We’ve been in Peru for over two weeks and I have not had much time to post.
I’ll try to do this in segments, with the first segment being our first week in Peru.
We arrived in Lima in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, January 2nd. After catching up on our sleep, we had a tour of the city and the Miaflores section where our hotel is located. We spent Monday through Thursday attending lectures at Universidad Del Pacifico and visiting various places of interest. Below, I have posted pictures from our first week. We had a fascinating visit at the U.S. Embassy where several members of their staff explained their political, economic, and cultural roles. They wouldn’t let us take cameras with us, but they gave us a CD with photos they took.We also toured the Yobel plant and the Full Cotton Company.
Students wasted little time in exploring their new surroundings, exchanging their money, finding places to eat, and practicing their Spanish.
The next post will be about our weekend in Chincha, Ica, and Paracus.
Our tour guide, Augusto, introduces our students to the Plaza de Armas in the Miaflorez section of Lima.
Our Classroom at Universidad Del Pacifico
Preparing for our tour of Yobel
Outside the Yobel Plant
Dining at Huaca Pucllana, a restaurant set among pre-Incan ruins in Lima.
“Not too far”, a phrase we have heard so many times from our hosts over the past few days in reference to the distance to particular destinations.To us it means a couple of blocks, yet here in Germany we have found that the phrase carries a much different connotation.Virtually anything within the city limits seems to be, “Not too far” from the German point of view.
As a group though, we have traveled far.We departed Wisconsin this past Saturday and took an evening flight from O’Hare International Airport.Our total flight time was roughly eight and a half hours.The local time upon our arrival in Frankfurt was 10:15 am.After venturing through both customs and baggage claim with everything accounted for we met our student mentor Timm who had come to the airport to help us navigate the trains required to get to Fulda.After a short train ride from the airport we arrived at the Frankfurt train station to transfer trains for the final hour of our travel through the German countryside on our way to Fulda.
The town of Fulda is located in the state of Hessen in central Germany, roughly 60 miles northeast of Frankfurt.It was founded in the year 744 when St. Boniface instructed St. Sturmius to found a monastery to be used as a missionary center as well as a place of retirement for St. Boniface.After his death St. Boniface was buried in the town in the year 754.Since then over the centuries the town has grown and developed into its current size of roughly 65,000citizens.
After a brief period of settling into our hotel we were off to a welcoming event that was put on by our host university, Hochschule Fulda, University of Applied Sciences.The university was founded in 1974 and supports approximately 5,000 students who are studying fields such as Economics, Nutrition Science, Food Technology, Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, Nursing and Health Science, Social and Cultural Studies, and Applied Computer Science.The President of the university Dr. Karim Khakzar welcomed us to the International Winter School.His presentation was flowed by the Director of the International Winter School Dr. Irina Kohler who further elaborated upon the history of the school and the program we were a part of.Our final presenter was Gesa Pusch, the managing director for our program.Over the past few months she was the person who had been scheduling and coordinating many of the activities for our trip.
We had little time to adjust to the time change as we had class at 8 am local time Monday morning. We had three students join our program as well for the two weeks.Kinga and Joanna joined us from Poland as well as Ali who came from Uzbekistan.We spend the first two class periods from 8:00 am to 11:15 am discussing the varying aspects of globalization and doing business internationally.In addition to the principals and practices we also discuss specific countries each day and the risks and rewards of doing business in those places.We are able to gain incite not only from our own discussion, but also through the perspectives provided by the students who have joined us.In addition to our business course we are also taking courses in language, dance, and cooking.Our evenings thus far have been spent at various local establishments experiencing the local culture.
This evening (Wednesday) we attended a reception at the town castle hosted by the Mayor of Fulda Dr. Wolfgang Dippel, exclusively for us.Known as the Palace Residence or Stadtschloss, the castle is one of the many examples of Baroque architecture for which the town is known.After a short speech by the Mayor, we were treated to some refreshments and then taken on a short tour of the residence.Currently the building functions as the town hall, but it also includes many large and impressive banquet halls, as well as the former prince-abbots apartments.
Tomorrow we are going to be able to tour Tegut Logisitk, a local logistics company based out of Fulda.Then on Friday morning we leave for Berlin for the weekend to see various sites and tour certain attractions.We have witnessed and experience so much so far in such little time and we still have nine days left here in Germany.
I am currently a Planner/Scheduler Intern in the Aftermarket Department at P&H Mining Equipment Inc. P&H Mining Equipment is one of the two operating units of Joy Global Inc. (worldwide leader in mining solutions). Another one is Joy Mining Machinery which specializes in equipment and support of underground mine operations, where P&H Mining Equipment specializes in surface mining operations. The machines that P&H Mining Equipment manufactures and supports are used to mine coal, copper, silver, gold, diamonds and more.
My responsibilities as an intern include a wide variety of daily/weekly/monthly activities. Some of them are: evaluating lot sizes and issuing purchase requisitions, extending parts to other facilities, creating material master records, running reports and other various projects. I also assist Aftermarket Department with planning, scheduling, and calculating inventory levels.
I can say that I have learned a lot in these three months. Now when I go back and look through the notes that I made when I just started this internship I sometimes laugh thinking to myself – “How could it be so hard for me to understand such a simple thing?” Obviously I do realize that there is still a lot to learn and I want to learn as much as I can while I have this opportunity. I was also able to apply what I have learned in my SCOM classes.
There were few challenges. One of the hardest was developing a “habit” of doing certain processes/procedures working only twice a week. The good part of it is that every time I do something I remember how I did it last time and I analyze the necessary steps to complete a task. So by completing certain tasks every day when I work I manage to learn new things, exactly because I am not doing it automatically yet and I need to think what else is there I can check into to make a better decision. My supervisor and coworkers have been extremely helpful in teaching and mentoring me. They also have been very patient with me. In return for their help I am trying to learn things faster by making detailed notes and looking through them before going and asking for help. I am also constantly trying to relate what I have learned at work to what I have learned in classes and vice versa.
I found this internship at a perfect time in terms of the classes I am taking this semester plus I still have plenty of time to expand my knowledge and increase my desirability as a potential employee. This internship helped me to understand what types of skills, what knowledge and experience I should have upon my graduation to be successful in finding a job. This internship made me even more passionate about supply chain.
I would recommend everyone to start looking for an internship as early as possible, and not just for an internship but for something you think you may want to do after graduation. I am extremely glad and thankful that College of Business has this internship program.
Miller Electric Mfg. Co. is an industry leader in manufacturing arc welding and cutting equipment designed for manufacturing, fabrication, construction, aviation, motorsports, education, agriculture, and marine applications. Miller is owned by Illinois Tool Works (ITW), where it holds worldwide leadership by setting the standard for reliability, quality, and responsiveness.
I am currently an Operations Management Intern with the Portable Power Group at Miller Electric in Appleton, WI. I assist in day to day operations with ordering, shipping, and receiving. I am also involved with quoting, setting up production lines and long term, and other various company projects. It is a very interesting job that is teaching me a lot.
The thing I like the most about this internship is that I’m involved in decision making. I was able to be the leader in a project that set up and organized a production line for two very important products Miller produces. This allowed me to work with many different people within the Miller organization. This also allowed me to be in contact with suppliers and understand that side of the business. Along with setting up that production line I am able to work on cost savings projects. These projects are awesome because it allows me to use my business knowledge along with incorporating things that I have learned from school.
I am learning an enormous amount of knowledge at Miller. This internship has absolutely helped me with my future career goals. I would recommend Miller Electric to any college student looking for an exciting and rewarding internship.
I am currently a tax intern at Voith Paper in Appleton. Voith is a multinational company with its headquarters in Heidenheim, Germany. The company has been around for almost two centuries; it started as a family business and still is privately held by descendents of the original owners. Worldwide Voith employs just fewer than 40,000 employees, and has locations on four continents. Last year we had gross sales of around 5.1 billion euros, and net income of 77 million euros. There are four main sectors that make up Voith. They include a Hydro division, a Turbo division, an Industrial Services division, and of course a Paper division.
My duties are on a more regional scale. In the tax department here in Appleton we are in charge of all North American tax returns, ranging from Canada to Mexico. We are responsible for around 30 federal tax returns, and around 50 state and provincial tax returns annually depending on mergers.
So far at Voith I’ve had the opportunity to experience many different aspects of a multinational tax department. I assist in quarterly installment payments, filling of amended returns, and provision and extension return work. I also work with our fixed asset system, investment portfolios, and local accounting software. Another large part of my experience includes researching new tax law changes and how it will effect our situation.
While learning all types of accounting systems, software, and many tax rules and procedures; there is another entire side to this internship. I guess I would call it the common sense learning. What I mean is not only do I learn things on the computer, but I get to interact with professionals and go to meetings and seminars to get the full effect of the business world. I think some of the best experience I will walk away with is how to go about doing the work, and how to approach certain people, things that they never talk about in the text books.
My experience here at Voith is priceless and it is a great way to learn about the accounting world. Although at times it seems overwhelming and unattainable, my supervisors have never given me something that I am not able to do. They have been more than willing to sit down and teach me anything I ask about. Overall, it has been a great experience.
