August 4, 2005

Purdue celebrates first year of Lilly-funded internship program

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Indiana businesses that participated in Purdue's Interns for Indiana program will be celebrating the program's first year with students, faculty and government representatives during an Aug. 19 event called Impact for Indiana.

Julie Sievers
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The invitation-only event, which will take place in the Buchanan Suites in Ross-Ade Pavilion, will include an intern poster session and talks from Purdue President Martin C. Jischke and Indiana Secretary of Commerce Patricia Miller.

The internship program is supported by a three-year, $3.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. Purdue identifies students for internships and places them in startup companies statewide to get hands-on work experience.

Don Gentry, special assistant to the provost, will deliver opening remarks. He said he expects about 100 people at the event.

"This is a chance for the students to not only show what they've been learning, but also to thank the companies for taking part in this critical stage of their educational development," Gentry said. "We've gotten phenomenal feedback from companies from all over Indiana about the quality of work and professionalism of the students who are acting as the most positive kind of ambassadors to help support the state's economy."

Jessica Moore
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The fields in which students interned called for experience in a wide variety of areas, including computer programming, Web design, marketing, human resources, management, technical writing, foreign language translation and even aerospace engineering.

Students have interned in companies throughout the state in cities such as Valparaiso, Michigan City, Portage, Chesterton, Carmel, Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. More than 20 companies in the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette served as hosts for interns who have helped with projects as varied as writing software help manuals, testing explosives, researching alternative fuels and developing health-care products.

Julie Sievers, a senior in materials engineering from Peoria, Ill., has been working at Swift Enterprises, a company in Research Park that performs research and development in propulsion, prototyping of power and propulsive hardware. She has been trying different methods to enhance the performance of fuel cells in order to bring down the price of fuel.

"We were given projects at the beginning of the summer with specific goals," Sievers said. "It's been really exciting because we know what we are working on will eventually be put to use."

Many companies report benefits from having Purdue interns on staff. Candice Kissinger, senior vice president of research at Bioanalytical Systems Inc. in West Lafayette, said her company accepted a student for a specific task, but he has been able to expand the scope of his duties to work on another problem.

"I've seen far more progress in the past six weeks than I'd seen in the several years that we've worked on this problem," Kissinger said. "He has contributed fresh insights and energy to the project, which I hope will soon evolve into a product that we fully intend to manufacture, sell and also use in our own contract research labs."

Writer: Maggie Morris, (765) 494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu

Sources: Kimberly Shea, Interns for Indiana coordinator, (765) 496-1830, kstobias@purdue.edu

Don Gentry, (765) 494-9095, dkgentr@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: For interviews with any corporate representatives or students, contact Maggie Morris at Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu.

Related Web site:
Discovery Learning Center

Related news releases:
Purdue offers model for stemming 'brain drain'

Purdue places more interns for Indiana thanks to Lilly Endowment

Purdue to create jobs through Lilly Endowment Connections Fair

Purdue's Interns for Indiana program provides career experience

PHOTO CAPTION:
Julie Sievers, a senior in materials engineering at Purdue from Peoria, Ill., sets up an experiment with a fuel cell during her internship at Swift Enterprises, a company in Purdue Research Park that performs research and development in propulsion, prototyping of power and propulsive hardware. Swift is one of 72 companies statewide that are taking part in the Interns for Indiana Program at Purdue, funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc. (Purdue News Service photo/Dave Umberger)

A publication-quality photo is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2005/swift-fuelcell.jpg

PHOTO CAPTION:
Jessica Moore, a senior in chemical engineering at Purdue from Angola, Ind., uses a calorimeter to test explosives in her work as an intern at Swift Enterprises, a company in Purdue Research Park that performs research and development in propulsion, prototyping of power and propulsive hardware. Swift is one of 72 companies statewide that are taking part in the Interns for Indiana Program at Purdue, funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc. (Purdue News Service photo/Dave Umberger)

A publication-quality photo is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2005/swift-fuelcell2.jpg

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