November 21, 2017
COB Seniors Earn Intern Spots at Supply Chain Conference
From left to right, Dr. John Kros, Jessica Pupa, Garrett Hinton and Steve Squires
Dr. John Kros, the Vincent K. McMahon Distinguished Professor in the College’s department of marketing & supply chain management, along with Jessica Pupa and Garrett Hinton, recently attended EDGE, a supply chain conference and exhibition.
Pupa and Hinton are seniors in the supply chain management program at the College, and both interned at the exhibition, which was hosted by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). They were selected from a large, national pool of supply chain management majors, as well as other factors including GPA, involvement in the College’s Institute for Supply Management student chapter and overall engagement with the program.
As interns, the seniors traveled to Atlanta (conference site) early, helped set up the conference and worked daily to help organize and run events for the day (i.e., acting as greeters, checking badges for keynote speaker events, sitting at the information booth, etc.). Pupa and Hinton were two of 60 interns that came from the United States, Canada and Europe.
They also were allowed access to a special event where companies set up interviews with the all of the interns. Both had a number of interviews with very high profile companies.
Jessica Pupa
On attending the conference, Pupa said, “”The CSCMP edge conference was a great experience to acquire new supply chain knowledge. Learning about the future of warehousing, with the use of autonomous robots, was very interesting.”
“It also was very enlightening to learn that the technology for autonomous driving is a few years off, while the social acceptance is 10-15 years behind the technology,” added Pupa. “Overall, the conference was a great experience, and I was honored to be selected on behalf of the College of Business.”
Kros said Pupa and Hinton received experience not available to most supply chain students. “They were part of a wonderful conference that included topics on forecasting uncertainty, last mile delivery service, and how to adapt to the modern supply chain,” Kros said. “Jessica and Garrett also had outstanding networking opportunities that took place with Raleigh Roundtable CSCMP officers Steve Squires and Will Seel and a COB Supply Chain alumni/advisory board member, Rod Mallette.”
Jessica was supported through the Vincent K. McMahon Distinguished Professorship, and Garrett was supported by the Raleigh Roundtable of CSCMP.