Lee Rensch, a 2006 graduate of New Town High School, learned about teamwork in a unique way this past summer when he participated in a flash mob with hundreds of other Price Waterhouse Coopers interns and staff at Disney World's Epcott Center.
Rensch, who just graduated from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks with a master's degree in accounting, said the flash mob took part in July and was intended to help people work together as a team. Interns were given choreographed dance moves beforehand, had a chance to watch them and practiced in the training room the last day of the internship. When they took their act to the public square, it had to look like a bunch of young men and women had just started dancing out of the blue at 8:30 a.m.
"This had to look real," said Rensch, who was down by the Japanese pavilion during the dance. Passersby had their cell phones out and stopped to take pictures of the interns. As the song went on, more and more people kept jumping in. The video has been posted on YouTube and has more than 5,000 viewings.
Rensch said he thinks the exercise was useful.
"Dancing isn't exactly part of my skill set," he said, and being part of the flash mob took him out of his comfort zone. Interns learned that they will be put in all sorts of unfamiliar, occasionally uncomfortable situations and will have to work with people of all types.
Rensch said the internship and internship events like the internship development program at Disney World and the three day financial literacy camp he took part in this summer in Belize were like part of an extended job interview with Price Waterhouse Coopers.
Rensch has now been hired permanently by Price Waterhouse Coopers and will be working in the firm's Minneapolis office. As part of the internship he worked in international tech services, serving as an advisor to companies that are about to take their companies international. He assisted them in rearranging their accounting so they can go from domestic to international business.
PWC has offices nationwide and abroad. Rensch said in about five years he hopes to get a two-year assignment to one of the firm's international offices.
Resnch, who is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes, said he is excited about the opportunities ahead of him. When he was in grade school, he underwent a kidney and liver transplant.
"I have been very blessed," said Rensch, who said he tries to stay healthy and to take advantage of all the opportunities offered to him.
The flash mob can be viewed at (www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAgKlsEfqhg).