InternOKC makes successful return in 2021

InternOKC, which provides soft skills enhancement and professional development opportunities to the region’s young professionals, was held virtually this summer over a six-week period beginning June 16 and ending July 28. Ten leading trainers from the business community and academia gave lively, pertinent presentations to more than 170 interns enrolled in the program, while also providing keen insight and advice.

Lee Copeland, who serves as the Chamber’s director of talent and business growth, felt this year’s content was right on the mark and was what the business community wanted their interns to hear.

“Both the work we did on the front end to correlate that with what industry was needing, as well as the content that was delivered, we feel really good about that,” Copeland said. “Overall, I thought we represented not only corporate Oklahoma City well, but also thought leadership in terms of educators. It was a great mix among educators, trainers and keynote speakers.”

The six weekly sessions the interns attended as part of the InternOKC program ran the gamut insofar as topics that were already or would soon be relevant to the interns as they continued their journey into their professional careers.

The first two sessions focused on how personal behavior, habits and practices can impact career development, and featured speakers from American Fidelity Assurance Company, the University of Central Oklahoma and Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores. For the next two sessions, interns learned how to build, maintain and navigate relationships as a way to build networks and teams, and heard presentations from representatives of Heartland Payment Systems, Oklahoma City Public Schools and OG&E. Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt also spoke to the group. The last two sessions centered on building a mindset that fosters problem solving and big-picture thinking, and featured speakers from the Oklahoma City Thunder, Langston University and Linda Clark Consulting.

“One of the upsides of being virtual this year was that the interns had the opportunity to watch and interact with the content at their own convenience. It also provided some interesting challenges for the presenters to be really on point. And, because the event was online this year, the interns were exposed to more content and more speakers than they would have had it remained an in-person event,” Copeland said.

A new twist on this year’s InternOKC event was the awarding of a micro-credential to every participating intern who completed the program, which the intern could use to make themselves more marketable to potential employers.

“You have some young people who have had an opportunity on top of whatever they are learning in their internships to come in here and wrestle with questions that are more about their personal development. And that impacts their professional development rather than just their on-the-job training. To me, that has been a real positive thing, even during a year where we were having to figure out a different way to do it,” Copeland said.

Now that InternOKC is in the books for 2021, event organizers have immediately begun turning their attention to its return in 2022. They are evaluating many elements of this summer’s program to determine if those things will continue to be a part of InternOKC going forward, including using online options for various activities such as speaker presentations and networking time for participating interns.

“An overwhelming majority of feedback we have received from our interns and speakers has been positive, and I think that is a testament to the commitment, dedication and hard work of everyone involved. It was truly a team effort,” Copeland said.

This article originally appeared in the August 2021 edition of the VeloCity newsletter.