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Ashley
Lichtenbarger, Megan Frick and Museum Director Tracy Stewart
Lilly Endowment funds jobs to stem “brain
drain”
Summer internships introduce
students to careers in Indiana
“Green” use of the county’s
electronic waste, preserving recollections of area war veterans,
investment banking, psychological testing, marketing … 19 Manchester
College students are getting a hands-on introduction to all kinds of
careers this summer at area businesses, agencies and organizations.
These special internships
are intended to help stimulate the local economy two ways: with the
creativity and energy of young employees, and, hopefully, in luring the
interns to great jobs right here in Wabash County after graduation. The
Lilly Endowment Inc. is funding the internships to help the area stem
the “brain drain” created when Indiana-educated grads take jobs out of
state.
At the Wabash County Solid Waste Management
District, senior Will Patch is learning to
match
people who need something with those who have it, notes his boss,
Stephen Johnson of North Manchester. Almost everything that goes through
the facility in Wabash is recycled. Patch is learning firsthand the
methods for recycling electronic scrap, says Johnson, who received one
of the College’s first degrees in environmental studies in 1977.
For
example, the intern is converting an old computer monitor into a fish
tank. “I love working here,” says Patch, a chemistry and psychology
major from Otterbein, Ind. “The days fly by because they’re filled with
a little of everything.”
May
history grad Ashley Lichtenbarger
is
collaborating with senior communication studies major Megan Frick on a
Veterans History Project at the Wabash
County
Historical
Museum. Their summer job: interviewing local war veterans and recording
their stories.
For a
history and a communications major, this is the perfect internship. “The
veterans’ stories give really neat insights into history that you
wouldn’t find out otherwise,” says Frick, of Wawaka, Ind.
“The veterans always want to talk more,”
even when time runs out, adds Lichtenbarger of South Bend.
Their
boss, 1983 Manchester grad and Wabash native Tracy Stineman Stewart,
says the project
“really is a matter of life and death,” as more and more veterans – and
their stories – die each day.
She tried to start the project before,
but the museum “never had the resources to
commit to this project that it deserved.”
Some
are interning on the North Manchester campus, working online with
organizations and agencies on special projects, using College facilities
and equipment otherwise idled by summer.
 Junior
Colleen Hamilton wrote her own job description for campus organic
gardener. She is cultivating produce for Chartwells, the College’s food
service. Zucchini by the bucket, squash, pumpkins, watermelon,
cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes … and an herb garden are under the watchful
care of the French major on the northeast section of campus.
Hamilton divides her time between weeding,
researching sustainable agriculture, and harvesting. Composters donated
by the Wabash County Solid Waste Management District are filled with
waste from the College Union kitchen.
Other Lilly Endowment summer
internships (Wabash County unless noted):
American Red Cross of Wabash
County, health and safety director
– senior marketing major Elizabeth “Ellie” Davis of New Albany, Ind.
Biomet Inc.
legal department, Warsaw – May accounting grad
Ashley Davis of North Manchester
Education for Conflict Resolution,
marketing, outreach – junior psychology major Melissa Webb of
Noblesville, Ind.
Death Row
Support Project – senior peace
studies major Sarah Hall of Roaring Spring, Pa.
First Federal
Savings Bank – senior
finance major Ha Phan of Hanoi, Vietnam
Hispanic guidebook – May
Spanish and social work grad Tim Polakowski of Rockton, Ill.
Jefferson Road Animal Hospital,
Kokomo – senior biology-chemistry major Megan Leese of Kokomo
J.M. Reynolds Oil Co., marketing –
junior communication studies major Levi Mikel of Etna Green, Ind.
Learn More Center,
literacy – senior accounting major Mark Moon of Silva, Mo.
Merrill Lynch,
Fort Wayne – senior finance major
Micheal Khayyat of Jerusalem, Israel
Behavioral research on
third- and fourth-graders – senior
psychology major Leticia Bitner of Tipton, Ind.
Wabash Chamber of Commerce,
community development, marketing – senior education major Melissa
Heffner of Lebanon, Ind.
Wabash County Council on
Aging, marketing – senior
psychology major Kelli Griewank of Plymouth, Ind., and senior accounting
major Mohammed Abu Zayda of Ramallah, West Bank
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