Sad Day

        It is my last day here at the Sagamore Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Words cannot even begin to explain the experience I have had during my time here.  It has been hard for me to realize that I am actually leaving this place.  When you are living somewhere for a month or so you begin to develop an understanding of your surroundings.  If you like what you are surrounded by, you begin to identify with it.  That is what Indy and the Sagamore Institute has done for me.  I truly love this place and everyone who works here and contributes to the think-tank's mission.  I have grown to fit in very well with every here at Sagamore and I have no intentions of breaking any of these relationships even when I return to Eureka.

       I have had a different feeling leaving this place that I cannot describe but I know that this experience, even though it was only five weeks, has been one of the most profound experiences in my life.  I have learned a lot from genuine people in how to interact with others and how to be a leader.  I also feel I have learned a lot that I have not yet accessed.  I cannot explain the feeling but I know I am taking a lot more out of the Sagamore Institute than I put in; although I plan to continue my efforts in helping Sagamore in any way I can.

        This place was special.  Even as an intern you are given important tasks that actually matter and are usually specialized to exactly what you are interested in.  My Assignment Detroit project is now nine single-spaced, 11 font, pages long and I have not even spoke on my personal reflections of the project.  Who would have known I would get an assignment that is dealing with exactly what I am interested in?  I also wrote a piece on the nonprofit sector in Elkhart, IN, another city that has been devastated by the economy.  That piece was published in a booklet for the Office Depot Foundation and it is now a two page spread and I was able to see a copy of the booklet.  I believe they will send me a copy when Jay returns with extras.  On top of all that Wes and Jay wanted me to create a discussion for the Detroit project and I have been working on that this week and it should become a web feature for Sagamore's website in the near future.    The opportunities here are endless.

       It still feels weird that I am leaving today but I have confidence that I will stay in contact with Sagamore and be able to contribute to the Institute.  I have also met some good friends here.  One of the interns will become a friend who I will keep in contact with for time to come.  We have shared some good experiences during my time here at Sagamore.  My roommates were also very good guys and I am glad I was able to foster a good relationship with them; especially since they work for the National sector of my fraternity... Despite that being true I still believe we have created a genuine friendship that will prove to endure over time. 


 Being here in Indianapolis reminds me of how great the Midwest really is.  I have lived in Michigan and Illinois and now I will always consider Indiana another home to me.


Thanks for following us interns at the Sagamore Institute, 
Brent Glass

Summer Internship Experience

By Intern Tierney Beck:

This summer I have spent a great deal of time on writing a series of articles in collaboration with my supervisor, Donald Cassell. These articles express the connection between Liberia and Indiana. Before coming to Sagamore I had no idea that various communities in Indiana were so involved in aiding Liberia, including my very own Indiana University. I enjoyed learning and sharing what I learned with others by publishing those articles on the Sagamore website. It has allowed me to improve both my writing skills and my knowledge of development in Liberia.

My favorite part of the internship was meeting Ambassador Bull, the U.S. Ambassador to Liberia. This event allowed me to see that the work I was doing was being heard by someone and appreciated. The lunch and learn seminars were all great learning experiences for me as well. Who would have thought I would ever sit in Jim Morris’ suite at Conseco Fieldhouse? Each speaker we met at the lunch and learn seminars provided me with insight. David Helmer provided a great method for achieving success and completing your goals. His example of turning something so simple into a thriving business was inspiring.

I will walk away from this internship with a greater understanding of just how a think tank works. I was skeptical at how much influence an institution such as Sagamore has on policy. But now I can see that without Sagamore many plans and ideas may not jump off the rug. Sagamore has created awareness and is working to make changes by following through with ideas. Those ideas are made tangible and I enjoyed watching changes being made right in front of my eyes. Sagamore provided me with a great opportunity this summer, and I am so grateful. 

In Jim Morris & Larry Bird's suite at the Fever game: Erin, Tierney, Cassie, and Brian

Jim Morris (President of the Indiana Pacers & Fever), Brent, Tierney, Brian, Erin, Cassie, and Donald Cassell

Summer at the Sag

As a second time intern at Sagamore (having been an intern in January), I had some expectations about what my summer would be like. I loved my first experience here, and was thrilled to be doing actual research and contributing to the work of such an important institution. No intern grunt work here! Even so, this summer rose above and beyond what I had anticipated - an internship at Sagamore has to be one of the best internships around!

By far, one of the best and most exciting parts of being an intern was the Lunch and Learn program. Once a week, we would enjoy a lunch generously paid for by Sagamore and engage in discussions with Senior Fellows, board members, special guests, and one another. We were given challenging, thought-provoking materials to read and watch, then discuss them or listen to a lecture from one of our distinguished guests. It was really a pleasure to have this time designed specifically to encourage our curiosity and learning, and while it was definitely enjoyable, I think it also served to aid us in our research and work for Sagamore. Some of the most outstanding Lunch and Learn experiences were a trip to an Indianapolis Fever game and meeting with Jim Morris, a two-part visit with David Helmer, and a reading of the Theories of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith. I really enjoyed learning from these people, and engaging in meaningful dialogue with my fellow interns, Sagamore employees, and board members.

Something that was different for me this summer was the number of high profile events I was able to attend and participate in, such as the Indiana-Africa Agriculture Convergence Summit and the visit of William Bull, Liberian Ambassador to the USA. Having done extensive research and writing of articles for these events, it was a thrill to see my hard work in the hands of these people. I knew how important all our work was to Sagamore, but actually seeing it come to fruition and knowing how it would be used in the future was the most rewarding part of this internship.

I have enjoyed getting to know the Sagamore staff so much better this summer and gaining from all they have to teach. I have learned more about my passions, expanded my academic horizons, and really been able to grow as a student and professional member of the community while interning here. Working at Sagamore was the highlight of my summer, and I can only hope that I will have the good fortune to work with them again in the future.

City Boy

        This week I have been focusing on my research project of "Assignment Detroit."  It is quite the undertaking and I do not see myself finishing anytime soon.  My goal is to complete this project by next Friday, leaving myself two weeks to work on my "Lincoln and Reagan in the Midwest" project.  I would start writing about what I am learning but the information is overwhelming and will figure out a way to post the project when completed.

        At Monday night's event with Byron Johnson I met a senior fellow of the Sagamore Institute named Larry Ingraham.  I spoke with him for about twenty minutes that night and looked at his card later to find out he is the "Director of Economic Development and International Trade."  This man is in control of the field that I am very interested in.  With the information I e-mailed him thanking him for the talk and asked him if he would like to do lunch sometime.  He was very appreciative of the e-mail and he said Thursday he would love to.

         So yesterday I came into Sagamore, started on my work when I received an e-mail from Larry stating that he was running a little late and he was wondering if I would like to attend some meetings with him after our lunch.  I decided this would be a great way to spend the afternoon so I complied.  We went to Weber Grill in downtown Indy, and let me tell you that place has some excellent barbecue.  He explained his life story and it is truly fascinating.  He was raised in Adrian, MI and lost his father and mother by the time he was thirteen.  He went to live with his aunt and uncle who also lived close by in Adrian.  He joined the Air Force to avoid being drafted and going to Vietnam.  He served there for four years and went around South East Asia as a dental assistant.  He eventually attending the University of Michigan in Asian studies and began to attend conferences that were between American and Japanese students.  He also went to Japan two summers in a row and began to love it.  He went to Japan and served in Tokyo as the director of the American-Japanese relations office.  His first daughter was born and decided to come back to the United States and moved to Indy in 1983.  In 1990 he started his own consulting firm for economic development.

         Our first meeting was at the offices of Bingham-McHale, Attorneys at Law, which happens to  be ranked the best law firm in Indiana in seven different criteria.  The reason we were attending is because the mayor of Marion, a city 45 minutes north of Indy, was speaking there regarding what he has done towards economic development for his city.  Interestingly enough one may recall him, Wayne Seybold, from the 1988 Olympics where he competed with his sister is pair figure skating.  He has done some amazing things to bring companies back from Asia to his city, creating new jobs.  We were the first to arrive and therefore I was able to speak with the director of economic development for Marion and his Chief-of-Staff.  Pretty soon many who worked at Bingham-McHale were filtering in and I began extreme-networking.  I was handing out my card left and right and receiving some cards including an attorney and a partner of the firm.  Thank goodness I dressed very GQ that day.  Someone from the law firm actually came up to me and asked if I was interning there and introduced herself.  I told her no, that I was interning at Sagamore Institute from Eureka College.

          I was in conversation with a few people of the firm and someone asked me about myself and what I was doing at the Sagamore Institute.  I began speaking about how I was creating a memo of Assignment Detroit which was an effort to discover all of the positive aspects of the city.  Then the attorney, Margaret Christensen, asked me, "Well what is good about Detroit?"  Well I took this opportunity to clear the name of Detroit and ended up giving a lesson about the city of Detroit and all of the positive things happening there for ten minutes.  I had the attention of many lawyers and it was a very interesting experience.  I also spread the knowledge of where Eureka College was and how it is well on the rise to becoming a highly revered academic institution.

          After the mayor spoke, a partner of the firm named Daniel L. Boots, came up to Larry and I and I introduced myself to him.  We spoke for awhile and exchanged cards when he made me an awesome offer.  He told me if I ever needed anything from Bingham-McHale to shoot him an e-mail or give him a call and he would be more than glad to assist me.  I also spoke with the mayor and he assured me I was in good hands if I was with Larry.  It's safe to say I had a good time.

        The next meeting took place at a Starbucks downtown with Aaron Goetz who is the Head of the Indianapolis-Hangzhou sister city committee.  Hangzhou is a city in China located in the area that is similar to the NYC and LA of America.  His job is to find ways Hangzhou can benefit Indy, by strengthening the economy and becoming more culturally aware of the country.  He asked to meet with Larry for advice and inquired about him coming to speak to his staff.  They spoke for an hour and a half and I tried to absorb as much as I could.

       I arrived back at Sagamore around 4:45, went up to my workstation packed up my things and left for the day. Today I making the trip back to Eureka in order to tend to some business there.  I will be back in Indianapolis late Sunday night.

Over the Weekend..

        I have not posted in a few days so I will start with Friday.  I was the only intern in the office all day.  I was able to meet with Jay Hein to discuss what projects I will be working on for the rest of the semester.  One of my projects will be to create, what will most likely become, a lengthy memo regarding TIME Inc.'s "Assignment Detroit."  TIME Inc. decided to delve into the culture of the quintessential American city in an effort to find the positive aspects of the city.  Many journalists, photographers, videographers, and bloggers from TIME, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, CNN, and CNN Money flooded the Motor City in an effort to write stories about Detroit for an entire yer.  The crew bought a house in Detroit and stayed there for their entire venture.  There are some 611 blog posts and close to 100 articles that are a part of Assignment Detroit so this should serve to keep me busy for a while.  I have decided to separate the memo into categories and find the posts/articles related and then summarize under the respective heading.  At the end of the memo I will also add my reflections on the project and give my opinion on whether it did justice to benefit the city of Detroit in any way.  Jay may ask more as I make progress but as for now that is the extent of that project.  Jay also expressed his desire in eventually hosting events in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit in the near future in order for Sagamore to reach out to all of the Midwest.

       Another project that I will be undertaking is creating an addition to the website so that there will constantly be updates to "Reagan in the Midwest" on the Sagamore website.  There are already some links that lead to some Eureka- related pages but I will be starting a trend of essays in a way.  I don't know if essay is the right word but it is the first to come to mind.  On each one I will dive into certain characteristics of Reagan, how they were learned while he was in the Midwest and reiterate the importance of those values for those in leadership positions.  I will not only be focusing on Reagan but Abraham Lincoln will be getting just as much attention, if not more.  So it is like "Lincoln and Reagan in the Midwest."  Also Jay hinted of me possibly connecting Eureka and Sagamore in even deeper ties, but no more on that for now.

       Also I will be helping out for the upcoming Office Depot Foundation event but I need to get more information on that first before I begin to speak about it.

      I left Sagamore at 5 PM on Friday, arrived back home around 5:30 put on some jeans and then was picked up by Brian and we headed to Grace Community Church for the fundraiser event for ULICAF (United Liberia Inland Church Associates & Friends) in order to support Dr. Sei Buor and hear Ambassador Bull speak again.  The fundraiser started at 6:30 and ended around 9:15.  At the fundraiser I was able to eat some Liberian food and it was delicious!  I arrived back at home around 10 exhausted.

       On Saturday I decided to go to the Indianapolis Museum of Art and it was a pretty nice museum.  I found it very interesting to go to the West Africa section and check out all of the Liberian artifacts now that I have had the pleasure of meeting many Liberians!  It was a pretty nice museum but I believe the DIA (Detroit Institute of Art) is actually better.  Just my own thought.  I explored downtown Indy after that, went and saw a movie and then went to sleep.  On Sunday I went grocery shopping and did some things that needed to be handled in Eureka.

       Today I went into work as usual and began to dive into my first project of creating a memo for Assignment Detroit.  I met Jarrod, another intern who was on vacation last week who is majoring in Economics and minoring in PoliSci, so the inverse of my studies.  I worked on the Detroit project until about 4 PM until my assistance was needed to help set up for tonight's event.  

      Tonight Byron Johnson, the author of More God, Less Crime: Why Faith Matters and How It Could Matter More.  He signed my copy of the book and I spoke with him for a few minutes.  He actually collaborated with Jay back when he worked in the White House.  His presentation was good and I was the only intern to stick around for it so they let me be the "clicker" for his powerpoint.  He was a very kind and genuine guy.  I read a few chapters of it and from his overview of it I know it is a good read.  It reminded me of taking Dr. Thurwanger's honor seminar class about the prison system.  Byron Johnson spoke about recidivism and has solid research that truly proves Christian faith dramatically lowers those rates as well as the importance of establishing mentors for prisoners that will keep them accountable once the exit the prison system.  The mentor should be someone they knew while in prison in order to have a sustained relationship and someone who will "keep them in check."  There are many arguments by the academic world that it religion does not belong in prisons or that there is a separation between church and state but whether someone is and atheist or Christian they should realize that THIS WORKS.  Nothing else ever has and there is solid evidence for his theory but the academic world, who claims to be open-minded, actually becomes a walking contradiction when they close their minds to new ideas that actual show results.  I recommend you read this book.

       After the presentation I stayed after in order to help clean up and it ended up being Beverly and myself.  Jay and Byron were leaving and he told Beverly and I to take a half of a day off sometime this week since we stayed so late.  I don't think I am going to take the offer honestly, there's so much to do.  Beverly and I left around 8:30 and I arrived home around 9.  I watched a documentary called Grown in Detroit that is about a school in the city that is for girls who are raising children or are pregnant.  It boasts a 90 percent graduation rate and the girls of the school can take their children there and they teach them about urban agriculture and how to profit from it as well as feed their children.  It was truly and eye-opening film.

      It is 10:50 right now and I am exhausted.  For the most part all of the exciting events are done with for the remainder of my time here and the rest will be focused on research.  There are pros and cons to that.

      Also check out the Sagamore website!  I am now under the "Interns" tab with a bio!  I apologize if there are grammatical errors but I am honestly too mentally drained to go through this post and attempt to correct them!  SagamoreInstitute.org