Fetching coffee for superiors. Filing papers hours on end. Working in a small desk in the dark, dank basement. These are all stereotypical ideas of what an intern might do through the day, but for the most part, that couldn't be farther from the truth. Working your summer with a company or nonprofit can actually provide you with tangible experiences and skills you will never pick up in the classroom. I am fortunate enough to be experiencing the corporate and workplace dynamic with a local insurance company, Grinnell Mutual, the largest reinsurance company in North America.

Grinnell Mutual started in the business of reinsurance. What's reinsurance? Simply put, it's insurance for your insurance. Farmers across the counties of Iowa came together to create mutuals, an institution that they could all pay into and in the event something might happen to that year's crops, the money pooled together by all the farmers would be enough to keep the farmers affected from going broke. The more people who paid into the mutual, the smaller the amount you had to pay. The collective coming together to support the needs of the community. Makes sense doesn't it? Yeah, your great grandfather was a socialist. The problem with this wasn't because socialism always fails, rather the system wasn't large enough.

Single county mutuals are very practical, but what happens if a large storm blows through, knocking out most of the yields for the county? The mutual won't be able to sustain large payouts in that event, and that's how Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company was started. Mutuals were able to spread their risk by forming Grinnell Mutual. Pottawattamie County may have had severe crop washout from the Missouri's spring flood, but Fayette County clear on the other side of the state might not have had to make any claims because of great weather and high yields. Grinnell Mutual has served the state of Iowa for 108 years because of its strong policy of working together.

Grinnell Mutual has provided me the opportunity to be one of their interns this summer and create my own mark on a century old company. There are not many companies like this, and I highly encourage you to look for one that can compare.