Wheel and Sprocket Internship

Marc Prellwitz
SCOM/ Purchasing Intern

I am currently a purchasing and sales intern with the internet sales division of Wheel and Sprocket. Wheel and Sprocket is one of the top bicycle retailers in the nation and includes six stores as well as two different web based stores. I currently work out of the Oshkosh store, which also contains the mountain bike parts division of the online sales program.

In my position I am responsible for a wide variety of daily and monthly activities relating to the web store development. I work closely with industry representatives and distributors to find closeout components and parts that we sell online through various platforms. On a daily basis I must assess the items we are bringing in or will potentially be bringing in and weigh the risks associated with them. The goal is to be constantly improving the quality and price of the items we bring in in order to improve our sales.

In addition to focusing on the purchasing side of our internet sales, I also am responsible for managing the inventory when we receive it. I developed and implemented a simpler and easier to use ID system for our items once they are activated on the web stores so that it is easier for our shipping employees to find products. Prior to the system, an employee who was supposed to ship required a rather in-depth knowledge of different types and characteristics of the components. With the labeling system I developed, it is much easier and faster for people to simply use the system instead.

The final part of my internship focuses on evaluating sales figures and deciding what we should bring back and what items we should avoid. I have been surprised multiple times with this part of my job. Items that I was sure would be high grossing and fast sellers have sat for weeks while items I was sure wouldn’t succeed have flown off the shelves.

My internship has taught me a lot about inventory management. It has allowed me to put to use some of the knowledge I have gained during my time here at UWO and utilize techniques developed in much larger companies. It has allowed me to grow and stand on my own with a large amount of responsibility. Especially during the winter months storefront sales are down, so my department becomes a much bigger part of the sales during the time period. With my applications of large-scale corporation techniques to our smaller web based sales department we should be able to improve over last year’s sales and utilize our money better with smarter buys and faster sales.

Oshkosh Corporation Internship

Jared Petersen

Oshkosh Corporation is a Fortune 500 Company that designs and builds the world's toughest specialty trucks and access equipment by working shoulder-to-shoulder with the people who use them every day. Oshkosh is continually improving the perfect by making it their business to understand the struggles of their customers' jobs, and to than deliver vehicles that out-perform anything else on the market. Oshkosh is then able to back those vehicles with a 24/7 global service network. Oshkosh has been able to maintain their excellence because they strive for diversification and with this; they are able to leverage their technologies to create profounding competitive advantages across several different markets. This strategy has earned Oshkosh a top leadership position in every truck market they enter.

I am currently the Shared Treasury Intern at Oshkosh Corporation, working directly with the V.P. of Finance and the Treasury Team to ensure our cash is being used as effectively and efficiently as possible. Our team focuses on activities such as cash management, lender management, hedging management, investor relations, and bank relations. Each responsibility is divided out among each member of the team based on each individuals strengths and areas of specialty.

As an intern I have the privilege to be involved in a little bit of each responsibility listed above. My daily responsibilities consist of EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) verification, prior day reconciliation, account balance tracking, remitting EFT’s, calculating and positioning current day cash balances, and distributing the debt message and dashboard to senior management. The most important responsibility assigned to me is the current day cash positioning. I pull the bank reports, calculate the overall balance in all of our accounts, and then let senior management know if we are positive or negative. If we are positive, we then pursue short term low risk investments such as Treasury Bills; if we are negative we will decide where to redeem our cash with the lowest penalty.

Other than my daily tasks, I was also given various projects. These projects include creating an internal auditing database, lender analysis, bank account fee analysis, bank entitlement form organization, and credit application processing. I enjoy these projects because it allows me to see different departments within Oshkosh, and gives me a taste for the type of work they each do. Any time a project is offered, I am more than happy to take it to further my understanding and knowledge of the different business activities.

Whether it is a project or a daily task of mine each responsibility requires reporting. There are two main daily reports which I distribute all the way up to the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) level. These two reports are the daily treasury dashboard and the daily debt message. Both reports show our daily activity, interest expense, debts spread, and weekly debt forecast. The difference between the two reports is the dashboard is sent via e-mail, where the debt message is sent verbally over voice messaging. Being given the responsibility to report directly to senior management is very rewarding to me.

My experience with Oshkosh Corporation has been nothing but excellent. I have been able to provide Oshkosh with an internal auditing database, a foreign currency analysis spreadsheet, a more efficient foreign exchange filing system, and an automated dashboard. On the other hand, Oshkosh has demonstrated to me the importance of a hard work ethic, has taught me fundamental business ethics, has increased my knowledge of accounting procedures, has introduced me to the corporate environment, has surrounded me with the most knowledgeable and talented personnel to work with and learn from, and most importantly, showed me the qualities and attributes of a company I would enjoy working for full time.

Oshkosh Corporation Internship

Emily Merten

I am an Accounting/Finance Intern with Oshkosh Corporation. Oshkosh Corporation currently has four business segments: Access Equipment, Defense, Fire and Emergency, and Commercial. McNeilus Truck and Manufacturing is part of the Commercial segment and one of Oshkosh Corporation’s nine major business units. One of my responsibilities in the Shared Credit Services department is to identify accounts with credit risk for McNeilus Truck and Manufacturing. With this responsibility, I must contact McNeilus’s customers to ensure accounts are within their assigned credit limits. It is important to any company, as it is to Oshkosh Corporation, to promptly collect their credit sales to keep their business running. I also facilitate credit card transactions, gather information on dispute issues, collect delivery information, and distribute copies of statements and invoices to customers.

Along with my everyday responsibilities, I am able to strengthen my professional development in other ways. I sit in on conference calls with our customer support representatives located throughout the country so that I can get a greater understanding of how my department’s responsibilities fit into the “big picture” of the company. I also attend meetings with other departments that inform the employees on what is happening with the business and what its goals are for the future.

I have found that everyone is very helpful at Oshkosh Corporation. My supervisor and coworkers are very willing to take the time to explain any questions I have. They motivate me to not only work hard in the office, but in my schooling as well. It was humbling that from my first day, everyone in my office was so welcoming.

The College Relations department work to insure that interns enjoy their experience with the company. They are always willing to listen to any problems interns may have and help to find a solution. Also, the College Relations department sets up events for the interns to further their experience and professional development. These events allow you to get to know other interns and learn about their role in the company.

My experience so far with Oshkosh Corporation has been wonderful and has taught me many skills that I can use in future roles. I have been able to grow not only as a student, but an employee as well. I am so grateful for knowledge I have gained throughout my short time with Oshkosh Corporation.

Sarah Kissinger
BBA: Human Resources

Society Insurance is located in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. It is a regional niche player in insuring commercial-only small to mid-size businesses in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana. They specialize in insuring restaurants, grocery stores, taverns, cleaning services, and other niche markets like movie theatres and dining restaurants. If you take a walk in downtown Oshkosh, all those types of businesses are what Society insures.

I am currently the Human Resources Intern at Society Insurance. One of my responsibilities includes assisting in the recruitment process. This involves job posting, entering candidate information in the applicant tracking system, assisting with phone screens, setting up interviews, and administering testing. I also help with the on-boarding process when we hire a new employee. I prepare salary analyses for open positions by collecting data from various reports; I submit internal salary data to authorized data vendors, and track insurance institute training. I also work on different projects assigned and help with coordinating employee events.

Along with all my responsibilities, I am able to shadow my supervisor to experience everything that is done in the Human Resources Department. For example, I was able to sit in on a court hearing over the phone. This was a really neat experience for me to be able to see how the law fits in with Human Resources and apply the knowledge from my classes to the court case. My supervisor tries to include me in on as much as he can so I can grasp the full aspect of what it is like to work in the Human Resources department.

Society Insurance has an internship program that has taught me a lot about insurance. In this program, we attended presentations where we learned about each department and then went on various job shadows. This showed me how Society Insurance runs as a whole and not just in the Human Resources department.

I have learned a lot in the first few months of my internship. I have been able to apply what I have learned in the College of Business to real life experiences. This has given the opportunity to grow as professional and not just as a student.

Special Olympics Internship

Alicia Bridge

I started my internship with the Special Olympics Fox Valley Region this August. The Special Olympics is a non-profit organization providing people with cognitive disabilities the right to compete as athletes. Although we are required by UW Oshkosh to complete an internship before graduation, I feel honored to have gotten myself this internship. I can go there, knowing I am making a difference in people’s lives while still being "at work". Not many people can say this! I have spent the beginning of my internship in event planning working on the event Bowl for Champions. The Special Olympics teams up with the local police forces to hold this event and raise money while bowling.


My favorite part of this internship is how much my job relies on the community for help. It has shown me that the community will come through and help for a good cause. At first I was shy asking for things such as donations, but this internship has helped me gain the self confidence I will need when entering the real world. I also love the fact that every time I go into the office I complete multiple different tasks. I am usually always doing something different which is nice for a change of pace. Some duties include finding donations, getting volunteers, getting companies to support us, Bowl for Champions event, Lock Up A Cop, creating awards and prizes and lastly and most importantly, the Polar Plunge. I am very excited to start working on the Polar Plunge event. Last year, nearly $380,000 was raised during Polar Plunge and it is a very big event that I am happy to be a part of.


My experience with the Special Olympics has been a huge success. I honestly couldn't be happier with an internship program. My supervisor is very nice and willing to help with any questions I have. I also love that it has given me so much hands on experience with event planning, considering that is not a major or minor offered by UW Oshkosh. It has helped me realize I am capable of succeeding in business and gain confidence within the community. It has also made me really want to get a job within a non-profit, or at least volunteer. I now plan on being a lifetime volunteer with the Special Olympics. The only problem with this internship is there isn't much opportunity for growth considering there are only two people in the office, although continuing with this organization would be awesome!

ThedaCare Internship

Katelyn Frassetto
Accounting/Finance Intern

I am currently an Accounting/Finance Intern with ThedaCare. ThedaCare is community health system that includes four hospitals, twenty-two physician locations, residential facilities for senior citizens and multiple ThedaCare at Home, ThedaCare at Work, and ThedaCare Behavioral Health Services locations. Through all of our locations we provide medical care for over 150,000 individuals each year. As the intern at our corporate office, I have the opportunity to experience many different aspects and be involved in many of the processes of operating a non-for-profit organization.

In my position I am responsible for a wide variety of tasks, which is one of my favorite aspects of the internship. I am not tied down to just journal entries or just asset management. So far I have been involved in many processes and responsibilities. My largest project has been compiling information for our 990 tax return and learning the tax requirements of a non-for-profit organization. Through this experience I was able to learn a lot about the account structure and flow of assets in hospitals, physician services, our corporate office and other entities. I also had direct contact with our outside public accounting firm, which gave me great experience in building professional relationships and confidently communicating financial information.

Some of my other responsibilities or projects I have been or will be involved in include asset and capital management, preparation of end of year financial statements, mileage and account audits, liability insurance renewals, balance sheet and bank reconciliations, regulatory research, cost justification, company audit, other tax reporting requirements, retention program improvement, automation of documents and still others.

One of the few challenges I faced is when I first started. I was completely unaware of what to expect. To my delight, the people here are all very helpful. I was worried I was going to be overwhelmed and thrown into projects larger than what I was capable of. But I was proven wrong very quickly. My supervisor is very understanding and knows how to motivate people. He allows someone to grow in their position in their own way. He knows how to give just enough guidance and let you run with it. He helps me strive to reach my full potential even if I don’t know what that is or how to achieve it.

I have learned so much in the little time I’ve been here so far. Working at ThedaCare is helping me define my career path choices. I know an organization like ThedaCare would definitely be somewhere I would want to work. I know to look for a culture and company that values and motivates its employees. Due to the varied experiences I now have, I also know more about which area of accounting I want to pursue. I have also learned how to professionally present myself.

The biggest difficulty I have encountered so far is my lack of confidence. Being in a professional environment surrounded by very intelligent and successful people was quite intimidating at first. Yet, the most significant improvement I have noticed is the confidence I now have in myself and my abilities. Initially I was inhibited and afraid to ask for projects or things to work on because I was afraid I would be unable to succeed, fulfill the requirements or do something wrong. My supervisor and coworkers have been extremely helpful in mentoring me and teaching me that everyone make mistakes and needs assistance. They have showed me how much I learned from the College of Business and how I truly am able to apply that knowledge. Now, I willingly ask for projects because I am much more confident and I realize they are opportunities for me to learn, not to fail. I encourage anyone starting an internship not to hesitate. You will miss out on very rewarding and beneficial learning opportunities.

My experience so far has been very rewarding. I feel very appreciative for this opportunity. I have gained an extraordinary amount of hands on experience and real world knowledge. Overall it is an honor to be a part of the ThedaCare team and work with such amazing people. ThedaCare’s accounting/finance department is making huge leaps in providing better quality and cheaper costing healthcare and I am honored to be a part of their success and innovation.

Georgia Pacific Internship

Christopher Bauer
Georgia Pacific Internship

I am currently a Systems Analysis / Programmer for Georgia Pacific. GP is a leading manufacturer and distributor of paper products around the world. Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, GP employs over 50,000 people across the globe. I work out of the Green Bay office supporting the Transportation division.

The team that I am a part of is responsible for the Information System that moves over $1.3 billion dollars worth of paper products each year. The system is a home-grown beast which processes information from different locations across North America. We process this information and present it in an organized fashion for users. Every day is a new experience and I never know what the system is going to throw at me. My responsibilities include re-writing program code, in-depth analysis of the system to determine where improvements could be made, debugging code to find bugs and making hotfixes, and participating in projects during the full project life cycle.

This experience has been very rewarding and has helped confirm my choice in studies here at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. It has given me the hands on experience needed outside of the classroom to apply my skills that I have been taught and build additional knowledge. Additionally, it has helped me increase my business skills including proper etiquette, better communication, and problem solving abilities. This experience has also helped me realize what is all involved in operating a large scale information system.

I have had many different challenges that I have had to overcome since beginning my internship back in June. I have always thought that I was a very organized person, but when I am trying to juggle 4-5 projects, monitoring emails, team meetings, system alerts, etc., I found that I wasn’t as organized as I thought. It took a little while to adjust to the workload, but after a couple weeks of getting in routine everything started getting done in a timely fashion. The other big challenge was trying to figure out how the system worked. With so many large pieces flowing into the system, it took a while to figure out all of the pieces to the system and why there were there. Once I knew how the system was designed to work and how each part goes with another, it made analysis much easier and writing program code much simpler.

I am honored to be a part of Georgia Pacific’s Transportation IT team and would not trade this experience for anything. I have been able to take the tools I’ve learned here on campus and apply my new found knowledge at the corporate level.