Nationwide…..Is On Your Side Alan J. Gray II

Company Background/Location Nationwide was founded by the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation in 1926, they believed that rural motorist should pay less for automotive insurance than city motorist so established their own insurance company. Eventually they became known as the Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company located in downtown Columbus, OH. It wasn’t until the 1950’s when the Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company wanted to expand into other states and they changed their name to Nationwide Insurance. Now under current CEO W.G. Jurgensen, Nationwide operates as an Insurance, Financial, and Asset Management company.

Internship Program Nationwide Insurance has a great internship program in which they have 200 interns, each in different areas within their three components of Insurance, Financial, and Asset Management, in numerous areas ranging from acturial science to computer engineering. They also offer corporate internship programs partnered with Tom Joyner and Hispanic minority groups. Tom Joyner/Nationwide Insurance Program: Paid Luxury Townhouses (fully furnished, utilities included, w/cable) Transportation to and from work Transportation to and from Columbus, OH $2500 scholarship $14 - $16/hr wage May 30 – August 15 Each intern is paired up with a mentor and assigned to an intern project team depending on the area in which you work. Intern events and socials are organized as well. Being that there are different programs within the internship program timelines for completing projects vary. Certain interns work throughout the year. My tenure ranged from the end of May to the middle of August, but other interns on my project team continued working on the project after my departure so I’m unsure if the project was ultimately completed.

Project Objectives The Nationwide Insurance intern program is designed, where it depends on your department if you will receive training or not. The training and job assignments are based on your department manager. It is possible to receive special training, in sessions, but in most cases training comes from team members that are there to assist when ever a problem arises. Different work is assigned based on your department team,but interns are also placed on an additional intern project team in which a business and technical side is developed and you work together to complete a departmental project. On the intern project team you are given a project lead, a technical lead, and a business partner. The business partner assesses the problem then it is up to the intern team to utilize their resources, being project lead and technical lead to find the tools needed to solve the problem. I was given two major intern projects. Project 1: Department Site Analysis (June – Mid July = complete) - report on the existing department site - analyze it’s usage and effectiveness to employees Project 2: Status Report (mid July – August = incomplete) convert hard copy status report documents to web based applications These two projects were key to the Distribution Solutions department within Nationwide Insurance’s IT sector. The first project was assessed and Distribution Solution’s Department decided to trash the site, being that it was outdated, uninformative, and too costly to maintain. The second project was more important. It was actually given as a stepping stone for the company to pick up where we left off as interns and even pass on the project to interns staying on during the school year. There were a lot of security issues we had to deal with.

Experiences and Lessons Learned My overall experience on this internship was good. I have worked with Nationwide Insurance for the past two summers each time in the same department with the same manager. I have had many good and bad experiences on how Corporate America operates. I don’t believe that any organization will only have good experiences, but one of the biggest things I learned is that within any major corporation, working in an IT sector is like working in many little companies within one major company. Most of the work I did was for Nationwide Insurance or other parts of Nationwide, not just the Distribution Solutions department. I learned that a big part of developing a good tool is to know and understand the requirements. What the business partner wants? There were many challenges to be faced, but the greatest challenge that I faced was trying to come into a department during the middle of a big project. When everyone is so busy and people don’t have time to catch you up things can be hard especially being one of few minority males on an entire floor all eyes are focused on anything and everything I did. I made it a point to be on time, proficient, and professional at all times.

Contact Information College Relations and Recruiting Mark Meador: Tracy Mudd: