Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Previc | Interns in the Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Historically Black Colleges and...... read more read more
MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – Over six weeks in June and July of 2024, Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) headquarters added to their ranks three interns as part of the Department of the Navy’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI) internship program. While all three are students are pursuing degrees in information technology fields, they also joined NAVSUP as short-term entry level employees with a highly relevant assignment to complete.
“Our team is seeking options to track customer and user satisfaction metrics for the enterprise,” said Marnie Brady, an information technology student from Community College of Philadelphia.
“It’s an important project,” said Amanda J. Johnson, supervisory program manager for the Supply Chain Technology & Systems Integration department at NAVSUP Headquarters. “We are always excited to welcome new talent to get new perspectives and solutions to our existing problem sets.”
“We’re using root cause analysis,” said Amari Aklilu, a student from Morgan State University majoring in cybersecurity. “NAVSUP gave us mock data, and we are looking for good solutions to solve specific problems. In my research, I found a great survey example from the Department of Defense, Defense Business Board, when they were working on network accessibility, and I was excited to adapt this model to NAVSUP’s specifications.”
“Beyond surveys, we are also looking at retention rate, churn rate, time-based metrics, and anything that would fall into the background when it comes to customer and user experience,” said Brady, who will be entering her sophomore year at Community College of Philadelphia. “From that information, we can propose specific actions, like offering self-service fixes to IT problems, maintaining multi-channel supports, and finding opportunities for user feedback.”
“Their capstone presentation was very impressive,” said Johnson, “and we were happy to bring their findings back to our larger team.”
The intern team, which included Nahome Walelinge, a computer science major from Community College of Philadelphia, also spent many hours on their professional development.
“We had great mock job interviews and built our government resumes,” said Aklilu. “I’ve already started applying for jobs and got some call-backs.”
The resource to the interns for professional development was Bradford Powell, special emphasis program manager in the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) office at NAVSUP Headquarters. Powell, who has worked at NAVSUP for two and half years, has a bachelor's in human resource management, and is a 15-year Veteran of the Army, said the internship program means a lot to him.
"Being able to coordinate an internship program that builds a diverse talent pipeline for NAVSUP while offering professional experience to undergraduate students is an amazing opportunity for all participants involved," said Powell.
Powell said he takes a particular interest in helping the students build their career networking skills, but also enjoys watching the benefits the NAVSUP mentors receive from exercising their own leadership and technical skills as they volunteer their time.
"I told the interns from day one 'get comfortable being uncomfortable,'" said Powell, "because your willingness to embrace unfamiliar, challenging, and uncertain situations will lead to opportunities for growth and learning."
The NAVSUP HBCU/MI Internship Program runs every summer. The application window is open from October to January.
NAVSUP is headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and employs a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel. NAVSUP and the Navy Supply Corps conduct and enable supply chain, acquisition, operational logistics and Sailor & family care activities with our mission partners to generate readiness and sustain naval forces worldwide to prevent and decisively win wars.
For more information about the HBCU/MI Internship Program visit: http://www.hbcumi-sip.com/navsup.htm
Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsup and https://twitter.com/navsup.
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.25.2024 13:15 |
| Story ID: | 477017 |
| Location: | MECHANICSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 110 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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