There was praise all around at the concluding luncheon for the Summer Internship Program on Friday.

The 12 Bermudian interns that participated were hailed for their hardwork and dedication, while the students themselves spoke with boundless appreciation for the experiences they have had at the three-sponsor companies, ACE Group, Bank of Bermuda and Deloitte.

The ten-week internship ended with the students? final presentation of a study of the Boys & Girls Club of Bermuda and a celebratory luncheon for the students and their parents.

Deloitte partner Roger Titterton said he was very pleased with the programme and the performance of the students throughout the internship who he said he hoped would be ?business leaders for Bermuda in the future?.

Intern Shana Hayward said: ?We got to meet the heads of departments at each of the companies, and the contacts that we have made are so useful, especially in a community like Bermuda.?

Intern Ryan Marshall added: ?Getting the exposure in each of the three industries (insurance, banking and accounting) was invaluable to me as a young Bermudian.?

He added that he thought many of the 12 summer interns would return to work for one of the three companies after completing their education.

In addition to spending a week at each of the companies, the interns spent one day a week developing a strategic plan for the Boys & Girls Club of Bermuda.

Their presentation of the plan on Friday, according to Ryan, ?was very well received. We had good feedback from the Boys & Girls Club staff members (who attended the presentation and lunch held at ACE?s headquarters). They were happy that their concerns had been voiced and said our recommendations were pretty much indicative of how they felt (the Club needed to move in the future).?

The students? job was to identify three ways that the Boys & Girls Club could improve operationally and then recommend the best one.

Ryan explained: ?We presented three options to them. The first was to remain under Government?s jurisdiction but enhance operations by turning some of the community centres into full fledged Boys & Girls Clubs rather than continuing as the only programme within Government?s community centres. ?The second was to move out from under Government jurisdiction and become a registered charity but remain in partnership with Government. We also recommended that they seek corporate sponsorship.

?The third option was to partner with another established charity and act under that charity. We recommended the second option, to move out from under the Government umbrella over a five year period, as the best.?

Intern Adrienne Smith explained some of the processes that led to the group?s recommendations for the Club: ?We visited all three Boys & Girls Club sites on the Island, and we communicated with them over the phone. Operational details that we were most interested in were where the Club is currently, what its programmes are, and what the staff envisions for the future.?