Behind the Scenes at the chamber

This is a guest blog post by intern Renee from Hiram College.

My name is Renee Pengov and I’m spending my summer going into my senior year at Hiram
College interning at the Eastern Lake County Chamber of Commerce. When I was referred to
the chamber for an internship, I had no idea what the chamber was. I don’t know, is it a jail? A
court? I can’t say I’m entirely proud to admit my uninformed ideas of what the chamber was,
but I’m proud now to be enlightened about just what the chamber does and even more so to
know what it’s like.
The Chamber of Commerce is an association which promotes local businesses and supports the
business’s interests. Things are much more personal than they sound; I have already, in my few
short weeks working for the chamber, built relationships with the staff as well as have gotten to
interact with members and potential members. The staff truly keeps their fellow workers and
members’ best interests at heart with hard work and a ton of fun.
What I now see an entrepreneur as is someone with a positive mindset and a great ability to
make change happen rather than waiting to see it happen. Although entrepreneurs range on a
huge spectrum of types of businesses and organizations, I would say that they all have put in
hard work, taken risks, and believed in themselves which are three things that I, and a
lot others, value. Most importantly, entrepreneurs share one influential quality: the desire and
ability to help others.