NCI Celebrates Mentorship from Local Leaders

As NCI’s internship program winds down and interns prepare to go back to school in Blacksburg, Harrisonburg, and other far-off locations, NCI celebrated their successful completion of their internships and thanked the generosity of leaders from regional organizations who offered students jobs that provided experience related to their fields of study.

Interns and mentors from eleven companies located in Patrick and Henry Counties as well as the city of Martinsville enjoyed a luncheon together on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, held in the Baldwin Building on the NCI campus. In the opening remarks of the luncheon, Ally Carswell, Communications Major at Virginia Tech and NCI intern, had this to say, “One of the most important things an intern can gain is experience. Through this experience, we grow as people and prepare for the professional world. These life experiences could not happen without people in the community who welcome young college students, eager to make their mark and find their passion.”

Mentors like the executive director of King’s Grant Retirement Community, Thomas Fitzgibbons, shared their time and talents this summer to educate and inspire interns, and introduce them to networks that they can tap upon graduation for employment. In his message delivered to interns during the ceremony, Mr. Fitzgibbons exhorted interns to consider looking for employment in this region first upon graduation. “The goals of NCI’s internship program are two-fold. First, we try to pair interns with companies who can give on-the-job training related to their courses of study. Second, the program opens possibilities for these bright and energetic up-and-comers to join and bolster the local workforce when they finish school,” said Ryan Orton, Coordinator of Business Relations and the internship coordinator at NCI. Interns filled positions in education, social work, healthcare, technology, engineering, business management, accounting, communications, marketing, and manufacturing. Since the program began ten years ago, NCI has facilitated more than 450 internships.