Wabash EDG taps into Manchester University with intern

The Logansport native is an accounting/economics double-major.

According to EDG President and CEO Keith Gillenwater, who began his duties in January, the group has had interns in the past, but not consistently each summer.

Deitrich notified the Plain Dealer at the EDG office on Thursday that he applied for five or six internship positions with multiple agencies and businesses through a college internship fair for this summer, eventually interviewing with three of them.

While EDG wasn't at the fair due to departmental scheduling conflicts, Deitrich, he advised, still heard about the local agency and reached out for an interview, which he was able to have in February.

Deitrich said that he became interested in interning with the EDG, headquartered on the second floor of Wabash City Hall, because it was relevant to his education and provided a chance for him to network in the field.

"And do things I would be able to enjoy, like economics, some marketing," Deitrich said. "It'd be a professional environment and I'd be able to expand my skills."

Gillenwater said that he's already introduced his intern to Crossroads Bank Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Emily Boardman, an MU accounting graduate, along with Mayor Robert Vanlandingham and later this month will work with Parkview Wabash Hospital President Marilyn Custer-Mitchell.

Goals going into the experience, Deitrich added, were to get the feel of the environment's climate and have meetings with professionals and leaders.

"I was really looking to find out who I am as a professional worker," he said.

Gillenwater said that the EDG interviewed three "good" candidates from an application stack of seven or eight.

"What really stuck out with him was that he was excited about the opportunity. He had done a little bit of homework and research about us beforehand," Gillenwater said. "...He was well-prepared. He was professional, came in early to the interview and all of those kinds of things.

"And for us, it's important that we're going to have a professional because we're going out with C-suite-level executives in the community, owners of companies, prominent individuals, community leaders, that kind of stuff. I want someone who's going to reflect well back on this office."

Gillenwater also commended MU because the college, he said, reimburses the EDG for the paid internship due to the local agency's relatively small size.

"We know that they value the work we do," Gillenwater said. "They know that, in a rural community, we're in a small office. We're two and a half people if you include our part-time employee. They know that we need that assistance."

Gillenwater added that over the summer, Deitrich will shadow his supervisor, along with collecting data, visiting companies, marketing, especially with the EDG's upcoming website restructuring, and other "odds and ends" and "wearing different hats," as Gillenwater phrased.

Deitrich's plan, he advised, is to graduate in late-2016 and while he's not sure what his first job is, he hopes to one day be a hospital administrator.

"I've been in hospitals a lot throughout my life, family reasons and reasons for myself," he said. "Just the environment where I can help people and that's something I can do here. I can help the community.

"I just really like the hospital environment in the fact that I can feel like I can help people in a way that isn't typical. That was one of the main things I want to do."

He also hopes to get into graduate school.

Gillenwater plans to have a summer intern with the program each month under his tenure locally.

"The good news is the way education is going is that more and more universities are making it a part of their requirements. I think at Manchester you have to have an internship if I'm not mistaken," Gillenwater said.