June financials! I am very excited and hope that everything goes smoothly!

Hope everyone has a Happy Friday and 4th of July!!

Recognizing our Employees

In the HR department, the VP of HR has assigned all of us to increase communication and recognition at the offices by utilizing the white boards for company announcements. We will have two boards in the Elyria office, one for employee recognition and another for community announcements. The employee board will consist of employee celebrations, new hires, and department of the month. The community board will display all the events going on in and around our community. For example, we will post about Relay for Life, which we are participating in this weekend and any department announcements. The goal of the boards is to increase communication and recognition across Equity Trust. After we developed the boards themes we are now diving into the fun stuff- decorating and distributing bios. Each employee will fill out a biography filled with fun facts and questions to display on the board! I'm really excited to see how these turn out!