An Ode to My Summer Intern

Summer interns come and go, and some are so wonderful that you feel the need to write about them.

This summer, I had the pleasure of working with Lindsey Allen. Lindsey is the social media summer intern in the Public Affairs Department and, as a soon-to-be senior at Virginia Tech, she will be leaving SHRM on Aug. 21.  She helped manage the We Know Next campaign this summer, among several other projects within the department -- and she is awesome.

Lindsey is pleasant, professional, conscientious and super smart.  She has an excellent work ethic. Of course she’s a fast-learner and extremely intuitive, but she is also proactive at anticipating needs and proposing creative ideas and solutions.  She manages her projects with careful questions and planning.  She is a joy to work with. 

I list all of her good qualities not as a letter of recommendation -- although I will gladly give her one -- but because she is a contradiction to every negative article ever written about Millennials in the workplace.  There are a lot of great college students out there preparing to enter the workforce, and, if you’re lucky enough, you’ll have the great fortune to find and hire one of them.

Dedication.

On a blistering Wednesday in July, the SHRM Internet went down at approximately 2:45 p.m. (15 minutes before a #Nextchat).  By the time we realized that it would not be back up in time for the chat, and that my smart phone's hot spot wasn’t cooperating, we had about four minutes to get to an alternate source of Wi-Fi. Lindsey and I grabbed our computers and ran as fast as we could – power cords flapping in the wind -- in skirts and high heels, on Old Town Alexandria brick sidewalks (and yes, your heals get stuck in the joints every time) to the nearest Starbucks, so we could get online to start the chat.  We were in, connected and sending the first tweet by 3:00:15. It was truly a workplace miracle. Mochas for everyone! 

I’m sure there are many other managers out there who have also had the pleasure of managing a wonderful summer intern – one who made their workplaces a little less stressful and a lot more fun.  If you’re one of them, please let your intern know how much you appreciate them. 

Thank you, Lindsey, for the great work that you did on We Know Next campaign, #Nextchats and for the SHRM Public Affairs/Social Media team.  I hope that your experience with SHRM has helped you to advance in your knowledge and experience with social media and HR and I hope you had fun, too.

Also, good luck and safe travels as you begin your final year as an undergraduate at Virginia Tech. We will miss you greatly, and wish you the best as you continue on your professional path.

Please email – and visit when you can, and hopefully, next summer, you will return to SHRM -- and stay a whole lot longer.