My STEP Signature Project was a summer internship with Rockwell Automation. I was an Import/Export Compliance Intern in their Global Supply Chain Program. During my internship, I conducted data cleansing for 20,000+ SAP parts in a Multi-COO Project, utilizing Excel VBA. I also fielded 300+ global classification RFIs (HTS, ECCN, COO, FTA) to ensure accurate trade compliance. Lastly, I designed a Power BI dashboard for Lektronix Database achieving full automation with Power Automate.

During my internship, I had the opportunity to work on global teams. This was a new experience that created challenges but allowed me to have a better understanding of other cultural norms. My entire life I have been located in Ohio causing my international experiences of different cultures to be limited. However, during my time with Rockwell Automation, I was able to learn from my team which was located around the world. Now, going forward I am more aware of cultural differences.

One project I worked on was to create a metrics dashboard for a database where products were being classified by our analysts. Two analysts were working on the database, one from Shanghai, and one from Brazil. My first challenge working with them was finding times that work for all of us. Because Shanghai, is across the world, I would have to meet with my coworker very early in the morning. This was definitely a challenge for all my team meetings because everyone is located in different areas of the world.

I also specifically remember one situation where I was explaining how to use a computer keyboard shortcut, completely forgetting that his keyboard was not in English. Often the language barrier would make information sharing more difficult. I am very grateful that I was able to have these experiences.

I hope that in the future I will be able to use these skills that I have learned when interacting with global teams.

This transformation is valuable for my life because the field of supply chain management is very globalized. Knowing how to work with people from around the world is a great skill to have. This will also help me in my personal life. I hope to travel a lot in the future, and now I will be more culturally aware.

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1)

My STEP signature project consisted of an internship with The Ohio State Planning, Architecture, and Real Estate (PARE) office as one of their lease administration assistants. The role consisted primarily of abstracting and analyzing business details relating to originating, adjusting, and time significant leases, while also pointing out and resolving differences between details outlined in legal documents for various properties, what is inputted into the company property management portal for these properties, and the behavior of those who hold responsibility for the properties in any manner. In addition, I worked to aid in the progression of various time significant projects within the office which were not lease specific. The size of these projects varied significantly with some taking right about an hour to complete while others spanned over multiple months. Moving forward I will continue employment with the PARE office doing the same role, however, I will also take part in meetings relating to the office’s plan to push forward with their proposed Framework 3.0 plan for the University’s development primarily in and around the west campus corridor. Since the ideal plan has already been formed my work on the framework front will consist primarily of attending the occasional meetings and giving input towards adjusting what is ideal to what is practical, mainly in the financial sense.

2)

Reflecting on my internship with The Ohio State University PARE office I feel that the understanding of myself has not change significantly. Before the internship I knew within myself where my intelligence and adaptability levels lied, and because of this I knew I was able to succeed within the field of analyzing real estate; therefore, I knew I was more than capable of succeeding in a portfolio administrative role which my internship was centered around. My time with the PARE office affirmed this feeling that I can succeed within such a setting, whether via a remote workspace or in office. Moving past my own self-reflection though I will note that a lot of subconscious assumptions I held about the world, especially in the corporate/institutional space, were developed and/or adjusted during my time with the PARE office. The most significant assumption which shifted in my life was the realization that in corporate/institutional settings the summer months are the busiest. Due to my life experience, where summer signified a break, I assumed that while people with full time jobs still worked, their day-to-day operations would be comparatively less strenuous compared to the rest of the year. My introduction to the expiration and commencement of the fiscal year (June 30^th and July 1^strespectively) then was a large awakening, and one that I will value moving into the career phase of my life as it unforgivingly corrected this assumption. Never again will I be caught off guard by an overwhelming amount of work occurring during the latter half of June and early half of July. Additionally, I assumed that my superiors in an office setting would be less forgiving, and maybe it was because the role I occupied was fairly inconsequential, but whenever I would make a mistake my supervisors were quite understanding and helpful in setting me back on the right path rather than being destructively critical.

My views of the world change fairly significantly during my internship with the PARE office, especially in the sense that my mind shifted from seeing a job as an effort-based affair to a results-based affair. I say this because, prior to this internship, all of the jobs I worked strictly required effort and the end result seemed quite meaningless. For example, when I worked for an Italian restaurant there would be people who produced fantastic food and those who produce fairly average to below average dishes, however, their praise and their pay did not vary based on the food’s quality, rather the speed at which they could fulfill orders. Likewise, when I did landscaping, the hardest part of the job was waking up and getting out to a job site. After that the work one put in did not really effect how a supervisor treated them or reflect upon them because the work was logically very easy, and thus any effort put forth made a job successful. The internship varied in that respect because the level of effort fluctuated significantly, sometimes even day-to-day, much more than it did at those other jobs. Somedays I would be on standby to help find information relating to various pending projects which sometimes meant I was putting in little no effort at all while still receiving high praise from my supervisors. Other days there were numerous projects that my supervisors would want completed by the end of the day (in some cases) which would require a substantial amount of effort and at the end of it I would be constructively criticized even though, comparatively, I was putting in much more effort than usual. This taught me that as an employee in a “higher level field”, fundamentally you are asked to operate at the level being asked of you by your superiors, and as a superior you are being asked to keep your subordinates working at a consistent pace in order to get the most out of their salaries. I want to be a boss one day and this was a good lesson to learn as when I am a boss I will try my hardest to keep my subordinates at a rock steady work pace so that money is not wasted.

3)

The first event which comes to mind concerning the increase in workflow which occurred during the beginning and end of a fiscal year was this project where the interns within the office had to nail down how much we should be charging those the PARE office does business with in management fees. This comes to mind because the project was something that our superiors wanted completed by the end of the fiscal year (June 30^th) and unfortunately did not come to completion until late July. There were numerous reasons for this, but the bottom line was that supervisors across multiple offices including PARE did not kickoff work on this project until it was too late. Another aspect which didn’t help were the adjustments and mistakes that were in part forced by the office, primarily the interns, feeling rushed to complete the project. Concerning the adjustments specifically, I learned that if a dialogue was had with the entirety of the office together before work on the project started, we may have been able to nail down which adjustments were likely to be had, thus saving a lot of time as this conversation was not had until a while into the project.

            Another issue which kept the progress of that large project from meeting deadline was the introduction of various other projects which also needed completion. Ordinarily, these assignments would be given to another team as ours was occupied with the large fee assessment project, however, because of the fiscal year deadline, all parties were occupied, thus there were more projects than there were employees. Being that we were interns the overflow fell onto us. The most significant workflow interrupting project to be randomly introduced was a report on how much property was lost and acquired since COVID hit. The university got a new planning director while the fiscal year was coming to a close and he was quite passionate about making sure that the university’s growth bounced back and exceeded goals set before COVID. Part of this effort was the aforementioned report which would typically be a valid request, however, given the workload placed upon us beforehand the new project was less than convenient. The project created quite the overwhelming environment unintentionally which could have been avoided given there was more communication between our supervisors and there new director. As a result I would say that communication, specifically a lack thereof, seemed to be the root cause of a lot of the delays that the office faced over the summer, which helped me realize that while expertise is an important factor within a “higher level field”, communication is equally if not more pertinent.

            In addition to communication, I learned just how important establishing a routine to the start of a workday is. When I started, my boss told me this would be one of the things I would have to master and he was completely correct. Starting off the workday in a consistent manner simply made each day easier for me as all repetitive and monotonous tasks were fulfilled within the first one or two hours of my day which freed up the rest of my shift to finish the more significant tasks at hand. By finishing the daily tasks, especially my communicative tasks, to start the day made mine as well as those I communicated with’s days easier as my end of communication was done before 11AM which gave those people essentially the entire day to get the information I would need back to me for whichever project was relevant.

4)

The changes and transformations I experienced throughout my internship with The Ohio State PARE office were very significant and valuable to my life moving forward as they provided me with an outlook which has allowed me to adapt to what a day-to-day work schedule within a corporate/institutional setting looks and feels like. I now have a good idea about how an office employee’s day should start (as mentioned previously) and I have developed great time management skills for the office. These skills are going to be paramount to my success within corporate and/or institutional spaces moving forward. In additional to these skills I have developed an expertise in MS office, specifically excel sheets, managing numerous corresponding streams of email communication, and property management administration. These skills are very base level for office operations within a real estate related space so while they alone will not make me an exceptionally coveted employee, they do provide a necessary base of skills which I can develop in order to become a coveted employee, and eventually an effective leader.

My time with the PARE office has slightly shifted my academic and professional goals. Heading into the internship I felt that while the role was more real estate focused, that I eventually would like to end up in an urban planning role which favored someone also possessing real estate related skills. Now, after the internship I much more open minded towards a real estate centered role which also lends itself to someone possessing urban planning skills. This shift also will affect my academic pathway as I will likely take some more real estate related coursework if such coursework fits into my schedule.

1.

My STEP Signature Project was my Internship with BroadbandOhio, in which I assisted with writing the State Digital Opportunity Plan. I mainly contributed to entering and analyzing survey data collected from addresses that do not have access to broadband, but I also aided in scoring the grants for the Digital Inclusion Pilot Project Grant Program, drafting a Broadband101 Handbook for the office, and tracking stakeholder engagement.

2.

My experience with BroadbandOhio as a Digital Equity Intern has elucidated my perspective on my prospective career and working for the state. I can now see myself working for the state further in my career, especially after seeing how many unique and different roles there are to play. I would particularly like to work more in a position that deals with stakeholder or community engagement, as I would be able to communicate often with those whom I am trying to serve, enabling me to serve them better. My experience also made me question my pursuit of law school. Now, I am deciding between graduate school and law school.

I also learned that if I were to work for the state, I would want to focus more on basic infrastructure and resources, like internet, public utilities, transportation, education, health, etc. instead of more salient issues that are discussed more in legislation. This realization changed what I prioritized regarding political issues—I was always focused on the more politically salient topics, like reproductive justice and LGBTQ+ rights. I am not saying that these issues are not still important to me, because they very much are, but that there is still a hierarchy of needs. How will citizens be able to learn and educate themselves about the above issues without the internet in today’s world? How can people even think about using the internet when they may not have electricity available? And what if they do not even have a home? No food? No clean water? This internship reminded me that these basic resources still need to be addressed for many people in the state of Ohio.

3.

I can now see myself working for the state government after witnessing the diversity of positions that are available within it. For example, my supervisor, who used to work for the Department of Education, introduced me to one of her former coworkers, who got a law degree and worked in a private law firm for a few years. She found that she did not like working in the private sphere as much as she thought it would—she wanted to be influential in her work. So, she got a job with the Department of Education working with policy—recently, she was able to get funding for a new curriculum that would utilize a more science-based learning method for teaching children how to read. This initiative, among others she has pursued, has been much more fulfilling for her.

This meeting also first made me question whether I wanted to go to law school. She told me that she could have achieved her position without attending law school, and advised that if I wanted a similar position, or if I wanted to work in the state at all, I should reevaluate my plans. She told me that a person “should only go to law school for one of two reasons: if they can go to law school for free, or if they want to be a lawyer.” As of right now, I have hardly any experience with the practice of law, and do not truly know what a lawyer does. Thus, her advice both scared me and inspired me. She went on to recommend a Master’s program instead if I wanted to pursue a career in state government.

Before starting my internship, I never knew much about broadband access and its importance; because I live in a more central area with better internet access and options for high-speed internet, I overlooked the role of high-speed internet in my life. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to attend Zoom meetings for class over the pandemic or work on many different internet-based projects at once on my devices. Meanwhile, many Ohio residents, especially in rural areas, go without broadband, or even internet service at all, barring them from telehealth, teleworking, and streaming videos on multiple devices. After working for BroadbandOhio a while and looking at survey responses from residents all over the state of Ohio, I realized how many people are unserved when it comes to internet access. Thus, I learned that if I were to work for the state, I would want to focus more on basic infrastructure and resources.

4.

These realizations will greatly affect the choices I will make regarding my educational pursuits and career path. Now that I am considering going to graduate school instead of law school, I am also bearing in mind a senior thesis—this would be easy to pursue since I am already working as a research assistant with a Political Science professor. Focusing on a thesis and applying to graduate school would probably put me on a more research-based career path. I could become a professor and research the effects of laws on government, society, etc. I could become a pollster and analyze political polls and conduct surveys. I could go straight to the state level and work in research or grants. Or I could become a government and policy consultant.

If I choose to go to law school, I must become a lawyer, or it would be a waste of paying for law school. However, I could practice any type of law I want, including tax law, criminal law, civil law, family law, labor law, and more. Later in my career, once I pay off student loans and become financially successful, I can do more non-profit work or go back to the state and work in policy. In closing, this internship has opened a world of possibilities for me by introducing me to an array of career paths through the interactions I had and the connections I made.

For my STEP, Signature Project, I spent the summer interning as a Private Equity Summer Analyst at Blackford Capital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There I focused on personal development within the industry. I was working on Mergers and Acquisitions deals within the industrial and consumer goods sector; for example I would deal with companies that operate within manufacturing and consumer goods such as pool products or car part manufacturing.
2. My assumptions about the world haven’t changed as I expected the workplace to be like that. Working in lower middle market space, I expected the market to be slow as the economy was in trouble as the interests were high. I saw myself as someone who was able to work much more than I thought, I had worked over 12 hours per day sometimes and it taught me so much about mergers and acquisitions as I considered the effect on different platform companies. I realized how interesting this industry is and my full capabilities.
It was a great experience working with my team members. It made me realize how important coworkers and teams are. We had a lot of team chemistry and understood how important each task was, managing what was on each other’s plates. Understanding my other interns and coworkers showed me how to really work on a team as I was always doing solo work. Learned how to manage and work with certain types of people as there are many views to working on a team and managing it.
3. My biggest experience was working on a deal for a furniture company. There were so many different variables as this company was struggling so I had to reanalyze their financials. When I had to look at new companies, I was looking at so many factors that would affect the refinancing of the deal. One of my favorite things to do over the summer was to make financial models, this meant I had to make very detailed projections for every company in the platform and then be able to combine them. I did so much research into the specific area that I would become an expert after working through a model and a pitch deck.
There were also so many synergies during the deal relating to suppliers as the extra products allowed us to look at so many different companies and see if there was enough cross selling or manufacturing because that would increase our profit margin. Looking at things like this would often take a lot of time and had me working 9am to 9pm for a whole week as there are often strict deadlines in this industry. I learned a lot about myself during these weeks and my ability to handle this much work.
Working with the team at Blackford was one of my favorite parts of the summer. I would be working on a deal with other interns, analysts, VPs, and even Managing Directors. Getting to learn from these people who have been in the industry for countless years taught me so much on what kind of path to follow and receive mentorship. Many of them
have worked at bulge bracket investment banks, ran other investment funds, and went to top business schools and have so much advice to offer.
4. This was very valuable to me because I know that I want to pursue investment banking after college and this internship was somewhat of a 10 week simulation of that. I had many doubts about if I could handle the hours, if I was smart enough to do the work, and if I even enjoyed the work. This reaffirmed that I could really succeed in this industry as I received positive feedback from all the superiors. Now I know what areas to focus in school and how to tailor my electives and classes because I know I want to develop my writing skills more as well as Excel and Powerpoint.

During the Summer of 2023 partook in the Washington Academic Internship Program through the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. As part of this program, I interned with the FDA in their National Headquarters, lived in D.C., and took classes with like-minded students.

This program aided me in developing skills that I now deem paramount to my future success in a public affairs career. Not only did I make connections with employees in both public and private spheres of governance, but during my time in D.C. I learned how to network and utilize connections for professional development. In the office of the FDA, I learned to navigate the office culture of Federal agencies and learned technical skills for working within a regulatory agency.

Beyond just an experience in professional development, this program helped me learn more about what it is I seek in my personal life. Before the completion of this program, I was dead set on working at the Capital and living in D.C. post-graduation. After speaking with many adults who worked on the hill and after experiencing working in a Federal agency, I redirected my post -graduation plans away from working on the Hill and instead for working in a federal agency. I am very fortunate to have gotten this experience before I graduated so that I did not up sprinting to a career I would not have enjoyed post-graduation.

After cold messaging people on LinkedIn, meeting them at D.C. networking mixers, or otherwise being introduced through mutual connections, I met with a variety of people over the summer semester. These people I met with came from a variety of backgrounds, working in every facet of both the private and public sector. Before each meeting I prepared questions and took diligent notes on their responses. These meetings helped me to understand what working in politics as a postgraduate is like. This newfound understanding has helped me to prepare for life after college- and driven me away from the plans I had previously made for after graduation. The name of the game in D.C. is networking, and I took full advantage of the mentoring atmosphere many people in D.C. harbor for college students.

Secondly, getting the chance to explore and live in D.C. gave me valuable information about what it is like to live outside of Ohio. I have spent my entire life living in Ohio. To navigate both the geographic and cultural landscape of D.C., I had to adopt an entirely new perspective. Through reading up on the history of the city and through talking with its residents, I was able to understand how I could navigate the social complexities of the city.

While interning for the FDA, I was given a variety of projects to complete. Some of them were semester long projects such as tracking legislation, others were week or even day long projects such as creating backgrounders for people that the commissioner was going to meet with or compiling data for GAO studies. These projects aided me in developing time management skills, furthered my computing skills as they are relevant in an office space, and research and data collection.

This project helped me to narrow down what it is I want to do as a career. I was terrified that after college I would be wandering aimlessly into the job market or otherwise select a field I would grow to dislike. Through gaining knowledge of what it is like to work within a federal agency, I have decided to set myself to getting a job in one after graduation and save myself the struggle of experimenting in a variety of different fields. The skills I developed while in D.C. as part of my project will be essential to my success in not only landing a job after graduation, but in thriving within that job as well.

    Over the summer I worked at a summer camp called New Avenues to Independence summer camp at my hometown in Mentor, Ohio. This camp consisted of children with disabilities ranging from autism to down syndrome. At this camp, I was a classroom aide and assisted with preschool age children. I helped with the children’s individualized educational plans and the daily activities.

   This camp definitely changed my view on the world. The children that I worked with were from all different backgrounds. Each student had different socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and gender. I was able to work with such a diverse population during this camp. The privileges that I had growing up were not the same for the children at my camp. 

    During camp my classroom passed the stomach virus around. Throughout the last two weeks of camp every child had the stomach flu. Many children still came to camp because they had no one to watch them at home. One father told us that he had to send his child to camp because this is the only time he is able to sleep. I felt awful for the child having to go to camp sick but at the same time I felt bad for the father. He has no other choice but to send his sick child. When I was growing up, if I was sick one of my parents was able to take off work and take care of me. I learned that not everyone is going to have the same privileges that I have. People all around me have different socioeconomic status. This camp helped me deepen my understanding in patient populations. 

   During lunchtime each day, I noticed there was one child who only had a few cookies or a pop tart to eat everyday. This child was nonverbal and would always try to take other children’s food, clearly still hungry. The teacher would communicate this behavior with the child’s parent, but each day he was only sent with a bag of cookies. The teacher and I began to pack extra food in our lunches for the child to have, and even other students would freely share their food. Growing up, I was fortunate enough to never experience any sort of food insecurity. At first, I felt angry and frustrated that this child was not being provided nutritious and filling food to eat, especially since he already struggled to communicate his needs as is. However, as the weeks passed I understood that his family may not have the means to feed him properly and was likely doing the best they could. Most importantly, I thought about how if this camp did not span through lunchtime, I would not have known that this child struggled with food insecurity, and may not have been as understanding of his behaviors. This experience has stuck with me, and I have made it a point to remind myself that a multitude of factors contribute to a person’s behaviors, many of which are out of their control.

   During my time at the summer camp, I assisted a camper who had a speech impediment that made it difficult to understand what he wanted to communicate. Many peers and teachers could not understand him and he would repeat himself over and over, resulting in his frustration and sadness. Growing up I also had a speech impediment that impaired my ability to communicate with friends and family. I empathize with the boy at the camp, because I completely understood what it feels like to speak without being heard. I had a strong connection with the camper and would work to communicate his needs to other staff members and campers. After consistently working with him, I was able to understand him much better than before. I would also tell him to use gestures to help communicate with us. When he was feeling sad, I would comfort him and tell him it’s going to be okay. At the end of the camp, other campers were able to start to understand him with the help of his gestures. He had more confidence in himself when communicating with others which made me so happy! I was so glad I could be a part of this camp, as it was an eye opening experience and I learned so much about the way children act with different disabilities. 

       I want to become a speech pathologist and work in an elementary school setting where I can fulfill my passion for working with children. As a young child, I struggled with a speech impediment that made it difficult for me to communicate and properly pronounce words. Not only did my speech impediment affect my communication skills, it was also the first thing people would point out about me. Students, teachers, and friends would constantly joke about my speech impediment and it became my biggest insecurity. I was embarrassed to say certain words and would avoid words I knew I could not say properly. Working with a speech pathologist allowed me to overcome this obstacle, improved my ability to communicate, and gave me back my confidence. I aspire to help children overcome the same issues I encountered and set them up for  success in life. My motivation is not only to fix a child’s communicative skills, but to help improve their confidence. This is exactly what I was able to accomplish at the camp. As a future speech pathologist, I will be working with all different types of family and clients. Each family/client is going to be unique in their own way and have multi factors that contribute to why they need my help. This camp has given me the opportunity to get hands-on experience working with kids who have disabilities from different diverse populations.

For my STEP project, I completed an internship with the Ohio Education Research Center (OERC) and worked with Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) through the OERC’s program. During the internship, I attended professional development sessions where I met with professionals working in government, consulting, and data analytics. I also created a series of maps using software such as Tableau, R, and Python designed to assist OHFA with the allocation of housing tax credits.

Over the course of this internship, I grew both my technical and professional development skills. I was able to see how a government agency operates from an inside perspective and see in depth the services the agency provides. While I was previously aware of some housing policy initiatives, interning for OHFA allowed me a much better view into specific programs and policy choices. For instance, while creating my maps, I learned a great deal about the allocation of housing tax credits and their importance for many low-income individuals in Ohio. The experience demonstrated the importance of low-income housing and the barriers to providing it that exist. Additionally, as I worked with OHFA’s data analytics team, this internship emphasized the necessity of data analysis and its practical use. Decisions about OHFA’s programs and future were backed by data, enabling the organization to quantitatively understand how programs were performing.

Key aspects of the program that led to these realizations include the mentorship I received throughout the program. For the internship, I had two supervisors, one through OHFA and one through OERC. My supervisor at OHFA, Chelsea Buckwalter, taught me so much about her agency, data analysis in general, and housing policy. She set up meetings for me to learn about other positions and departments within the agency, as well as pointing me toward outside resources involving housing policy. While I was interning, my OHFA supervisor also invited me to many of the meetings she attended throughout the day, which gave me a feel for how involved the process of data analytics and housing policy are.

My supervisor through the OERC, Josh Hawley, also contributed to my internship experience. Along with providing guidance and mentorship, he brought in speakers for the interns to learn from throughout the summer. The speakers included professionals from Ohio agencies such as the Ohio Department of Education, a data analyst from a consulting firm, and prior students who participated in the internship program. Hearing the speaker’s personal experiences in their roles and their advice was invaluable. It gave me a sense of where I might like to take my career, and contributed to my perception of how necessary data analysis is for many different employers and agencies.

Another portion of my internship that was extremely influential was implementing my technical skills using different technologies to create housing maps. This process included teamwork, many unexpected hiccups, and learning new skills to tackle the project. It also taught me the specifics of working with public sector data, such as the concerns surrounding PII and public data regulations. Becoming familiar with different software, such as Tableau, Python, and GIS showed me the variety of tools available for data analysis, and the multitudes of possibilities for representing information. It introduced me to new ways to represent information and encouraged me to think about different ways to approach a problem.

In the future, I hope to use these relationships and skills to further learn and grow. My experience as an intern showed me that I am very interest in public sector data analytics. I love that this field allows me to use both my technical skills along with my passion for public service work. The work I did with OHFA was incredibly rewarding and reinforced the value of this type of work through the data demonstrating OHFA’s successful programs. My mentors this summer provided valuable insight into the field as well. I am excited to use this knowledge to inform my future career choices, and inform my ability to perform in future roles.

This past summer I had the opportunity to intern with Paccar: Kenworth Truck Company in the accounting department for my STEP signature project. During my time at Kenworth, I was able to participate and lead audits, preform daily data analysis, as well as work in preparation for and participate in the bi-annual physical inventory count at the end of the summer.

During my STEP signature project my perception of myself changed regarding what I will look for in a career. Paccar is a company that recognizes the separation of work and your outside life and prides itself on a good work environment. While I was an intern, I saw this standard being pushed throughout the office space. Every morning we would have morning meetings to discuss the tasks at hand, but in these meetings, we also discussed all the ‘good stuff’ that was happening in our personal lives. I think this helped create a sense of community and a productive work environment that made it easier to communicate and form relationships with one another.

Besides finding what I find important in my future employer, I also tremendously grew professionally this summer. This summer I learned how to communicate effectively and professionally, how to work with different departments, and how to independently problem solve. These are skills that will go much farther than just this internship. These skills are important in everyday life as well as in my professional career.

During my internship, I was able to lead multiple audits of the manufacturing plant as well as our off-site part manufacturers. These audits were one of my main responsibilities this summer. I performed build station audits, line location audits, stat audits, and the end of quarter truck cut off audit. I oversaw these audits and followed them from start to finish. This means I was responsible for planning and scheduling the audit, communicating with the departments I needed to utilize, creating the audit sheet, performing the said audit, then reconciling the results and creating a memo for the audit. These audits pushed me to independently problem solve since they were my responsibility to complete. It also taught me how to analyze the results and communicate my findings with my peers and leadership.

This internship was one of the first professional work experiences I have had. Before this summer, I had never worked a job such as this. Working at Paccar provided a great starting place for my professional career. Being able to work standard hours every day and up to over 40 hours a week allowed me to get into a routine that I had never had to prioritize before. Being back on campus, I definitely feel that I still prioritize my routine that I created in the summer, and it has led to me being more organized and structured than previous semesters. Because of my internship, I also think that my work ethic and productivity has greatly increased. Being responsible for many daily tasks and constantly having a high workload has greatly affected my work ethic.

This change and development is very important in my personal and professional goals. Not only did interning at Paccar this summer provide me with work experience that I can carry into my next endeavor, I believe that it has shaped me into more responsible, productive student. The skills I learned and sharpened up on during my time at Paccar will be transferable to wherever my career may take me. I am grateful for this experience and for STEP for helping me be successful in my internship.