Week 1 Work at MABA – Kara Kyser

Hello everyone!  Throughout this semester of ABM 493, I plan to post about issues, events, projects, current news, etc. that I am currently working on at Michigan Agri-Business Association (MABA).  Two things I worked on this week were a letter of support to DTE (Detroit Edison Energy), and Certified Crop Advisor (CCA program) marketing in Michigan.

MABA signed onto a letter of support with a firm trying to buy an old DTE plant in Marysville, MI.  There are a lot of agricultural companies that would like to have a deep shipping port in Marysville, and the old DTE site is a great option for this initiative.  With my boss, I worked on writing a letter outlining reasons why our MABA members are in support of this site being converted to a shipping port to increase the agricultural economy in Michigan.

The Certified Crop Advisor program is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, so we are distributing marketing information through our communications department and also through MABA directly.  If you are interested in the CCA program, you should visit their website:  https://www.certifiedcropadviser.org/  or feel free to contact me.

 

And so it begins…

After almost two full weeks here at CMC Solutions, I have been made fully aware that my internship responsibilities will far surpass the obligations demanded by the additional 3 classes I have committed to.  I assumed that, similar to many internships, my responsibilities in the office would inevitably boil down to being the office slave.  Although it has been in business for about 12 years, this company is quite small with a total of 10 employees and myself as the very first intern.

 

I found out this past week that I will be required to find 3 additional interns from other regions of the U.S.  My boss requested that I find student interns that go to school on the east and west coast, as well as in the south.  His desired universities include Berkley, Stanford (his alma mater), Yale, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, etc.  I was sick to my stomach when he first told me this because I thought it would be nearly impossible to recruit unpaid interns from the nations best schools.  Thanks to my unbelievable luck, my best friend goes to Brown University.  When I asked her if she knew any environmental studies majors from her school that might be interested, she informed me that she had just recently switched her major from to exactly that and that she would be more than happy to be able add the internship to her resume

 

English: Brown University – Andrews Hall (Photo credit: Wikipedia).  One down, Two to go!!

Although this was a daunting task, it was nothing compared to the obligations I have to fill in the coming months, which include running an exhibition at an Air & Waste Management Conference in Chicago, as well as presenting a pitch on behalf of my company to the EPA and other environmental organizations at a August conference in D.C.

 

 

Week 2 – ADM

Despite this being the second blog posting, this was just my first week at the grain elevator in Reese, Michigan. During my first week, I have had to do a lot of training at my computer. This has been a tad long and tedious, but extremely necessary to make sure that I am safe on the job, as well as keeping others safe. However, I did out of the office quite a bit and into the plant. I did some hands on training, such as locking out a machine that is being serviced and how to enter a grain bin correctly. Also, I helped vacuum out a grain bin and run the vac and tractor.

Also, two high level grain managers came in to check out the plant. It was good to meet them and start networking with them. We went out to lunch and it was good to spend time with them and ask them about their job.

Lastly, at ADM, we have just acquired GrainCorp, an Australian grain company that owns many grain facilities there. This was important because Australia was the one continent that they were not involved in. This was a very big deal and should hopefully help their stock in the immediate future.

Week 2

The other intern and myself got a tour of the plant and how the seed goes through the facility, treatment of the seed, loading docks, the different drying buildings, the tower, and the warehouse. As the week progressed the seasonal help and us two interns had to tape around things that weren’t suppose to be painted, sweep and mop the floors, and finally paint all eight floors of the tower. The challenging part of the project was each floor had boxes and pallets that needed to be moved so we could work on that particular floor. Us interns had to figure out which floor would be best and then once the floor had dried, put the boxes back to the specific floor in the correct location. The paint crew has completed about one to two floors a day. We’re on floor four, so we should have the tower completed sometime next week. 

Big Changes During the First few weeks

I was hired in to Wilbur Ellis way back during Christmas Break. I went and interviewed when I was home and the branch manager offered me the position on the spot. I have been in contact with him and the other employees since then. I started full time on the 6th of May. After 2 weeks of working super long hours and finally getting my feet under me. I came to work Wednesday of my 3rd week to find out that the branch manager had been fired that morning and I was going to be getting a new boss. It was a huge shock and will be a big adjustment once the new boss starts and I have to get used to how he or she runs things instead of how things are currently run. Fortunately, all of the other employees I have gotten to know and enjoy working with everyday are still there. Going through the firing of a branch manager and adjusting to all the changes that come along with that is an experience I did not expect to gain during this internship, but I am still able to learn from it and look forward to meeting my new boss in the coming weeks.

This is my first internship, I was a

This is my first internship, I was a little nervous especially going out of state for my first time. I have my internship with Monsanto here in Farmer City, IL. My first week was basically all training in Saint Louis, MO. Listening to the VP’s and higher up people talk about the company and show us their products they have to offer. On Thursday, the 23rd is when I actually went to the plant in Farmer City. I didn’t really know what to expect, everything was like a mad house at first. I met my site manager, Clint and he took me over to where the other employees had a “tool box” which is where management talks about whats going on for the day or anything important. I again sat through more presentations, except this time these ones were about safety on the job site and proper personal protection wear. After that was through I had to go to two meetings with management, I just sat there and listened to what everyone discussing. I had no idea what they were talking about. After that was finished, the other intern and myself went and laminated tags for seed bags. Once that task was finished he told us that on Tuesday the 28th he was assigning us a crew to paint the 8 floors of the tower building. So the other intern and I just got various stuff around and that was the end of our day. 

Internship Week 1

I started my internship on May 6th at Crop Production Services as a crop scout. I haven’t been in the fields yet but I have been busy making deliveries, putting in liquid orders for customers, weighing in trucks, and organizing paperwork. My boss gives me a lot of information to read over, which is nice on rainy days when I don’t have anything else to do. Everyday I come in my boss ask me a question of the day to quiz me on this information. This has helped me to learn a lot about fertilizers, wheat diseases, and how to calculate fertilizer recommendations. .  

Enterprise-Difficult Customer

Today at work this morning my patient level was put to the test. The mornings are the busiest time at our location. I just finished a contract with a costumer and they left the lot driving off in the car. I walked back inside to the counter to a lobby of costumers, a man walked into our store walking in front of every one in line.  He throws is sunglasses and notebook down on the counter at the same time saying, “what is your problem you just gave my flipping car away”. I was confused and had not previous interacted with this man in my life.  I said I am sorry sir but I don’t understand.  The costumer that just pulled off the lots was driving a Kia Suv. This man claimed we reserved that specific car for him earlier that morning. The guy was lair and in serious need of an Suv. Reserving a car for a customer is strictly against Enterprise policy. Reserving cars never turns out right. Any car on the lot we are allowed to rent. I had to explain to this man that was not possible he got the point were I had to walk away and get my manager to help please this man. The entire time I kept my cool and set a side the anger of how awful this costumer was treating me. In the end we were able to fulfill his needs.

Enterprise Understanding

I have been working for Enterprise as a Sales management trainee for 2 weeks now.  I did not realize how much truly goes into renting cars. At our location which is a sweet sixteen spot, meaning the most profitable branch (aka super busy), has taught me renting cars is a total balancing act. You have to be as flexible, patient, and self aware as possible. At any given point in the day we have a lobby full of customers, cars being transferred in from headquaters or from region X, reservations that need to be made by phone, cars being clean, and accounts being satisfied. I feel like I am in boot camp, I get zero down time at work. The best thing is though I am learning how to become a great sales person, pleasing customer and creating my own sales account culture.

Pell Week 2: ABM Internship @ NCC

My second week at NCC was not very busy. All of the rain caused us to be slow in the feed store. Although this made for long days, we were able to be productive with other small tasks we normally wouldn’t have had time for.

I am working closely with the Express Feeds Manager to create different designs for a new store sign. The one we currently use is very old and outdated, making it challenging and time consuming to change the letters every week. It is our plan to put in a new digital sign to match the rest of the businesses in town. It is my responsibility to design the flower bed that will go around the sign and down the side of our building.

I was also able to go on a couple of deliveries with a salesman for NCC to observe and learn helpful hints for when I am out on my own. I enjoyed getting out of the store and seeing different farms and meeting new people.

I have started working on my big project for the summer –  planning a feed meeting with our Tribute Horse Feed Representative. The plan is to host an open house in the feed store for our horse customers to come in and ask questions and learn about the products that we carry. I am excited about this opportunity because I will be able to learn more and be better prepared to help my customers. I am very familiar with market animals, but not so much with horses.

I am enjoying this summer so far; my co-workers are a lot of fun and the days go by fast. I can’t wait to see what the month of June brings!

-Caitlin