Mandy Love - A SCORE Success Story

What does a SCORE-Louisville Intern look like? S-L didn’t know until Mandy Love joined our team on May 12, 2008 and was with us until July 25, 2008. There is a wonderful line in the first "Indiana Jones" movie where Indy is asked what he is going to do next. Indy replies, "I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go along." What Indy said could apply to Mandy, except that from the first day, Mandy did know what she was doing and seemed to always know where she was going.

One task that lasted during her entire internship was the developing of guidelines for a future internship programs. In order to accomplish this, Mandy jumped in and participated in virtually all SCORE activities. She sat in on committee meetings (Existing Business, Workshop, Counseling Sessions, etc.). Not only did Mandy sit in on these meetings, she volunteered for any task that would give her a wider understanding of the work that SCORE does. Tom Thompson, Marketing Chairperson, invited Mandy to sit in on a counseling session: "Mandy sat back and listened, but when she spoke it was always in a very skillful, respectful and focused manner."

In addition to drawing up guidelines for future interns, Mandy developed evaluation sheets for seminars, updated our data base, brainstormed with committees on how to make our services more accessible and successful, helped in the development of our new web site, created a comprehensive skills database of SCORE counselors, and many other significant projects. Bert Grohmann, Day Captains’ Chair, said of Mandy, "She showed skill and persistence in compiling a comprehensive directory of counselors' skills and experience."

When asked what major insights she will carry away as she pursues her career goals, she said: "All the people skills! A SCORE counselor has to know how to deal with a euphoric, dreamy person who wants to start a business, and how to bring them back down to reality. A counselor must also deal with people who are drowning in the complexities of an existing business. I’ll know how to read a P&L statement. I came to realize that there are structured steps to forming a business or a strategic plan and then implementing it and analyzing success and failure."

This first-of-a-kind SCORE Intern noted about SCORE counselors, "I learned from them the necessity of treating people with respect and value no matter how outlandish their idea seems."

Where does Mandy go from SCORE? She heads back to Smith College for a final semester, and then she is off to Oxford University, Worchester College in 2009 to study Soviet economics. After that, she hopes to begin work with a management consulting firm. Mandy said that she learned this lesson from SCORE counselor, Don Gibson, "The only difference between SCORE and a consultant is that the consultant actually does what SCORE tells the clients to do for free. After my internship, I’ve seen a lot of examples of how to do a consultant’s job."

Barry Manilow has that wonderful song about another Mandy, but one line repeated over and over in the song applies to our summer intern: "You came and you gave without takin’" We at SCORE feel the same. We are amazed at what Mandy Love was able to accomplish in such a short period of time. She set the bar very high, and we will miss her.