Intern Feature: Karen Fahim, Deluxe Corporation
Genesys Works Twin Cities has more than 310 amazing young professionals in our program – engaged and motivated interns – working toward career success. For our April Making Internships Meaningful feature, we are recognizing Deluxe Corporation intern Karen Fahim who was nominated by her supervisor David Knack for her professionalism, determination, and impressive can-do attitude.
At Deluxe corporation, Karen works with David on a multitude of different tasks. Her role consists of cleaning up applications and contacting application owners about the application. She regularly communicates with others to complete these tasks. She also works to reimagine and build Virtual Machines (VMs). According to David, she has gained a ton of new skills relating to virtual desktop management, including rebuilding virtual desktops to accommodate testing for the application packaging process.
David appreciates his intern for her willingness to work hard and stay diligent with her tasks. Karen has consciously strived to learn new skills at Deluxe, which gives her more range to expand her role and pursue different job responsibilities. Says David, “Thank you for sticking with it and increasing your skills in other areas so you could take on additional work! Your help has had a significant impact on the progress that has been made…” Karen’s professionalism and maturity makes David a proud supervisor.
Since the start of her internship, Karen has built a productive and positive relationship with her supervisor. He brings a level of comfort and inclusivity that makes her a part of the team, which she appreciates. “David has been super supportive and helpful throughout my whole internship. He has always been there for me whenever I had questions, even if he’s super busy.” A strong and reliable support system allows her to thrive and put her best foot forward during her internship.
As a young professional in the Genesys Works program, Karen Fahim has opened the door to opportunities for growth and knowledge. In the future, she hopes to continue to establish herself within the IT field and utilize the knowledge and experience she had gained at Deluxe to do so. With her year-long internship experience, Karen is actively working toward her goals and is one step closer to achieving milestones in her future career.
Supervisor Feature: Kimberly Vchulek, Cargill
Genesys Works Twin Cities is grateful to have more than 200 supervisors in our network of devoted IT and business professionals that support and mentor our young professionals. In our April installment of the Making Internships Meaningful series, we recognize Cargill supervisor Kimberly Vchulek for her continuous support and efforts to make intern Abdirahman Dek’s experience meaningful and worthwhile.
Abdirahman and Kimberly both work in the Client Experience area of the IT department at Cargill. Their team’s objective is to measure and track the support employees have when they work with the IT department and reflect upon said information to find ways to improve their client experience. Abdirahman has worked with Kimberly on a variety of projects that attend to this objective.
As a supervisor, Kimberly has contributed a lot of herself to make her intern’s experience meaningful and worthwhile. At the onset of Abdirahman’s internship, she maintained daily communication with him, providing support and mentorship to him, such as by brainstorming ideas and talking through ways he can improve his skills to be more confident and comfortable in his role. She has been a great resource for Abdirahman and a compassionate supervisor.
Pursuing a fulfilling internship experience can admittedly be more difficult for some to navigate during a global pandemic, however, Abdirahman feels his supervisor has done a great job in facilitating connections and making him feel comfortable at Cargill. “She has made it easier for me to learn and meet more people in the company, has gathered informational resources for me, and definitely leads by example…” While they maintained daily communication for the first few months of his internship, they have now transitioned to meeting twice per week on Mondays and Fridays to help Abdirahman stay diligent.
Kimberly’s journey as a Genesys Works supervisor has been a positive experience throughout the years. When she first learned about the program, she felt connected to the mission of providing our young professionals with meaningful experiences to kickstart successful careers. She also appreciates the change and impact Genesys Works young professionals can create within companies like Cargill. Kimberly appreciates her role as a supervisor due to the active role she plays in providing meaningful and worthwhile experiences for interns.
Before the end of Abdirahman’s internship experience at Cargill, Kimberly hopes to set some goals for him to pursue. “My main goal is that when Abdi has completed this role, he can look back and see his growth and success over the last year and feel better prepared for his next step in continuing to build his career…” She hopes to accomplish this by providing him with the opportunity to find growth in various different roles and responsibilities that will help him be more versatile and build new areas of expertise. “I think an important part of any internship is connecting with different people in different roles and different parts of the organization to collect information and insights that can help with personal career planning and create lasting connections with people.” Kimberly believes that by connecting him with others, Abdirahman will be able to build his network and set him up for success after his time at Cargill.
It’s abundantly clear that Kimberly goes above and beyond for her interns. She is a quality supervisor that helps our young professionals put their best foot forward, not only for their experiences now but more importantly, for their futures.
