As summer begins, Haskell welcomes a total of 72 interns across 21 different office and field locations with a message: Haskell 2025, the company’s strategic plan for purposeful growth, is riding on them.

“Haskell 2025 is our guide as we strengthen and grow our company to better serve our clients,” said Mike Huskey, Haskell Director of Workforce Development/University Relations. “Executing it will only be possible through the recruitment of outstanding young individuals with exceptional talent. If the company wants to grow, it needs more team members who are both innovative and effective.”

“Recruitment and Haskell 2025 are inextricably linked, and the Summer Internship Program will serve as a bridge between these two missions.”

So central is Haskell 2025 to the interns’ mission that the Summer Internship Program divides participants into six cohort groups and tasks each with a deep dive into one of the plan’s pillars:

• Provide Team Members with the Best Jobs of Their Lives
• Drive Operational Excellence
• Grow Program Management, Consulting, and Design Services
• Optimizing Intellectual Capital, Technology, and Innovation
• Expand Diversity
• Achieve Revenue and Earnings Among Top Quartile of Peer Companies

During the Intern Summit in late July, each cohort presents its ideas and findings to Haskell’s Executive Leadership Team. These presentations accomplish two important objectives:

• Haskell’s leadership hears fresh perspectives on how the company can fulfill the goals of each pillar.
• The interns exercise their presentation skills while interacting directly with company executives.

“Forget coffee runs,” Huskey said. “Haskell interns have the opportunity to leave a lasting impact on the company and its future.”

Due to ongoing pandemic restrictions, the two-day, end-of-summer Intern Summit will be virtual for a second year. Improved conditions, however, are allowing all 2021 interns to work in person at Haskell offices or job sites.

Last year’s program required improvisation and innovation to honor all 58 commitments extended to intern candidates despite COVID-19. With a large number of projects stalled or delayed, many participants lacked the 40-hour weekly workload typical of a Haskell internship. As a result, the University Relations team conducted supplemental educational sessions covering different aspects of the Haskell enterprise. That virtual programming was recorded and is available to this year’s cohort.

Fortunately, though, Huskey said that most programming had returned to pre-COVID norms, and this year’s interns will be as busy as ever working on projects for their respective teams.

“The two most important things interns should gain from their time at Haskell this summer are job experience and career growth,” he said. “Haskell prides itself on placing its interns right into the heart of the company, giving them assignments critical to Haskell’s daily operations and a path towards the future. Significant job experience better prepares interns for potential full-time positions at Haskell upon graduation.”

About the writer: Bond Magevney is a Haskell 2021 summer intern working in the Corporate Marketing department. He is a junior at the University of Richmond majoring in Leadership Studies and Political Science. He can be reached at john.magevney@haskell.com.