(INDIANAPOLIS) -- Indiana INTERNnet honored internship excellence among students, employers and career development professionals at the seventh annual IMPACT Awards Luncheon, sponsored by Ivy Tech Community College. Indiana INTERNnet is a statewide resource for internship opportunities managed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

"We received a record number of nominations, and the quality of the experiential learning opportunities was truly inspiring," said Indiana INTERNnet Executive Director Janet Boston. "We are proud of all the nominees. The value of internships is so evident when you look at the pertinent skills and established networks these students will take into the workforce."

The IMPACT Award winners:

• High School Intern of the Year - Alison Mansfield, Homestead High School in Allen County; internship at Lendingahand.net
• College/University Intern of the Year - Cody Adams, Ball State University; internship at Roche
• Non-traditional Intern of the Year - Casey Spivey; internship at Indiana State Personnel Department
• Employer of the Year (For-profit) - Slingshot SEO
• Employer of the Year (Nonprofit) - The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
• Career Development Professional of the Year - Sara Pennington-Busick of Indiana University Bloomington

Recipients received their awards at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in downtown Indianapolis. Additional information on each honoree can be found below.

The luncheon keynote speaker was Caroline Dowd-Higgins, director of career and professional development and adjunct faculty member at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. She is the author of This is Not the Career I Ordered and host of a national weekly CBS radio show, Career Coach Caroline. Dowd-Higgins presented "The Power of Experiential Learning on the Quest for Your Rock Star Career." Gerry Dick of Grow INdiana Media Ventures and host of Inside INdiana Business was the emcee.
For more information about the Indiana INTERNnet program, visit www.IndianaINTERN.net or call the hotline at (317) 264-6852.

High School Intern of the Year
Alison Mansfield, a Homestead High School student, was a communications intern for Lendingahand.net. Mansfield was responsible for drafting the monthly newsletter, creating and maintaining a blog and communication for community outreach initiatives. She was also given additional projects, which included creating a brochure and revamping several marketing pieces. The largest project Mansfield tackled was filming and editing videos featuring partner charities. These now serve as strong marketing tools for Lendingahand.net.

College/University Intern of the Year
During his internship with Roche, one of Cody Adams' first projects was to serve as a liaison between Roche and the YMCA for the first annual summer camp for employee's children. The pilot program was a huge success, and Roche is now preparing for a program expansion in 2013. Cody was also a project team member for the Fortune 100 Great Places to Work application process. Recently, Roche was ranked No. 89 on Fortune magazine's latest annual list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For."

Non-traditional Intern of the Year
Casey Spivey was the 2012 Governor's public service summer intern for the Indiana State Personnel Department. Following the internship, she was hired full time as a benefits specialist. Spivey made an impact by assisting in the development of sourcing and recruitment plans for "hard-to-fill" positions.

One organization she aided was the Hoosier Youth Challenge Academy (HYCA). She equipped the academy with a career fair plan, including advertising contacts, a detailed timeline, session speakers, newspaper ads and flyers. Spivey also provided the state of Indiana with creative new ways to attract applicants and comply with policies through employment branding such as developing Web 2.0 initiatives for Google+, podcasts, an intern blog, Facebook and QR codes.

Employer of the Year (For-profit)
Interns hit the ground running from day one at Slingshot SEO in the "Search Scholars" program. Not only are they guaranteed one or two résumé-worthy projects, they also receive an abundance of professional and personal guidance. Tracy Morgan, human resources generalist, designed the Search Scholars program using in-house resources, and she earned the support of the leadership team. The program has various openings each semester for positions in marketing, human resources, sales, client management, development and research.

At the end of the internship, the company hosts an intern appreciation lunch to celebrate accomplishments. The interns present projects, experiences and takeaways to management, supervisors and the CEO. The Search Scholars program aligns with company business goals while also instilling habits and behaviors that set interns up for success in the workforce.

Employer of the Year (Nonprofit)
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the largest children's museum in the world with more than one million visitors a year. The internship program there includes mentors that supervise the intern's projects and provide professional and personal guidance. In 2012, 30 mentors worked with 43 interns logging nearly 10,000 hours. Vault.com recently honored the organization for offering one of the Top 10 best internship programs in the non-profit sector. The museum's dedication to mentoring was one of the reasons it was selected.

Career Development Professional of the Year
While Sara Pennington-Busick thinks big and leads a team of staff that services hundreds of students, she also passionately dedicates quality one-on-one time with students and recruiters. Pennington-Busick is the associate director of employer relations at Indiana University Bloomington and leads staff in developing and maintaining productive relationships with employers.

Since beginning at IU in 2006, Pennington-Busick has implemented many changes and additions to the IU Career Development Center and Arts & Sciences Career Services. In addition, Pennington-Busick also teaches a class, Marketing Yourself for the Job and Internship Search.

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The Indiana Chamber of Commerce is the state's largest broad-based business advocacy and
information organization, representing nearly 5,000 member companies that employ 800,000 Hoosier workers.