Luther College senior interns at Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

Emma Schlabach, Luther College senior, spent her summer as a Donor Relations Intern at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, where she worked in the development department to assist with donor benefits, execute events and help with annual fund efforts.

Schlabach, the daughter of Lori and Blake Schlabach of Indianapolis, Indiana, graduated from North Central High School in 2015. At Luther, she is an English major with a minor in management.

Schlabach had many responsibilities at her internship, including assisting with donor benefits and executive events, and helping to raise annual funds. While there, she also met with donors during cocktail hour before their summer series concerts, helped with mass mailing as the year came to an end, and updated constituent records.

Schlabach did a fair amount of self-reflection over the course of her internship. "I learned that I love working directly with people in the arts. I love making it possible for musicians and artists to bring their craft to an audience. Some of it may include filing or other office work, but those are necessary tasks to keep the organization on track to do what they do best," she said.

Approximately 10 percent of Luther students take an internship for academic credit each academic year. The Luther College Career Center assists students with their internship search through resume preparation, networking, online internship searches, career fairs, on-campus interviewing, and connecting the student to alumni through the college's Alumni Internship Program. Students also meet with a faculty adviser prior to the internship to create an internship learning plan that includes learning goals and assessment benchmarks. An internship work supervisor assists in the process by writing an evaluation of the student at the end of the internship. Students also complete a self-reflection form to help finalize the learning experience.

A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,005, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree in more than 60 majors and pre-professional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college's website: http://www.luther.edu.