The 2023 Innagural Ignite Internship Awards

By Kelsie Hegemeyer, 2023 Marketing Intern

As this year’s Ignite Internship Program comes to an end, the 2023 class of Forge interns have wrapped up their final presentations and have accomplished many things worth being recognized at the inaugural Ignite Internship Awards. These awards were voted upon by Forge managers and team members, each nominating the intern that they believed best represented each category. There were six awards presented at this year’s ceremony: the four Core Value Awards- (Hardworking, Open, Purpose-Driven, and Engaged), the Forge Impact Award, and the Peer Choice Award. 

Core Value Awards

Hardworking

The nominees for the Hardworking Core Value Award were voted for based on their demonstrated persistent and determined effort while maintaining focus on the impact of their success. They often went above and beyond to get the job done. 

Claire Krabacher, Process Development Intern

“Claire has gone above and beyond during her internship looking for opportunities to increase her workload, help in the lab, and gain knowledge to grow as a scientist.

She has proven her ability to rapidly learn new concepts and techniques and transfer the knowledge to practical execution.”

“Claire is consistently asking impressive and well thought out questions that both demonstrate her grasp of the training she has completed and the major concepts of AAV process development.” -- Manager

Congratulations to Kelsie Hegemeyer, Anna Chambers, Sasha McDonald, and George Durisek for being nominated!

Open

The nominees for the Open Core Value Award were sought for based on how they remained approachable, open, and ready to grow throughout the internship. They actively listened, encouraged others, and demonstrated a positive mindset when giving and receiving feedback. 

Sasha McDonald, GMP Intern

“Sasha squeezed every ounce of value she could out of this internship and opportunity. She was the first to volunteer for any activity and learned everything she was able to absorb. 

I think she added so much value to not only the GMP team but also brought to life the culture and relationships that were built within the groups of interns.”

“Sasha was a value add to the team when we really needed people to help support making tube set and buffers. She has an amazing understanding of GMP and Forge!”

Congratulations to Kelsie Hegemeyer, Kate Reardon, and Claire Krabacher for being nominated!

Purpose-Driven

The nominees for the Purpose-Driven Core Value Award were identified for being passionate about Forge’s mission and working diligently to achieve our common goal of manufacturing gene therapies. They regularly demonstrated this value through the work they did individually and as part of a team. 

Kuppan Subramaniyan, Client Development Intern

“Kuppan was an amazing intern in the Client Development group. He was able to gather intel for us to be able to use as we expand into new offerings. He is very grounded to the mission of helping patients and you can see that in the way he works and in his tremendous drive to succeed in helping as many people as possible. As others at Forge have described he is brilliant, passionate, eager to learn, kind, humble, and honest. He was able to pick up very complex ideas near instantly and come up with great questions just after. I look forward to seeing Kuppan succeed in his further schooling and eventual career in the life sciences.”

Congratulations to Kylee Madison, Anna Chambers, Claire Krabacher, and Marquise Goodlett for being nominated!

Engaged

The nominees for the Engaged Core Value Award were advocated for because of their demonstrated enthusiasm about their work and positive action to further Forge’s mission. They remained committed to the purpose behind the day-to-day and saw the big picture of Forge's impact while keeping themselves and others engaged.

Laura McCann, Creative Intern

“Laura has done a great job on the Creative team and has been helpful to the Marketing team as well.

 She took a lot of great photos at Forge's annual Friends and Family event, the Intern Mid-Ohio foodbank volunteering day, and has been a very engaged member of the Creative team overall.”

“Laura not only works extremely hard, but she also takes the time to engage with and teach other interns about what she is working on along the way.”

Zack Casparro, EHS/Sustainability Intern

“Zack Casparro was very engaged with his intern project. I was impressed with how much time he took to meet with many of us so that we can work together as a company to be more environmentally friendly.”

“Zack stepped up many times including an opportunity to present EHS content to new Forge employees during orientation early into his internship.

He consistently goes above and beyond—even with parking duty!”

Megan Zukowski, Analytical Development Intern

“Motivated is a key word that describes Megan well, and by extension, she's shown herself to be exceptionally engaged in the time that she's been here. Heavily focused on her cold storage project, she's gone to lead small teams and develop ideas about how to handle each task. Her commitment to driving this project is evident in her self direction and readiness to complete time consuming and repetitive tasks. I certainly couldn't have gotten this far into the project on my own, and here she is wrapping up the last of it in only 3 months time! Truly impressive!”

Reese Weissenfluh, Regulatory Affairs Intern

“Reese always shows up ready to work and learn, and demonstrates an impressive level of curiosity. He has quickly picked up on Forge's business strategy and asks questions well beyond his experience level, many of them the same ones that the management and leadership teams are grappling with currently. Beyond that, he has used this high level of engagement and curiosity to perform at a high level on his project and bring forth novel information that will be critical to global expansion of the CDMO operations. His energy and willingness to ask good, important questions has helped the entire Regulatory team and those around him learn a little bit more this summer.”

Congratulations to Kuppan Subramaniyan and Alyssa Usab for being nominated!

Forge Impact Award

The nominees for the Forge Impact Award were nominated for embodying HOPE (all four core values), contributing a substantial amount of impact throughout their internship, and being someone Forge Biologics recognizes as a top performer in their department and Forge as a company. 

Kelsie Hegemeyer, Marketing Intern

“Kelsie has done a fantastic job overall and was instrumental in Forge's Friends and Family event planning and the annual intern program video among many other projects.

For the Friends and Family event, she helped reach out to vendors, ensured the interns had assigned roles, and that the kids’ events were fun and aligned with Forge's mission. Without her the event would not have been as successful or organized as it was. All of her work symbolizes our four core values of HOPE, but this event is the best example of her impact.”

“Kelsie has been an asset to the Forge community.”

Alyssa Usab, Quality Engineering Intern

“Alyssa embodies the core values of Forge and has made a meaningful impact to site projects and team morale in such a short time. Her natural curiosity and enthusiasm positively affect those around her and promote strong trust and confidence. Her focused efforts on the Stage 1 Watson Marlow Filler and Capper project allowed for the highest priority site project to advance forward. She was able to impressively connect the fine details of project work and how it applies to overarching strategies, assisting in the early building blocks of Forge's later clinical stage and commercial readiness through mapping system process parameters and quality attributes throughout the platform process. We are fortunate to have met Alyssa and grateful for her successful contributions to Forge during her internship.”

Anna Chambers, Analytical Development Intern

“Anna has gone from 0 to 60 in under a 3 month period, and is already considered a regular for the Blaze AD department. Typically, it takes 6 months for our hires to be as integrated into our work as she is. Not only this, but Anna has been driving other side projects as well, greatly helping to drive significant change within AD as a whole. More so, she has the spirit that we're so proud of here at Forge.”

“She is no longer an "intern"... Anna has effectively become a regular, contributing member of our team with the same expectations on her as our associate scientists. She tirelessly learned how to do digital droplet PCR accurately and wasn't afraid to fail. She has become someone who now teaches that technique to others. After building her skills, she even participated in tittering client drug product material.”

George Durisek, Clinical Intern

“George took on two projects of significant scope this summer, creating business plans for a neurodevelopmental CRO and for a potential new indication. 

He consistently completed tasks ahead of schedule, sought out key stakeholders for input, and managed both his own timelines and those of team members.

 He consistently sought out feedback to improve both himself and his contributions with the aim of making himself a more effective clinician and leader in his future career.”

Congratulations to Alex Kriaris and Sasha McDonald for being nominated!

Peer Choice Award

The nominees for the Peer Choice Award were recognized by their peers for going above and beyond throughout their internship period. They are consistently a team player and have made the program better through their attitude, work ethic, and leadership. 

Alex Kriaris, Facilities & Engineering Intern

“Alex Kriaris is always working harder than everyone else. He is dedicated to his work, even if he is stressed about other things. He puts this job as his number one priority and continues to hype everyone else up when they are feeling drained. He consistently tries to help people when they have issues, and is not afraid to show his personality.”

“He always brings a fun and vibrant energy to the workspace. Alex consistently showed his enthusiasm for working at Forge by going above and beyond in his work relationships and team deliverables!”

“Alex is consistently there to assist, troubleshoot, lead, and is mindful of others’ needs.”

Ben Veres, Quality Assurance Intern

“Ben deserves this award because he openly interacts with everyone and is always willing to help whenever needed. Through my experience working with Ben, I have seen his go-getter and positive attitude in a variety of situations. He is always willing to answer any questions I have, provide suggestions, and take on tasks outside of his job requirements to support others.”

“Ben has been mindful of other interns throughout the summer and is always willing to talk through solutions with humility and kindness.  Ben is a true leader and has worked diligently this summer at Forge.”

Congratulations to Katie Jones, Kelsie Hegemeyer, Laura McCann, Sasha McDonald, and Alyssa Usab for being nominated!

As the interns return to their universities, Forge thanks them for the impact they made in each of their respective departments and across the company. 

A special thanks from Forge and the interns goes to the Talent Acquisition, HR, Facilities, Finance, and leadership teams, as well as all intern mentors and managers. We are excited to see what each of the interns will accomplish going forward—here’s to a great summer!