My name is Kieran Potts, I am rising senior studying psychology. This summer, I’ve been working as an intern for a nonprofit in Spokane called Skils’kin. I work in human resources at Skils’kin, and it truly has been a great opportunity for me. Skils’kin is a nonprofit organization with the goal of employing or finding employment for adults with disabilities. The company is very diverse in the types of work they do. Skils’kin’s own businesses include a commercial laundry and a window cleaning operation, but many of the jobs are government contracts on the local Fairchild air force base, the downtown federal building, and air force bases in Montana and Wyoming.
In the planning phase, there was a lot of flexibility because I’ve been the first intern Skils’kin has had for many years, in fact the last intern they had is now the head and vice president of the HR department. Because of this flexibility, I was encouraged to voice my interest and get exposure to whatever facet of human resources I wanted. First, this was mostly recruiting, so I’ve been posting jobs on places like craigslist, workforce, handshake, and many others. When we have applicants, they get interviewed and if accepted I’ve been the one to bring them into our systems as official employees which is very rewarding to have taken them through that entire process. I’ve been able to wear many different hats in HR and generally get a feel for how the department works, which has been great.
In my career, I want to go into organizational psychology and people data analytics which is a small but growing field. My managers in HR were not very familiar with the field but were very supportive in helping me explore the practical uses within Skils’kin. Having access to all employee’s data I was able to pull and make reports examining relationships between things like turnover rate and department, location and pay, and much more. I was given a lot of creative freedom with this project and plenty of time and support to experiment, make mistakes, and try again to fix it and make it better. Even though this isn’t something my department uses very frequently, I was very glad to have brought something new and interesting to the table.
This was a very practical internship which I loved because it gave me exposure to the systems and processes that are standard in the field. While Whitman has given me a great education and taught me how to critically think, this internship has taught me the real-world problem solving and familiarity with the common hurdles you might face and how to overcome them. Through this internship I will feel much more confident in my next job having already had some experience and a general understanding of what to expect.
Experiences like Kieran Pott’s are made possible by the Whitman Internship Grant, which provides funding for students to participate in unpaid internships at nonprofit, some for-profit, and government organizations. We are happy to be sharing blog posts from students who were supported by either a summer, fall, spring, or year-long grants at organizations, businesses, and research labs all around the world. To learn how you could secure a Whitman Internship Grant or host a Whitman intern at your organization, contact us at ccec_info@whitman.edu.