Top internships help Olivet students build for future

2014 Jun 30

Adapting to big city life. Being plucked out of large talent pools. Meeting and working with leaders in their chosen fields. Olivet students continue to make their mark with exciting and impressive internship placements.

Each year, home services company Defender Direct attracts more than 100 applicants to its internship program. Defender is a leading dealer of ADT Home Security Systems and operates branches of heating, cooling and plumbing services in Central Indiana, Louisville and Cincinnati. In summer 2014, Defender's internship class is being bolstered with the skills and expertise of Robin Gerboth (senior, Crawfordsville, Indiana). She landed a paid, full-time internship with Defender after weathering an extensive and competitive hiring process.

She first heard about the openings through her business classes. Dr. Jeff Williamson, Olivet's director of corporate and community engagement, helped her make the connections and led her through the process.

After sending in her resume, Robin went through a phone interview. This was followed by a personal interview on campus during Defender's campus interview day at Olivet in November 2013.

Finally, in late November, she was invited to Defender's main office in Indianapolis for a day of interviews. The pool for the final interview day included more than 30 students.

"Defender's values and location are extremely attractive to me," Robin says. "I am excited to learn and gain valuable business experience from such a successful company. As a business major, I want to add an internship to my resume and gain necessary experience. Defender has a wonderful program to do just that."

"It has been really exciting to see our corporate engagement efforts bearing fruit and opening doors for excellent ONU students," Dr. Williamson says. "My belief is that this kind of opportunity will become the norm for our students as companies learn more and more that our students can compete with anyone."