2025 Summer Internship Diaries - Vol. 1

This month, four interns and I joined ICBA! This is the first year that ICBA interns are located in all three ICBA office locations (Washington D.C., Atlanta, and Sauk Centre, MN)! It has been incredible-from onboarding to the warm welcomes we've received from our teams. We are thrilled to be part of team ICBA, using our skills to support the community banking mission.

These diaries will be a place for us to document and reflect on our experiences over the course of the summer.

So far, we have completed two weekly leader lunches! During our first week, we met with Kevin Tweddle, Senior Executive Vice President, Innovation and Jacob Eisen, CEO, Payments and TCM Bank. We learned about their career paths and gained insight into the day-to-day functions of their respective departments within ICBA. We even had a fun and insightful discussion about the Y2K phenomenon and the impact the industry was bracing for as the year 2000 approached—something many of us hadn’t considered before! It was a great way to start off our Leader Lunch Series.

Our second week was with Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Learning & Experience Officer, Lindsay LaNore. We had the pleasure of hearing about her time with banking compliance and consulting that ultimately led her to her role at ICBA. Lindsay also offered valuable insights on the importance of mentorship, emphasizing how mentees can actively nurture and grow mentoring relationships through intentional engagement.

During our first week, we participated in a workplace behavioral assessment that provided valuable insight into how we show up in professional settings. The assessment highlighted our individual strengths and areas for growth, helping us better understand our personal work styles.

The assessment evaluated our workplace personality types against these behavioral drivers.

We also had the opportunity to share our results with one another, which gave us a deeper appreciation for how we function as a group and how we can collaborate effectively in team dynamics.