My internship experience has been such an awesome opportunity to learn about an industry that I had no prior knowledge of at all. I was able to experience the entire pickle making process from the time that it was delivered within the brine yard to when it was shipped out in cases from the warehouse. It was amazing to see all the different roles and positions needed to make this company operate.
I started out my internship within the brine yard where the cucumbers are delivered and stored for processing. Then I proceeded into the plant to the various production lines that process whole pickles, spears, stackers, relish and even pancake syrup. After the production line I was able to spend time in the warehouse to see the shipping aspects of the finished products. Additionally, I was able to sit in on production meetings as well as meet with various lead supervisor positions, including accounting. Throughout this experience, I was able to work closely and form working relationships with multiple professionals within different roles in this industry.
My mentor did an awesome job aligning my experience with knowledgeable individuals that were able to focus on their individual job responsibilities. He also did a wonderful job answering any questions that I had or putting me in contact with someone that could. As the human resource manager he was very helpful in pointing me in the right direction of the professionals that I needed to utilize. Throughout this experience, I believe that the most amazing aspect was the multitude of various job responsibilities that there were in order to make this company run on a daily basis as well as the overall production line from receiving all the way to shipping the finished products.
The only challenge that I really have had is relating the experience to my 8th grade math curriculum. Due to the nature of this industry which is really mainly production, most of the upper level mathematics has already been established at the corporate level and then provided to the plant. Therefore, most of the mathematics is basic conversion and computation skills because everything else has already been programmed into the computer programs utilized in order increase proficiency. Also, there was a lot of scientific principals utilized within the labs that I hope to be able to collaborate with my science teacher on in order to bring that experience back to my students as well.