Kaleigh Schreiner and Kelsey Peyton
Two recent Ottumwa High School graduates spent their summer putting skills learned in high school into practice and learning more about their chosen field of study.
Four area students were selected for a summer internship at John Deere Ottumwa Works, including Kelsey Peyton and Kaleigh Schreiner of Ottumwa. Interns were selected via an application process. Once selected, they spent their summer working 40 hours a week for the farm implement manufacturer.
Peyton followed in her sister’s footsteps. Her sister, Nicole, just completed her fourth summer internship with John Deere. Unlike her sister, she is not on an engineering track. Instead, Peyton spent the summer working in Supply Chain Management. The position focuses on buying materials, monitoring inventory, and making sure materials are at the plant when needed. She worked on several projects throughout the summer. “One of my biggest projects was looking at the current process with pallets, how we receive and dispose of them,” Peyton said. She looked at ways to reduce cost and the environmental footprint. She also did some data migration based on employee needs and created a visual metric board used to track asset goals.
The internship not only confirmed her chosen field of study, but also taught her some valuable skills she can use in college and the workforce. “I had learned a lot of time management with all my high school activities,” she said. “Once you start working, you improve your skills even more.”
She also had plenty of opportunities to use her communication skills. “With projects, you need to talk to people to figure out information,” she said. And she credits her high school public speaking course in helping her with a presentation she made at Deere’s corporate office in Moline.
With no prior farm or engineering experience, Kaleigh Schreiner gained a lot of real world knowledge from her experience working as a manufacturing engineering intern. She worked on a variety of parts and now has experience with 3D modeling. “I didn’t know what equipment was made [at John Deere],” she said. “Now I know what the equipment is and what goes into making those products.”
Schreiner also learned how important communication is in the workplace. “I communicated and collaborated with a lot of different employees in order to get projects done,” she said.
Her interest in engineering stems from the movie, “Dolphin Tail.” She was intrigued with the process that went into designing Winter’s prosthetic tail. With an interest in engineering and medicine, she began researching biomedical engineering. Right now, that is the direction she is headed. “Several people are encouraging me to switch” after her summer experience at Deere.
For Schreiner, the experience was very rewarding. “It is hard to get this type of experience in college.” In October, both girls will learn if they have been selected for a 2017 summer internship.
Both agree the experience is something more students should pursue. “Being in the work setting has opened my eyes to the field I’m interested in,” Peyton said. “I enjoyed my summer. I think this is a good path I’m going to be taking.”
