Today was amazing. I arrived at the institute a little before 9 AM and began to do a little research on the economic state of Detroit and Indianapolis. I brought in a photograph of young Ronald Reagan that I had back home and asked if they would like it and they immediately framed it and hung it next to the framed poster of "Reagan and the Midewest" conference from Eureka that is displayed in the dining room. Jay Hein was hosting a President's Circle Luncheon and all of the other interns went to the Indiana Fever game, which is their WNBA team. I decided to stay at the institute and welcome John Morris, my boss back at Eureka College, who attended the luncheon. Also attending the luncheon was John J. Miller, the author who wrote the book I mentioned earlier. The interesting connection is that he is also originally from metro-Detroit and just accepted a job at Hillsdale College in their journalism department. I met many prominent figures of Indianapolis including a journalist for the Indianapolis Star, who is a trustee of the Institute, his son who interned at the institute two years prior, and the associate provost of Indiana Wesleyan University, to name a few.
I ate lunch with John Morris and Jay Hein and then we headed up to the main hall to listen to John Miller give his presentation on his book. I ended up reading the entire book, which was fascinating, and I might have been the only one there that had read it. Jay gave me the copy I read and I was able to get it signed and speak with John Miller for a moment. I helped clean up a little bit and also mingled with John, Jay, and the provost of Indiana Wesleyan. Jay Hein is a genuine person in every aspect.
The event finished, John Morris left and it turned out that the Fever game started at 1 PM and it was around 2:15 at this point. Jay encouraged me to attend the rest of the game because there was going to be a tour following it. Susan, the project director, drove me to Conseco Fieldhouse where I was greeted by the Indiana Pacers' President's assistant. She escorted me to the suite where I met up with the rest of the interns and Donald Cassell, who is a Senior Fellow at Sagamore. I made it with 48 seconds left in the game, which the Fever won 90-78 to keep their win streak alive.
The next thing that happened I was not aware was on the agenda. The President's assistant took the six of us up to Jim Morris' (the Pacer's president) office. We waited for a few moments and then he entered, sent an e-mail and had us sit down at his table. His office was gorgeous. Turns out that he is a trustee of the Sagamore Institute! He asked us what our role as interns were at Sagamore, where we went to school, and what our majors were. I answered his questions and he knew exactly who Eureka College is, along with the Ronald W. Reagan Leadership Program. He then began to speak with us and it felt much like when Craig Barrett, the former CEO of Intel, visited our campus at Eureka.
He is such an impressive man. He started working at a bank outside of college where he eventually became Chief of Staff to Dick Lugar, the Senator from Indiana. He held two other jobs for 16 years a piece until he began to work for the United Nations World Food Program where he helped deliver food to those starving around the world. He said he has visited almost every country in the world, so I assume that is all of them excluding the ones that are impossible to get to; although he has been to North Korea and had an very compelling story about that visit. He has photographs in his office of himself with prominent figures of the world such as Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Ban Ki-moon who was the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations. He spoke of both the Popes in such great detail because he developed personal relationships with them.
We sat and asked him questions and he gave us advice that is some of the best I have ever heard. I wrote notes throughout our two hour conversation and have quoted some of my favorite wise comments he made throughout this time. He said, "Leadership does make all the difference in the world." And that those who are truly compassionate, genuine, humble, honest, educated, collegiate, have a partnership mentality, and nurture all relationships throughout their lives will be successful in ways they cannot imagine. (Another intern has a photo of us together on her camera and hopefully I will get that uploaded on here soon.)
After the eye-opening session with Jim Morris we were given a tour of Conseco Fieldhouse and then made our way back to Sagamore Institute. We arrived back around 5 PM and the graduate student Brian had to finish up some work that was needed for tomorrow's event so I offered my time to help him finish sooner. Brian is going into International relations with a focus on Africa. Sagamore is currently connecting with specifically Liberia, because Donald Cassell was born there and is guiding Brian on this project. I helped him put together packets that give policy ideas on how to better Liberia with law schools, nursing schools, and other key aspects. Most of these ideas are already being put into action in Indiana and there already exists a strong tie between Liberia and the state that no one would ever know about. We finished around 7:30 PM and then we went to a Vietnamese restaurant that was amazing. I arrived back home around 9 exhausted. I will start the day back at Sagamore tomorrow at 9 AM!
Tomorrow there will be a presentation on all of the information and the ambassador of Liberia will be attending as well as some key political figures of Indiana. It should be a very interesting time and I'm hoping that tomorrow, after our last event of the week, I will be able to collaborate with Jay Hein and get my project started! I am truly blessed to be able to be in this position. So far I love it here and I am already loving the idea of working for a non-profit organization someday. Maybe my own think tank...
This is my workstation.
The rest of the loft where the other interns work.
Hopefully Jay will put up the Eureka pennant I brought him.
Jay Hein and myself after the luncheon.
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