The Interns say farewell

After spending ten weeks working on key projects across the company, the 27 summer undergraduate
interns came together to present their Legacy Project on Thursday, August 14
th
to a packed audience
of their managers, mentors and co-workers.
The Legacy Project is the first of its kind here at Novo Nordisk. The incoming group was tasked with
creating a lasting message that aligns with Novo Nordisks takeACTION initiative and motivates future
intern classes. With this in mind, the interns planned to execute a fun and informative day for the kids
at Camp Nejeda, as well as make and donate 75 goodie bags for children at Robert Wood Johnson
University Childrens Hospital.
To present the overall project, the group constructed three major components for the hour: a business
unit PowerPoint, a highlights reel and an intern experience video. The PowerPoint summarized their
entire planning process, which embodies cost effectiveness, the Novo Nordisk Way, and the Triple
Bottom Line. The second component, a highlights reel, showcased the groups trip to Camp Nejeda,
along with their RWJ University Childrens Hospital donation. To conclude, the interns showed a
detailed interview-style video about their overall experience at Novo Nordisk, and then opened the
floor up to questions and comments.
It is amazing to see the program that exists now and how the interns came together to complete
their Legacy Project as a team, said Emma Allen, internal communication professional, who is proud
to see how the program has flourished from 2011, when she was the only Novo Nordisk intern. I was
amazed to see how poised and professional everyone was, during the presentation, and I could tell
how much hard work was put into the project itself. I got the feeling that all of the interns were proud
of the work they had done and I could see their managers in the room, proud as well.
The presentation demonstrated that the interns collaborated across departments and fully immersed
themselves into our Novo Nordisk culture, embracing all aspects of the Triple Bottom Line. To follow up,
several mentors, managers, and VPs shared their impressions of the presentation and the summer
undergraduate internship program as a whole.
The internship program here is valuable not only for the students, but for the company as well, said
mentor Mike Manion, Associate Director in Compliance. Its structure allows the interns to gain
experience, but also allows the people who are working alongside an intern to gain a new perspective
about their job and their role within the company.
Curt Oltmans, CVP of Legal, said the trainings and formal evaluation process are positive additions to
the program this year. However, when asked how he thought the program could progress he stated, I
would like us to actually be identifying interns that perform well that summer and have relevant
backgrounds for future hire. Moving forward it would be nice to potentially offer jobs to at least some
percentage of our interns.
Joanne Golankiewicz, VP of Commercial Effectiveness, said she would like to see the program extend
across all departments in the company. She continued to explain that interns would benefit from
learning about all aspects of the company from enthusiastic representatives in each department. This
would allow the group to see how everything fits together, instead of just the one department that they
work in.
When asked what skill all young professionals should possess, the majority agreed both verbal and
written communication is essential. Oltmans expressed a concern that, because of social media, there
are a lot of young people coming out of college today, who are not comfortable with either verbal and
or more formal written communication, and thats very important in the workforce. The program
garners a comfortable, yet challenging setting for the interns to develop those crucial communication
skills identified to be successful.
The interns did not see these ten weeks as just another internship as they took advantage of all the
resources the Novo Nordisk program provided to them. The class agreed that working at Novo Nordisk
this summer was a unique and invaluable opportunity that taught them best practices for anywhere
their professional paths take them. If you did not have the chance to attend the groups final
presentation, their materials can be found through Novoshare.
BY: Isha Aggarwal, Sarah Diefenbach and Emelia Golankiewicz