July 28 is National Intern Day, and we're marking the day by paying homage to the talented group of summer interns we've been lucky enough to work alongside for the last few months. The current crop of interns come from a diversity of backgrounds, but all share in common a drive to better learn their chosen fields and get real-world experience that's priceless to someone starting out in a new career.
Interns at FrankCrum fall into two different groups: Risk Management Insurance/FWCI and IT/PEO. RMI Interns received 18.5 hours of training within their first few days on topics such as GL and WC basics and underwriting practices, Risk and Safety, Claims and Litigation, Accounting and Compliance, Business Development and Marketing, and Operations. On the IT side, we have formalized an internship program that focuses on college students interested in the technology industry as their career field. This program brings candidates to fill future vacancies and provides continued expansion and promotion of FrankCrum’s name in an additional large community (colleges and universities).
Without further ado, let's meet our Summer 2022 Interns:
Kyle Nichols
Age: 21
School: University of South Florida
Major: Corporate Finance
How did you hear about the internship program at FrankCrum?
I heard about the program through Handshake.
What are some things you worked on during your internship?
I worked with Excel and built on my skills within the program. Through Excel, I’ve gained an extensive understanding of financial analysis and accounting practices.
What’s one big thing you learned while interning at FrankCrum?
The bigger picture of insurance and how it truly works.
How did your internship experience impact your ideas about your future career?
The internship itself still leaves me wondering where I’ll end up in my future career, but I do know that I want to continue with analysis, accounting, or wealth management.
What was the best part of your internship?
Meeting a lot of smart people and being surrounded by them every day. I’ve learned a lot just by interacting, as well as just educating myself more in multiple areas since being here at FrankCrum. My communication skills and computer proficiency have improved, and I can thank this program for that.
Are there any staff members you would single out who made your internship better or more memorable?
I want to thank Joe Braun for taking me under his wing and providing me with valuable projects that I could learn from. He could’ve given me mind-numbing “intern” tasks, but what I got out of these important assignments has made me a better person and employee. I would also thank the accounting team for helping me out when I had questions or needed help. Also, having a good lunch table made the entire experience all that much better.
Anything else you’d like to add about your experience at FrankCrum?
The internship program here at Frank Crum really was beneficial, and I think that it could help a lot of students in the future just like it helped me
Alicia Keable
Age: 24
School: University of Maine
Major: Management Information Systems and MBA dual degree
How did you hear about the internship program at FrankCrum?
I learned about the internship program through a posting on Indeed
What are some things you worked on during your internship?
In the first half of the internship, I worked on a competitive analysis of our product in the PEO market. During the second half, I was helping to create and work on user stories for Pay Central.
What’s one big thing you learned while interning at FrankCrum?
The way in which companies operate and how real-life experience is more beneficial than most things you are taught in school.
How did your internship experience impact your ideas about your future career?
My internship experience helped me determine what types of positions I could possibly want for myself in my future career. It also helped me learn what tasks/responsibilities different positions fulfill.
What was the best part of your internship?
The Friday intern meetings where we had the opportunity to learn more about the different areas that make up the IT department, as well as spending time with different members of management and the other IT interns.
Are there any staff members you would single out who made your internship better or more memorable?
Dino Daminato and Stephanie Buck
Michal Bienkowski
Age: 21
School: Temple University
Major: Economics
How did you hear about the internship program at FrankCrum?
I heard about FrankCrum through LinkedIn.
What are some things you worked on during your internship?
Throughout the course of my internship, my skills in using Excel improved greatly, and I have learned it can be a powerful and useful tool when performing various analytical tasks.
What’s one big thing you learned while interning at FrankCrum?
Communication between different departments is crucial for a well-functioning business and insurance process.
How did your internship experience impact your ideas about your future career?
It’s been a great experience and has helped uncover my strengths as well as some of my potential weaknesses. Moving forward with my career I now have a greater understanding of where my value is best applied and most efficiently utilized.
What was the best part of your internship?
The working environment of the office has been very rewarding as everyone has been super friendly and helpful.
Are there any staff members you would single out who made your internship better or more memorable?
I would like to thank all the staff members on the Business Development team and the Operations team that I had the pleasure of working with.
Conner Goddu
Age: 20
School: University of Florida
Major: Computer Science
How did you hear about the internship program at FrankCrum?
I was browsing for software engineering internships on LinkedIn and came across FrankCrum. I wanted to be home this summer in Tampa. I live South of Gandy!
What are some things you worked on during your internship?
I’ve worked under Andrew Rajcoomar, on Eric Cestero and LaNettia Sullivan’s team, implementing Multi-Factor Authentication for the MyFrankCrum portal. I’ve become more familiar with agile development as well as full-stack development. I’ve operated mainly in backend using C# and .NET, in conjunction with SQL, with a little React JavaScript. I built a personal project that utilizes API endpoints via CRUD that I pushed to my GitHub. Most recently, I brushed up on Chrome DevTools.
What’s one big thing you learned while interning at FrankCrum?
I’ve learned that I like software development in a business setting, and I now have a greater desire to continue my learning in the field.
How did your internship experience impact your ideas about your future career?
I have a much clearer outlook on what software engineering can look like in the workplace. This has been one of the greatest benefits of this internship, as there have been times when I’ve struggled with my computer science courses at UF and have questioned or even changed my major.
What was the best part of your internship?
Working with such a great team. I often hear people say that more than the company, it comes down to your team having the highest impact on your experience. I have been fortunate enough to work directly under Eric Cestero, LaNettia Sullivan, and Casey Sheehan; and I believe they have contributed the most to my learning and my overall experience. Had it not been for them, I may have been discouraged and not continued to pursue software development.
Are there any staff members you would single out who made your internship better or more memorable?
In addition to Eric, LaNettia, and Casey, I also have to give credit to Melba McBride, Lisa Henkel, Luis Suarez, Dean Suor, Andrew Rajcoomar, Chris Bardusch, Brian Thomas, Tyler Morsehead, Lee Quinn, Gabriella Pereira, and anyone else I’ve said “Hi” to for making FrankCrum such a friendly environment with a positive atmosphere that I look forward to coming to every day.
Anything else you’d like to add about your experience at FrankCrum?
I am forever grateful for my internship experience here at FrankCrum. It has truly been the most insight I’ve had in the software development and IT fields. I genuinely believe I have learned a lot of information in a short time here, and as a bonus it has been enjoyable as well.
Jacob Powell
Age: 21
School: University of South Florida
Major: Cybersecurity
How did you hear about the internship program at FrankCrum?
I heard about FrankCrum through LinkedIn.
What are some things you worked on during your internship?
A few of the things I worked on include getting the patching program running again for workstations and servers, providing proof of our security measures for HIPAA compliance, responding to security incidents, and researching ways to secure our network.
What’s one big thing you learned while interning at FrankCrum?
There is much more to cybersecurity than just firewalls and antivirus. Policies and procedures are just as important.
How did your internship experience impact your ideas about your future career?
Even though I got my degree in cybersecurity, coming into the internship I didn’t know if it was something I wanted to do long-term. Getting some real-world experience at FrankCrum has helped me to find the areas of the field I am interested in, which is where I will put my focus moving forward.
What was the best part of your internship?
Being given the freedom to pick up projects and do real work on them, rather than just shadowing or watching someone else.
Are there any staff members you would single out who made your internship better or more memorable?
Lee Quinn was very helpful and went out of his way to get me exposure in a lot of different areas. Gary Herrington and the Help Desk team were also great partners on the patching project.
Learn more about our internship program here.
