Living Up to the Standard: Internship Series
By Natalie Ciambrone, Direct Supply Intern
After spending over nine months in Bloomington, I was eager
to start my internship and prove to myself that my decision to go back to get
an MBA was the right one.
By Natalie Ciambrone, Direct Supply Intern
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Last week marked the half-way point of my
internship at Direct Supply. As I looked back over those six weeks, I
was initially concerned about my decision to go back to school after I realized that some of the hard skills I had learned were not directly transferring to my summer project. But it was thanks to a
comment from the Direct Supply CEO at the end of my mid-point presentation that I
realized there was so much more I had learned in my first year than just
those technical skills.
The CEO inadvertently helped
me realize it was confidence, among other
things, that I had gained from my time at Kelley. Through my
experiences with the GLOBASE Guatemala consulting trip and through defending my positions in class
during case discussions, I have become comfortable with navigating
through the ambiguous, “gray areas” of business. This has come in handy
since my strategy project requires me to help the company turn a gray topic
into a profitable solution.
My internship stretches me beyond my comfort zone
almost every day. Before Kelley I would have been unable to navigate the
process and intimidated by the idea of having to figure it out. But even
just after a year of being at Kelley, I feel
prepared to embrace whatever new challenges are thrown my way. The
experiences that helped develop this new found confidence is what makes
my decision worth it.