Paul Berkes, NIU OMIS major, interned with Nissan Forklift in Marengo, Illinois, as a Supply Chain Analyst Intern. In describing his internship experience, Berkes stated, “I can say with confidence that I have never learned more information in a summer that was so applicable to my life and my academic goals than what I learned as an intern. My experience has proven to me that there is no better way of connecting what our professors are teaching us every day to a truly palpable understanding of the material, than by being thrust out into a real working environment. I was immediately forced to take what I had just learned in the classroom and apply it to my daily activities, and I don’t believe that I would have developed a true understanding of the concepts had I not been made to test them in a situation that might actually produce consequences. My recommendation to every student at NIU is to spend the extra time needed to work at getting an internship.”
John Arnold, Senior Manager, Production Procurement, with Nissan Forklift, spoke highly of Paul stating, “The two core projects developed for this internship were the applications of lean principles to the NFC supply chain concentrating on inbound freight and Electronic Data Interface (EDI) opportunities with our supply base. Paul greatly exceeded our expectations on each of these projects. In regards to inbound freight, Paul defined our current state, established metrics, benchmarked our operation against other similar size companies, and identified opportunities for improvements. Based on Paul’s recommendations, NFC’s projected annual savings on inbound freight is a minimum of $320,000. Within days, Paul blended in well here at NFC becoming an integral part of the NFC team.”
Regarding Paul’s academic work, Dr. Chang Liu, DBA, NIU Associate Professor of Management Information Systems, says, “I have had the great pleasure of seeing Paul’s diligence and passion towards his work. He has been an outstanding student. Paul is a hard-working, self-starter who invariably understands exactly what a project is all about from the outset and how to get it done quickly and effectively.”
Ashlie Jarosz, an NIU theatre arts major, who interned with the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival as a Business Intern. In describing her internship experience, Jarosz states, “I had previously taken various business classes, courses in communication, and dance classes, but I have learned so much more here than I ever could sitting in a classroom. From operating aspects in the development department, to work with real life patrons in a box office/ticket selling situation, to team work and organization in a production department’s intense changeover work night, there was a little something of everything I got to experience. That was besides working in the business office all day and learning the organizational systems of reconciling account information, day-to-day arts organization, financial management, and the aspects of data entry. It’s literally the hands-on experience that you receive in real life, outside the classroom, that benefits you the most.”
Dennis Thomas, Director of Finance at Jacob’s Pillow, praises Ashlie’s internship with the following words, “Ashlie accepted the pace and workload of our Business Office with great aplomb and understanding of our team efforts, dealing with a wide range of responsibilities. As part of the internship, I always encourage self-defined inter-departmental projects. Ashlie’s interest in fundraising strategy, combined with her business skills, made her voluntary participation in cross-departmental weekly meetings a particularly exceptional example of her aptitude, depth of understanding and analytical skills, and skillful attention. Ashlie will prove to be an asset to any project or position she undertakes.”
Paul Frasz, NIU School of Theatre Dance professor, commented on Ashlie’s academic work, “Ashlie is not only a dedicated performer, but a leader of the student body. I know her work, her artistic ability and her organizational talent well as teacher, choreographer and advisor. It is a difficult task to find a position where your art and your ability to make a living can go hand-in-hand. Ashlie was able to achieve this in her summer internship and will, I know, continue to do the same in her future employment.”
John Yednock, a computer science and math major at NIU, completed a systems analyst and programmer internship with Texas Instruments in Plano, Texas. Yednock said, “This internship related directly to my major in computer science because it involved a great deal of programming. The main focus of my assignments was on analyzing and automating processes performed on the mainframe used by Texas Instruments. Texas Instruments recently acquired a new storage system and my tasks involved optimizing the use of this new storage. This required me to write programs in the assembly coding language. Toward the end of my internship, I was asked to develop a website for one of the IT groups. Participating in an internship with Texas Instruments has given me a competitive edge because I was able to experience mainframe programming first hand, which few students are able to do. I was also equipped with the tools to allow me to create an entire website. I experienced working for a large corporation and established relationships with very intelligent and skilled individuals.”
Terry Thompson, Manager of Mainframe Operations at Texas Instruments stated that, “John’s professionalism, competency, prolificacy, and his maturity exceeded my expectations. John was well liked by his team members, technical leads, and other TI employees that he met. In summation, John had a spectacular internship and has been a great under-graduate representative for Northern Illinois University.”
Penny McIntire, NIU Computer Science Undergraduate Advisor commented on John’s academic performance by stating, “I was amazed that a student who has completed only two years of college-level study was able to accomplish all that he accomplished. The tasks he was assigned were difficult, and he was working in assembler, the most difficult of programming languages.”