by Samhita Gattupalli, Class of 2025
Through my internship with the U.S Department of Commerce, I had various opportunities to grow as a leader in the cross-sector space. From meeting with startup, small business, and policy leaders, I have had the ability to improve my network in the business/policy space. My tasks entailed working with large data, meeting with various business leaders to discuss exports, and working on policy briefs on the work the U.S Department of Commerce does in the Greensboro area and North Carolina in general. Mainly, I was tasked with understanding the regional High Point, NC furniture market to evaluate data to condense in the department’s Salesforce space.
Having a hybrid workspace made the process very rewarding as I was able to utilize the office and my own personal space to find a dynamic work-life balance. Having this privilege helped me find my interests through attending events in Raleigh and Chapel Hill to understand my interests in the business space. Additionally, having the ability to gain Salesforce and Power BI training increased my knowledge of the utilization of these various tech sources in government related endeavors. Through the internship I was also able to travel to Washington D.C where my group and I were able to visit the Capitol and various Fortune 500 companies such as Google and AWS. Meeting with various policy leaders and professionals proved that the career paths in this space is unlimited. Overall, the internship was a perfect way to emerge myself in the cross-sector space.
My peers and fellow Luther Hodges Scholar Matthew Abel and Asiah Graham had a similar take on the internship.
Matthew: “As an intern at the U.S. Department of Commerce, I had the opportunity to develop my professional skill set in a cross-sector environment. Through various projects like adding business taxonomies in Salesforce and developing a map on Microsoft Power BI, I was able to refine my data analysis skills while also learning how to disseminate information in a business context. Finally, the internship was a great way to grow my personal and professional network.”
Asiah Graham: “Being apart of the U.S Commercial Service this summer was a great experience. I really enjoyed the trip to D.C and learned so much about cross-sector experiences in government, private, and public sector. I was specially appreciative of our supervisor allowing our tasks to be related to our personal and career interests. Completing Marketing objectives in the government-sector was an interesting experience and challenging at times. Despite the challenges, it was all very rewarding!”
