STATE FARM INTERNSHIP
Over the summer before my senior year of high school, I interned at State Farm in their IT department!
It has truly been a great pleasure and a great learning experience to intern at State Farm. The extensiveness of their IT/Systems department had been surprising to me because I did not realize the tech power it takes to run a huge corporation like State Farm-- I didn't even realize the extent of their influence in insurance and public life!
My main goal for the internship was to learn more about how a huge corporation functions and expand my professional skills, but I gained so much more knowledge.
During the internship, my "intern project" had been to program for a big data application that detects fraud. First of all, I actually touched the "big boy" stuff. Second of all, I was awestruck by the amount of responsibility the company gifted me... you would think that a newbie high school intern would be treated like a dangerous toddler.
I don't think you understand-- I actually wrote code for an internally-used software that helps save State Farm millions of dollars. Yes, you can find my test cases for the program there today (if you had access, of course). What's super amusing about this is that I had no prior experience with big data! I didn't even know what it was! I strove to learn big data terms and to grasp the concepts. I would be on Skype calls and funky big data terms would fly around, and I made the effort to record and define each one.
In terms of programming, I learned the Scala language (a functional programming language) and how to work with Apache Spark (a better replacement for SQL code). Two developers on my team lent me their copy of "Clean Code"-- which is a book about professional programming-- and I found that programming is actually an art. Huge applications, like the fraud application I dealt with, are riddled with complexities of function and relation. One must use efficient yet accurate descriptive variable and function names for the product (software) to live a fruitful life. Let me tell you, when I finally understood the delicate interwoven components of a small section of the complex application by simply looking at the code, I was dumbstruck by three words: Code is beautiful.
A highlight of my experience at State Farm was definitely attending multiple breakfasts and lunches with directors, vice presidents, and managers. They offered so much advice to fill my head for months! I especially enjoyed creating personal connections with other State Farm employees and interacting with them; I am simply the type of person to enjoy almost any type of conversation. Plus, employees at State Farm are more than willing to lend a hand if you are willing to ask, and I find that as one of the most important aspects that a company culture should attain. The real world is tough. People step on others to get promotions. However, at State Farm, that is not the way to leadership-- it is even stated in their mission that the company values integrity.
Also, I had the opportunity to take leadership roles in a few projects that my intern supervisor, Katrina Torres, needed help with. I helped with planning for the Intern Showcase and designing a pamphlet for it (it was company-wide at the Atlanta Hub). However, the project I felt the most accomplished and proud of was designing a Girls Who Code Graduation booklet. It wasn't just the act of designing it; it was the act of designing a professional booklet for State Farm in 2 days the weekend before the event. Click here to see my designs.
Overall, I felt that I pushed my boundaries in terms of professionalism, people relations, programming, and business knowledge. My perspective of college also changed; before entering the internship, I thought I absolutely had to attend Georgia Tech or UGA in order to be successful. However, in observing students from a variety of colleges, my narrow-minded view expanded. I perceived certain colleges as low-tier, but I watched students from those same colleges be successful in their interrelations and work. I realized that no matter where my feet tread-- college, work, etc-- I would be okay. As long as I continue to follow righteous principles and strive for the better, I would be okay.
