Indiana INTERNnet, an online internship-matching program linking students with local employers, recently awarded the Career Development Professional of the Year award to Nate Milner, internship coordinator at Indiana Wesleyan University. Milner formally accepted the award at the Impact Award Luncheon on Feb. 7 at the Ivy Tech Community College Culinary and Conference Center in Indianapolis.
Milner was nominated by Tiffany Snyder, director of IWU Career Development, for his innovative ideas, contributions, and service to students and colleagues. Although Milner has only been employed in IWU’s Career Development office for one year, he has contributed significantly to Accelerate Indiana, a Lilly-funded internship program that matches students with local Indiana start-up businesses. Milner recognized student participation was not as high as it could be, so he advocated raising the wage from $9.50/hour to $11/hour. Since then, student participation has increased significantly.
In addition to managing Accelerate Indiana, Milner’s responsibilities include networking with employers, pairing students with internships, training students on workplace ethics and hosting banquets to honor interns and employers.
Prior to beginning his position as internship coordinator, Milner was a resident director for 10 years, with six-and-a-half of those being at IWU.
“I am so proud of Nate, and I think this award is well deserved,” said Snyder. “As a resident director, Nate had so much one-on-one interaction with students, and I honestly believe that’s what makes him so successful as an internship coordinator. He’s been able to transfer those skills of connecting well with students and utilize them in an amazing way in this new job.”
For more information on IWU Career Development, visit https://www.indwes.edu/career-development/.