I'll Take You For a Ride in my Big BLUE Tractor

This summer I have the opportunity to intern and be a member of a prominent agribusiness located in my hometown of Lancaster County, PA. New Holland Agriculture, which is a brand within Case New Holland Industry (CNH), has it's North American Headquarters campus located in the town of New Holland, PA. I am 1 among 19 interns located at the New Holland Campus, whom will be engaging in the internship program New Holland offers every year. 

New Holland is Celebrating their 120 Years

What has made my first two weeks exciting and welcoming have been the people, starting with my fellow interns. We each hail from universities and colleges all across North America and we embody a variety of majors consisting of engineering, marketing, business, agribusiness, and agriculture education as well as come from a diversity of previous agricultural experiences. From my first two weeks, I have already learned more from this group of interns through comparing and contrasting of my hometown and university to theirs then I have in combination of my past two interning experiences. Not only have they offered fun facts and information, but the four other interns that work in the same building as I do have all joined our buildings softball team for the summer. (Unfortunately we lost our first game) 

In addition to the interns, the employees of New Holland have exceeded all expectations. They made that first impression that professors continually teach us about, one that should be remembered. Having four straight days of meetings with all the directors and managers of our building was a lot, but collaboratively they set the stage for how the entire company functions and the atmosphere in which they work. Ever person we encountered was skilled, intelligent, dedicated, hardworking, progressive, and caring. They wanted each of the interns to experience and learn all they can this summer and they are willing to help out in any way to accomplish that. They were also interested in where we come from and what our goals were for the summer, which is refreshing and exciting as an intern to know they want us here as much as we want to be there. What ultimately blew my mind, was the career paths many of them took to be in their current positions within the company. Many worked within different departments requiring different skills and knowledge that they needed to be successful. This showed me the caliber of who I am privilege to work around all summer, in addition to the effectiveness of the company's structure, in they way they continually develop their employees skill sets and knowledge.

After four days I was able to return to my cubical housed in the Network Development (ND) Department where I will be working this summer. Talk about expectations being blown, what until you hear about this department! Most importantly I have felt nothing but comfortable around the employees within this department. They are open to having me ask questions, they continually greet me and engage in conversations with me, and include me in all their department meetings as well as invite me to attend all building meetings. Not only that, but they all are genuine during engagement. This is the atmosphere of New Holland in general though, which has made me excited to go to work each day. 

I have learned more in two weeks about this department then I have ever learned about anything. This is accredited to two factors. One being the people, particularly my manager, and the other being my project for the summer. Discussing my project will help you understand why my manager has been outstanding. My project for the summer is taking a manual previously developed in 2007 that outlines, describes, and provides understanding to the entire ND Department. My summer will be broken into two phases. The first phase is collecting information through research and interviews about the inner - workings of Network Development as well as the interrelatedness of other departments with ND. Phase two will be re-writing the manual. The purpose of the manual is to be able to give it to people who are new employees or need a detailed and thorough understanding of the workings of the ND Department. My manager has played the role of guiding me, by posing questions instead of telling me the answers and "how-to's" of the manual. This has allowed me to learn at an exponential rate but yet ensure my project is on track. In addition, he consistently reminds me of his open door policy to utilize his experience and knowledge of the department to bring concepts and information full circle.

Hopefully you can tell I am excited for the summer and what New Holland has in store for me. I have already been, and know I will be continually challenged throughout this summer. I am assured though I have been given all the support and resources I need to accomplish my task through the conversations and people I have met up to this point.