My STEP Signature Project was an internship with Grange Insurance. There, I was a personal lines intern, and so I spent my time helping out the product lines teams as well as assisting with planning the intern hosted Hackathon for the company.

While completing my STEP Signature Project, my understanding of myself changed as I found out what I value in a future career. For example, I found that I really enjoy connecting with people, and want to continue to do that. Since my internship was hybrid, I think it allowed me to see the aspects I enjoy of an in-person work environment and what I enjoy from a virtual environment. I really enjoyed the flexibility I was presented with this internship.

I think that my view of the world changed as I understand now what is expected in a standard position. I think the larger idea, that my work can be valued, has really stuck out to me. Additionally, I found out a lot about the insurance industry I didn’t previously know. I also learned about how important making connections is in any industry.

One relationship that led to a change/transformation is the relationship I had with my mentor, Courtney. Courtney helped me learn so many different aspects of the industry during my internship, but also generally helped me to understand how internships work. During our at least weekly meetings, she would check in with how I was doing with the assignments, but would also offer advice in terms of any future projects of mine, as well as introduce me to others in the field.

For example, during the first three or so weeks of my internship, I had a list of other employees within the company that I contacted and set up thirty minute sessions with to talk about their roles. This helped me to understand how vast the industry is, as well as ask questions about how they ended up in their particular position, as many of them had jobs with similarities to the job they held at the present. It helped change my mindset to be much more comfortable with the possible changes that lie ahead of me.

Additionally, the STEP Project helped me develop my teamwork skills as I worked with the intern class to host the Hackathon. This included emailing external vendors, organizing orders, and overall making sure what we were doing as a team was coherent. I think this opportunity really helped me to become stronger with working with us.

This change, specifically becoming more open to other work possibilities, is valuable for my life because I have always been a bit unsure what the next step was. However, the reassurance that there’s many different paths to land a successful career has personally made me feel more confident in my choices. For example, I want to explore REUs next summer as a personal goal of mine, and so I’m glad that I had the internship experience so I can compare the two.

(Picture is from my internship’s volunteer event)