Page 30 - CJA Spirit Spring 2021

Mixing It All Together
Armitage, Vice President of Purchasing and Risk Charlotte started the one-month paid internship
Management at The International Companies. They at The International Companies in July 2020. Tony’s
were collaborating to create a food science internship vision for learning modules allowed her to meet and
offered exclusively to a Cor Jesu student. To complete work with various specialized company teams to learn
the recipe, however, they needed two ingredients: about their roles and where they fit in the food science
industry. As part of each team rotation, she completed
1. The perfect student an activity related to that specific area. For one activity,
2. Company buy-in she conducted her own sensory panel where she tested
which brand of Stevia, an artificial sweetener, tasted best.
“I made solutions with different levels of concentration
The Perfect Student of Stevia, and then the control set was regular sugar,”
They were looking for someone who was not Charlotte said. “I had 10 people taste and rate the
only passionate about food science, but also a self- different attributes of the samples, which included
starter whose placement in the role could help trial sweetness and clean tasting, to see which was best.”
the internship concept and cement it for the future. Charlotte’s field study provided a well-rounded
Charlotte was already considering a food science perspective on all the different career paths available
major in college. She was also enrolled in Cor Jesu’s in the food industry. She visited food manufacturing
CORPORATE PARTNERS INITIATIVE
unique honors class, Independent Science Research plants as well as some of The International
(ISR), which pairs a student with a professional mentor Companies’ clients, like 1st Phorm – a premier
in the community to develop and execute a research supplement nutrition company that purchases
project and report their findings. Charlotte was products from International Food Products.
working with Emily O’Chiu, a food technologist at And finally, she experienced what it is
The International Companies. Her project: to create a like to work in a professional office setting
lactose-free cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese. handling a variety of office duties.
“My favorite learning module was flavor trends,”
Charlotte said. “I enjoyed making connections with recent
Company Buy-In flavor trends and how they align with popular culture.”
The already-established company culture
at The International Companies made
acquiring the second ingredient simple. The Finished Product
“We [The International Companies] like to say At the end of the internship, Charlotte delivered
that our word is gold,” CEO, Clayton Brown, said. a capstone presentation sharing the highlights
“If we say we are going to do something, we do it, and learnings of her summer experience to an
and we treat everyone with respect along the way.” audience that included leadership and team
With the ingredients secured and ready to mix, facilitators from The International Companies, as
Tony got to work crafting a detailed description of well as faculty and staff members from Cor Jesu.
a college-level summer internship that included “Beyond its exceptional depth and scope, what
the opportunity to rotate among strategically impressed me most about Charlotte’s experience
selected teams at The International Companies, was that it allowed her to grasp how the specialized
as well as a field component to allow learning and elements within the industry all work together
engagement with a variety of its corporate clients. to form the whole picture,” Cynthia Wilhem said.
“It was easy for me to be enthusiastic about this “Many college-level internships don’t come close
internship project because of the environment to delivering this caliber of impactful learning.”
Clayton Brown has established,” Tony said. “I knew it
would take a lot of people to make this happen, and
“ don't come close to delivering
everyone at our company stepped up and said ‘yes.’ Many college-level internships
That’s what happens when you work at a great place.”
-CYNTHIA WILHELM, DIRECTOR, CJA CAREER COLLEGE AND WELLNESS CENTER”
this caliber of impactful learning.

28 SPIRIT MAGAZINE SPRING 2021