Internship area:
Marketing
Organization:
Decatur County Community Foundation
Semester:
Spring 2019
Alex Sefton has made his match with IU East’s online Business Administration program.
And he’s found quick success with a special internship that already has morphed from marketing, to fund-raising to software instruction.
“It’s a sweet deal,” boasts the first-semester senior from Greensburg.
The setup I have now is perfect for being a college student and an intern.
Alex Sefton
How perfect? He has the flexibility to succeed in both learning roles in the place he really wants to be, his hometown of about 11,500 in southeast Indiana.
His internship already has good potentials of leading to a full-time job and a career. He is on track to graduate after the fall semester.
Sefton is learning about marketing and a lot more with the Decatur County Community Foundation. “I have taken on some additional roles as well,” he jokes. “It changes day to day. It’s all fun stuff.”
He’s helping set up a new software system.
He’s working with donor relations.
He’s coordinating a trades event that’s aimed at high school students who don’t plan to attend college.
He even traveled in March with the foundation director and other employees to Tempe, Ariz., to attend a software training summit. Sefton said his first visit to Arizona was fun: “It was a neat experience. We had a good time connecting.”
He says he already has forged strong connections with fellow workers at the foundation. “One of things I love is how flexible things are. It’s like a little family,” the 20-year-old explains.
If his supervisor knows Sefton has some schoolwork to finish, he’s encouraged to carve out some time at work. “My schedule pretty much is set with the foundation and classes,” he admits. “They know my top priority now is classes.”
It helps a lot with his busy life, he says, that he’s living at home. He’s taking a full load of five classes each semester toward a degree in Business Administration with a minor in Entrepreneurship.
He uses Indiana University’s online management system that’s called Canvas. “You can do homework, take tests, anything related to class,” Sefton says, “Pretty much all the resources you need are in that system.”
It takes great energy, planning and focus to balance everything. “I am able to do it all from here (Greensburg) and still have quality educators,” Sefton says. “I can work from our living room. It makes it very convenient. It’s been a great opportunity for sure.”
He has created a lot of his own opportunities in higher education. For one, he left high school with 35 hours of college credit.
Sefton first attended Anderson University and then discovered IU East’s online undergraduate program as he was researching graduate schools. “I researched and talked to other students,” he says. “It was pretty seamless to switch over.”
He was focused on finding the right program because he wants to work hard for his achievements.
Procrastination can be a barrier to online success for many students, but that’s not the case for Sefton. He does not slack off on any assignments. “I take my work seriously,” he says. “I hope I can give them (instructors) what they are looking for.”
Most of his communications with IU East is accomplished via email. For example, he regularly gets feedback from Rebecca Foster. “All of my professors have been great,” Sefton says. “They are quick to respond.”
He would be fine with having a career and living in the place where he and his two brothers were brought up.
I felt like my talents and gifts were best used in my community.
Alex Sefton
Those gifts include making quick and lasting connections. He has an entrepreneurial spirit, gained in part from having parents who run their own businesses.
In fact, Alex and a friend started the non-profit organization called All For One Ministry (A41ministry.org). The non-denominational organization holds a night of worship on the first Sunday of each month.
Its mission statement reads in part:“We are not a church that meets every Sunday. We are an organization whose goal is to break down interdenominational walls in order to allow the local Church to live out our calling to be united.”
It’s amazing, Sefton says, how much his non-profit work has helped him relate to his studies and internship: “I was preparing for the philanthropy without knowing I was preparing for it.”
There was another meant-to-be aspect to that and his internship. The previous foundation director bought a house through Alex’s father, who works in real estate. “He came home that night and said he could see me going into philanthropy,” Alex says.
I am from a family of entrepreneurs.
Alex Sefton
His dad, who once ran a family farm, also sells seeds for corn and soybeans. His mother owns a cleaning business. “They have always been self-employed. That was the root of my entrepreneurial (direction),” Alex says. “That has motivated me to do this.”
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