Well, this is a bittersweet blog post—I can’t believe it’s our last one! All in all, I want to thank all of Gallagher for giving interns an opportunity to work with them. My office has done an impeccable job welcoming and warmly inviting us to the Gallagher family. I am grateful for being a part of the team.
I will miss the people in the office. Over the course of 9 weeks, I have formed friendships with so many people in the office. These friendships have helped with teamwork and developed trust among each other. I will miss the inside jokes and outings we all had as an office. Another important aspect I will miss is the opportunity to learn something new every day. As the saying goes, “You always learn one new thing every day!” And while interning at Gallagher, I have seen that applied everyday—sometimes I learn 5, 6, 7 new things per day! The opportunity to learn and grow at Gallagher is endless, and I will miss the times when I can sit in and shadow consultants.
A quick shoutout—I will miss Carl’s daily reminders of “How rude!”; John’s calm and kind demeanor; and Sonia’s silly jokes. Thank you all and I hope the best for all our future endeavors!

Being from an office with 100 people it was a little difficult to form incredibly strong relationships because Alex and I were all over the place working with different people. There are a lot that I will miss equally and chuckle to myself when something funny they said pops in my brain and tell whoever I am with at the time a really awesome, “you had to be there story.” This includes the marketing department, some of the account managers, and two lovely ladies on the BSD side.

On a deeper level I will miss the two that I spent most of my time with, Alex and Sherrell. Alex and I did not think that we would get along before meeting eachother because it was pretty apparent how different we are and I think that is why we worked so well together. We had fantastic Bagel runs and walks to the mall along with many fantastic conversations. And if she doesn’t visit me before she goes back to school, she will be in trouble and miss out on tax-free shopping.

Sherrell has been there this entire process, she interviewed us, checked in and gave us guidance. I learned the most from Sherrell about the office and myself. I loved going into her office to turn something in or ask a random question and have it accidentally turn into a twenty minute conversation. She is just such a genuine person.

On top of that I will miss all of the WR Interns, you guys were such a joy and I looked forward to the conference calls. I will also miss the Diet Coke fridge, it was always there for me.

I think the person that I will miss the most after the internship is one of my mentors, Lindsay Palmer. Lindsay used to be an intern herself, and she has been instrumental in training me and providing me with support and advice throughout the internship. She has taken the time to walk me through each step of the client projects, such as marketing and submitting rfp forms. At the same time, she is very laid back and tons of fun. We get lunch together and sometimes meet after work for happy hour. She has made the internship so much easier for me, and I was lucky that I had someone so accessible in the office. Hopefully, we’ll be able to stay in touch after the internship. Other than Lindsay, I think I’ll miss the little things in the office like the chatter of the call center, Rose’s baked goods, and people stopping by my cube. And I’ll definitely miss the coffee machine.

Kelly and I have been talking a lot about what we’re going to write for the blog post. I’m right in the middle of doing a project for the Benefit Analysts but inspiration has struck! I’m going to miss sitting on the wall opposite the Marketing row.

Why? Probably their bursts of randomness and laughter. For example, I just heard the Pokemon theme song while someone laughed about a typo. And now everything is quiet again. It’s just really great having someone to overhear. Another added benefit? I get blessed at LEAST once whenever I sneeze, and I sneeze a lot, especially in the morning.  It’s because I’m allergic to mornings.

I also overhear a lot of Work Stuff.  They are constantly thanking each other and encouraging each other, too. There is a lot of teamwork going on over there.

The reason Kelly and I have been talking about this particular prompt so much is because it is hard.  I’m writing about Marketing just because they’re always there, and they’re there now, and I was thinking about this blog post, but really I wanted to just talk about the entire office.  There are so many people who’ve been awesome – my intern coordinator Sherrell, Kelly, Ashley who’s cube is next to mine so I always bugged her with questions especially early on, actually all of admin, Monica for  being a good person to go to with projects, Sarah for her blunt sense of humor, the TPA for being all around friendly, obviously Jen for being a great mentor, I could go on and on and on and I’m already in danger of leaving too many people out!!!

I also really want to thank all the Western Region interns for the great Friday morning conference calls – it was always good to kind of benchmark what we’d been doing with what you all were up to! And also my Certified Organic team for being awesome and oh-so-talented rap artists! I had a great time here, and the people I have worked with are EASILY the highlights.  Thanks so much! I’ll miss these blog posts and I already miss our phone calls!

I’m going to miss the carriers the most.  So many great lunches that we spent together without me ever having to pull out my credit card.  Just kidding.  No, but seriously..

Anyway, I think I will miss my Intern coordinator the most.  We got to share a desk the last few months and get to know each other pretty well.  She did a good job of training me.  Although, I don’t know if she will miss me quite as much as I am constantly asking her question after question about BenefitPoint or a plan or whatever it may be.

In reality, it is kind of a cop-out, but I will miss my whole office.  Every last person.  We are small, only eleven people, but we are all very close and they accepted me into the group right away when I got here.  It has been a great couple of months and I look forward to what the future brings.

Thanks to all of you guys for making this such a fun internship.  Good luck with all of your future plans and I hope to see a lot of you in the near future!

I’m surprised and so glad that I can say I enjoyed coming to work everyday and that’s largely due to the people I work with in this office. Everyone has been such a great pleasure to get to know whether it has been in the office, at softball games, or the many many carrier events that we have all attended together. I’m so thankful for all the relationships I’ve formed these past 9 weeks, regardless of whether or not I have the opportunity to pursue a career at Gallagher, I hope to keep those connections and strengthen them. If I had to say who I would miss the most, I would have to agree that I am going to miss my mentors the most (followed by a close 2nd by the LA interns: Phoebe, Carl, and John). This internship program would not have been this enjoyable and productive without my mentors supporting me every step of the way. I am so appreciative of them taking time out of their busy schedule to meet with me and really act as resources for me to turn to. I like to say they’ve become more like friends I trust rather than formal mentors. If I have the opportunity to return full-time, I definitely have intentions to continue as a mentee (if they feel the same way) and possibly develop more informal/formal mentor relationships because they are so essential to growing, especially for someone starting out in the workplace.

Last but not least, I’m going to miss the other interns and the dynamic we have in the office. Itasca brought us a lot closer together and I’m so glad I’ve had the pleasure to work with and hang out with such a great group of people. I will never forget us trying to film the Wizard of Wellness on Brand (go watch his video, team 21!). We better stay in touch after this is all over! John, I will find those chips. Carl, have a blast senior year! Phoebe…I feel like we’ve become best friends and I’ve known you for so long.

- Sonia