Student of the Year Recipients Recognized at May Annual General Membership Meeting

PennACE recognized the achievements and contributions made by four undergraduate students enrolled at member institutions who have completed an internship or co-op assignment with the JoAnne Day Student of Year Awards at the May 2020 annual meeting. Four awards were presented in these categories: Liberal Arts, STEM, Business and Associates degree. Recipients were presented with plaques and checks by their respective career services center during the Spring semester.

This year’s recipients were notified at the end of January. Recognition plaques and the $500 cash award were mailed to the respective career centers for distribution and recognition as they deemed appropriate. The awardees were announced to the membership by email, an article placed in the February issue of the PennACE newsletter, the Messenger and on the PennACE website.

Chris is the first Central Penn College student to win the PennACE award. During his internship, he served as a criminal analyst with the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office in the Criminal Investigation Division. He worked on several projects with a number of detectives to include three criminal homicide cases, a missing person case, credit card and insurance fraud cases, a suspicious death case, sales of drugs at the prison and in local communities, and case reviews that were sent to the office by other agencies. These cases were reviewed for any missed information that would come to light to assist the other agencies in getting a lead on the case, or for a conviction of a suspect. Chris said that he learned how to work in a team setting dealing with complex situations. “The experience has been rewarding as I have gained useful experience outside the classroom. The internship allowed me to gain several working connections in the criminal justice field. I have gained experience, knowledge, and network connections not only with CID, but with several other departments as well. This will be an experience that I will never forget and one that I will cherish for many years to come. This internship experience has really made me work harder towards my chosen career.”

As an intern at Contact Technologies, Inc., St. Mary’s, Maddie led the Lean Leveled Cells project. She was responsible for presenting the project during the monthly communication meeting and to the company’s chief financial officer. Maddie stated: “The scope of the project was to evaluate the skills of the employees and to develop pay scales. The objective was to determine the skill sets in every cell. Once I determined the skill sets, I could better understand the value of each employee and begin to develop a comprehensive pay scale for all the employees in each cell. I have done hands on work to enable me to understand the processes of each cell and the skills each team member had to know. The time spent job shadowing the employees, working with department heads, and absorbing all the information gave me an opportunity to better communicate the data to management. The experience was a very positive one in which I developed my skills further, expanded my knowledge, and took a step beyond the classroom by “getting my feet wet” in the real world of business.” “Maddie created this project from scratch and soared with it,” said Jackie Lenze, Contact Technologies’ human resource generalist and Maddie’s internship supervisor. “While these experiences pushed her out of her comfort zone, she took on the challenge with ease.”

Cailyn Hall worked on over 10 projects, which included collaboration with personnel in the Operations, EHS, Quality, Maintenance, Purchasing, and Supply Chain departments. A few key accomplishments include:

• Created 40 Preventative Maintenance (PM) task lists and pictorial guides to advance the site in the company’s Reliability Excellence (Rx) program

• Developed and tested 3 methods to effectively and safely reject under-weight pails on the 5A Line •

Led the commissioning of the new Quart Line de-palletizer - installation, training, standard operating procedure (SOP) development

• Created 6 medium-level Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs) for production Gemba boards to standardize operations across all shifts

• Designed and managed installation of piping system to automate delivery of 6 heavily-used raw materials and biocide (anti-bacterial agent), resulting in annual labor savings of $100K

• Scoped and submitted 5 capital projects with cost savings (totaling $2.4M), 2 asset preservation projects (totaling $73K), 1 safety-related project (totaling $15K), and 1 quality-related project (totaling $100K)

Cailyn wrote “Participating in the co-op program has certainly increased the number of future opportunities that will give me an avenue to accomplish my goals. I have developed a strong relationship with my manager who can attest to my technical knowledge and strong interpersonal skills, which is critically important as I apply for jobs. Outside of Sherwin-Williams, hiring managers are consistently impressed by my concrete contributions during co-op which is useful in setting myself apart from a typical engineering undergraduate student. I firmly believe that I would not have achieved the same level of success that I have if it weren’t for co-op.”

AT PJ Dick, Minnie Jones took on two redevelopment projects in the Strip District in Pittsburgh at 1600 Smallman and The Produce Terminals. She was provided with her my own office space and the required PPE for work at active construction sites. She shadowed the PMs by attending various meetings with the owners, architects, subcontractors, and Project Executives along with being able to ask numerous questions about the construction process from start to finish and seeing what their day to day operations looked like. In addition she worked closely with the PEs to:

Complete several in depth site surveys for off-site subcontractors to price additional work
Managed the installation of bike racks at the Produce Terminals
Facilitated communication between owners, architects, and subcontractors by submitting RFIs, and Submittals
Created construction progress reports

Minnie stated “Through this experience, I was able to improve my organizational and leadership skills, gain hands-on experience, get an in-depth understanding of the construction process, receive advice and guidance regarding both academic and professional careers, and grow my professional network.”