Its crazy but I still can't believe there is only one full week of my Liberty Mutual Group Benefits internship left.  It is a sad thought that I will have to leave next friday; I will greatly miss my new friends and the lively City of Boston.  I have truely enjoyed my summer here, there has been so much to do and the weather has been mostly great, although the weather has been more like the usual rain we have at home this week.

Today I have started my winding down period, where I begin to tie up any loose ends in the projects I have nearing completion.  I have completed five projects so far; I have three active projects at the moment all in te last stages.  Its amazing to think how much I have accomplished in the last seven weeks and the varied activities I have participated in.  I have been very lucky in gaining this placement which has given me a mixture of projects in different areas of the department.  I have worked closely with my supervisor Kim Park on four projects, Spanish translation, Employee web protal, competitor analysis web capabilities (which was my very first project) and  and internet trends research assignment aimed at promoting eClaims.  This has been a brilliant assortment of marketing research assignments which have allowed me to work idependently and in the case of the Employee web portal project, allowed me to play a key role in leading the research project.  This also gave me the opportunity to work with team members from all over America and gain experience in conference call meetings which before this I had only had mild exposure to.

I have worked with another member of the department who is involved in product development, Heather Luiz; we have worked closely together on the SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) benefits product development research which is in it's final stages.  Also, I undertook the research into Liberty Mutuals prospects on the Island and the competitor and statutory analysis relating to Long Term Disability coverage.  This was a very interesting project to be involved in as previously I had not had much exposure to product development in the past.

I am at this moment participating in a market sizing project with Nazneen Vimadel the marketing manager for Group Benefits; I have been organising data for her and creating a detailed power[point presentation of the data I have orgainsed into charts and tables.  This has been good practice at being able to determine what is important in terms of inclusion into presentation up the company heirarchail chain.  Lastly I am in the middle of a project for Erin Finnemore a Communications Consultant who has me involved in a competitive intelligence project where I have been updating detailed templates outlining Liberty's competitors activities and providing new and updated data for the sales Selling sheets.  This has been an interesting topic to investigate as it has been a good opportunity for me to find out how the information I gather and analyse is used in practice (i.e by the sales team).

Outside of work I have been to the cheesecake factory and to the Prudential skywalk which was amazing.  i was able to look over the whole of Boston during the day and after sunset which was a really nice way to spend a Monday evening.  Unfortunatley it has been raining since late Monday night so I think it may be the perfect chance to go and see a movie tonight and keep out of the rain, on the upside it is to brighten up tomorrow and stay sunny untill I board the plane and head home next Saturday.