Building a resilient economic future depends on creating a talent pipeline. One that provides businesses with highly qualified candidates and that helps students round out their academic knowledge with real-world work experience. The South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership’s Regional Internship Program is part of a win-win solution for both employers and interns.

Funded by the Labs for Industry Futures and Transformation (LIFT) Initiative and READI grants, the Regional Internship Program matches employers in advanced industries–technology, manufacturing, data science, healthcare, and research and development–with students at regional colleges and universities.

Aunalytics has been an employer partner since 2021, when the Regional Internship Program began. As an analytics and IT services company, Aunalytics uses data and AI to solve problems and increase productivity for organizations in a wide range of industries, from financial services to manufacturing to government and utilities.

The company is also a strong supporter of the local community. Mary Jo Ogren, Head of Talent at Aunalytics, explains, “we believe that the best way to contribute to the local community is to create high paying technical jobs in our region. Starting with interns is a great way to cultivate full time team members.”

Ogren oversees the company’s robust internship program that has been in place for more than ten years. In 2024, 16 interns were hired across all four Aunalytics locations, with the majority of them working in South Bend.

This local focus aligns with that of the Regional Internship Program which gives preference to students who attend universities in the region or are from the South Bend-Elkhart region. Program funding subsidizes wages, up to $2500 per intern, for up to two qualified intern positions per employer.

Beyond the financial benefits, Aunalytics values the Regional Internship Program’s enrichment activities. These include several Professional Development Networking Events that provide interns with specific skills development, such as resume writing, and allow them to connect with interns from other organizations and learn from local business owners.

Aunalytics generally hires interns for highly technical roles–software engineers, data engineers, and data scientists. The specialized nature of this work requires potential interns to have a high level of skills and training. They must be able to contribute immediately, so most interns are in graduate school or have completed their junior year of college. “The ideal internship candidate,” says Ogren, “would also have a passion for their work and intellectual curiosity. They would be the kind of person who goes above and beyond, conducting their own exploration and experiments in their field in their free time.”

The immersive internship experience at Aunalytics puts students to work on meaningful, real-world projects that allow them to put their skills to use outside the classroom. In the words of one intern, “I learned a lot about many technologies and frameworks that I don’t normally get the chance to work with in school.”

Ogren says that confidence is another valuable result of the student internship experience. They have the satisfaction of completing real-world projects as members of a professional team. At the same time, they establish friendships with other interns and gain a network of colleagues and mentors who they can turn to in the future, whether they return to Aunalytics permanently or go on to other opportunities. That the students find value in the program is reflected in this response, “Aunalytics has done a great job preparing me for a career in data science. Working closely with the data science team and attending their sprint meetings has given me a thorough and practical understanding of [the] expected work environment.”

Ogren advises interns entering the program “to take every opportunity to participate in extra things [at the employer]–sports leagues, attending ball games, whatever it might be that brings people together outside the day-to-day work setting. Take it all in as part of the overall experience.”

As an employer partner, Aunalytics derives multiple benefits from hiring interns. One immediate result is that interns enable the company to complete additional projects that they just didn’t have the bandwidth to accomplish during the rest of the year. “We very much appreciate their contribution,” says Ogren. “An even more important benefit of hiring interns is their effect on the company culture–they bring an energy and excitement that the entire team enjoys.”

What’s more, internships are a powerful recruiting tactic that creates a win for both sides, says Ogren. At Aunalytics, interns must meet the same hiring criteria as permanent staff so the company intentionally seeks those who could be a good fit for a long term position. The 12-week internship format offers an opportunity to test the working relationship. At the end of that time, both sides have a much clearer understanding of each other than even an all-day interview could provide. Ultimately, internships prove to be a valuable talent pipeline as roughly 40% of the students who intern at Aunalytics return as full time employees. “In fact,” says Ogren, “many of our top people started as interns.”

Ogren is enthusiastic about internships and encourages employers to participate in the Regional Internship Program. The Program is set up to help employers find qualified potential interns and the programming support enriches the experience for interns. She offers some practical advice to employers considering their first internship: be prepared to invest a lot of work and planning into creating a successful program that gives interns proper guidance. “While it does take work and thoughtful planning to make it effective, the effort is totally worth it.”

Click here for more information about the Regional Internship Program.