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Internship Breakfast
June 20, 2002

Today, June 20th, Hasbro hosted its 7th annual intern breakfast. The breakfast is held every year as an opportunity for all of the interns to gather and listen to different speakers and become more familiar with some aspects of the company. This year there was about 30-40 interns participating in the event.

The morning began with all of the interns arriving at the Newport Ave building at 8 in the morning. Prior to our arrival the Human Resources department had already set up several tables for the interns and their superiors who accompanied them. The tables were split up according to departments so that I sat with the other 2 tax interns as well as 2 of our supervisors. 

In my opinion, they should have set up the event so that people from all different departments were sitting with each other so each intern could meet some new people. After we found our table, complete with small toys and name tags, we were invited to help ourselves to the breakfast provided. The breakfast consisted of bagels, pastries, and muffins, as well as water, juice, and coffee. After about a half hour of chit chat, the events of the day began. 

The first speaker of the morning was Hasbro, Inc.'s President and COO, Al Verrecchia. Al spoke about his experiences as an intern here at Hasbro many years ago. He spoke of how he earned that job and what it was like back then. He also talked about his experiences moving up the corporate ladder to the position where he is at now. In telling of his experiences, he also provided some insight into the development of Hasbro as a corporation. 

After he spoke for about 20 minutes, he opened up the forum for any questions or comments from the interns. Most of the questions focused on what it takes for individuals to move up the corporate ladder to higher ranking positions. He touched upon the qualities of hard work, respect, discipline, and taking risks and capitalizing on opportunities. Much of what he said seemed very valuable because of his stature. After he was done speaking we took a short break before our next speaker. 

The next speaker was a woman named Kim Janson who works in the HR department and she spoke about Career Goal Setting. Much of her initial discussion focused on the value of networking. This led into the icebreaker for the morning, a networking exercise. Each intern was given a packet that had 12 small blank business cards and a plastic sleeve to hold them. We had to fill out the business card with our name, extension, email and then 3 qualities that we possess that could be beneficial to the company or other people. 

After filling out the cards we were to interact with the other interns and exchange cards while learning about each other. This was a decent exercise since it gave everybody the chance to meet each other but it didn't seem like we had enough time to meet everybody. Once we finished "networking" we sat back down and she continued talking about our potential careers. 

Her presentation basically consisted of her telling us that we need to find a job that suits what we are looking for and makes us happy, and in doing that we will find a job that we can provide quality work and be effective. After she was done speaking and gone through the packet she had prepared and handed out, the interns moved over to a theatre type set up to watch a slide show on "Hasbro's University of Play" presented by Eric Morse.


The University of Play featured a brief history of when all different types of Hasbro product lines were introduced and when Hasbro acquired different companies or rights to properties. The presentation also featured a list of 10 rules for the University of Play, one of which was, "You must begin each day with a big whiff of Play-doh." To demonstrate this rule Eric had left new canisters of Play-doh on each person's seat so that we could experience this rule first hand. 

The presentation also featured random pop quizzes on various material that had been presented during the slide show, the person with a correct answer was able to pick a prize out of a wagon filled with games, toys, and shirts. After the presentation everybody returned to their seats for another short break before the tour of that particular Hasbro building. 

Before the tour began we gathered for a group photo outside in the courtyard of the building. After the photo several interns who worked in that particular building left because the tour was unnecessary for them. For the few of us that remained, we left and took a walking tour of the different offices and sections of Newport Ave. 

This tour was different from the one last year, because this year we didn't get to see all of the different model shops up close. Last year we were able to see how a toy is started from an idea and developed into a functional prototype. This year however, we weren't able to go into the shops, only see them from the outside, we were told that we'll be able to take that tour later on this summer. 

The Newport Ave building is much brighter and more fun than the building I work in because it has more of a playful feel to it. This is probably because of the development and actual design takes place over there whereas here it is just financial activities. After the tour concluded around lunch time, all the interns departed and went back to their respective departments to finish out the rest of the day.

Questions for Jim?

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