CareerPlanit - Internship Journal

The Working World

Internship Journal

Ensuring a Rewarding Future

Chad W. Wilke had already been rejected as "too young" for an insurance internship last December when he read a magazine article about a church-related insurance company that had begun a new internship program. The article led Wilke to a summer that included everything from pitching insurance policies and selling securities to felling trees and pounding nails.

Wilke, now a sophomore finance major at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, applied for the Lutheran Brotherhood internship program and landed an interview over spring break.

"I ended up being offered the job on the spot," he says, explaining that the firm provided him with three weeks of training, paid for him to be licensed to sell insurance and securities, and gave him a laptop computer and a weekly stipend.

Wilke, a member of a Lutheran church, says the program required that he be affiliated with the religion in some way. He says he was also required to perform at least 40 hours of community service by the end of the internship.

Wilke chose to travel with his church's youth group to a Habitat for Humanity project site in Michigan, where he spent five days helping to remodel a house and clean up its yard.

"I made a lot of new friends," he says. "It was really rewarding to be able to help."

Wilke says he also felt rewarded by his daily work with a Lutheran Brotherhood agent in DeForest, Wisconsin, as well.

"It was great just to see how he worked with people, handled complaints, and budgeted his time," Wilke says.

Wilke adds that a highlight of his summer was an all-expenses-paid four-day trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to meet more than 100 of the program's other interns.

"It was like a recruiting weekend," he says, explaining that recently hired employees spoke to the interns about their work experiences and the interns were treated to hotel suites, dinners, and a cruise.

Wilke says that while he's thinking about the possibility of working for Lutheran Brotherhood in the future, he's hoping to intern in other areas of finance over the next two summers.

"I want to get more corporate experience," he says. "I don't believe in spending two summers at the same place."

Still, Wilke says his experience showed him that even though his degree will be in finance, "it's not all about money.

"I really am searching for a company that has a social conscience," he says.

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