Lakota board members voted unanimously Monday to enter into an agreement with P&G for the internships, which will be at P&G’s Beckett Ridge Technical Center in West Chester Twp. The Global Packaging Design & Development group and the Corporate Engineering Technologies Lab group both operate at the center.
Jerry Sutton of P&G’s CETL group said he was excited about the program and the opportunity it offered to students.
He said it all started with Lakota’s STEAM² initiative, which he said inspires students to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics and medical fields.
“I think it’s important that students have some inspirational experiences because sometimes they have trouble making that decision on which career way to go,” said Sutton, a P&G employee for 36 years.
Ten to 12 students — juniors and seniors — will go through rotations in six departments: modeling, simulation and analysis; mechanical engineering; electrical engineering; cost engineering; materials and welding engineering; and process engineering.
The rotations, which are scheduled to occur from mid-February through mid-March, will last about four hours, with the exception of one rotation, which will last two hours, he said.
An informational session will be conducted next month by a representative from P&G for interested students at each high school. Students will complete a brief application, and selected students will be interviewed to determine the participants for the internship experience.
Among many learning objectives, students in the internship experience will learn how modeling and simulation experts use physics and math in their daily work; see the approach and processes P&G’s Mechanical Technologies department uses to develop processes and equipment; and study robotics technologies and the advantages of leveraging collaborative robots in manufacturing.
Students also will work alongside cost engineers, learn how the proper materials of construction must be reviewed before designing a product and learn how P&G makes liquid and powder products at a small scale and a large scale.
“At the end of this experience, they’ll have a very good idea on how we take our products and mass market them,” Sutton said. “They’ll also have a good idea on what each engineering discipline does and the role they play in getting that product to the market.”
William Roth, a P&G welding and materials engineer, said one of his goals in getting the program started was answering the nebulous question of “what does an engineer do?”
Roth said he will be at Lakota East and Lakota West during lunch time the week of Jan. 6 to talk with students and see if they have any questions regarding the internship.
Applications will be due Jan. 10. Staffers at both schools will choose students the week of Jan. 13 and at least one parent or guardian will be required to attend a Feb. 3 meeting.
Interested students should be able to attend all sessions, be planning for a career in science or engineering and have at least a 3.5 GPA.
Lakota Superintendent Karen Mantia said the internship program is another chance for students to build on their classroom learning and gain real-world experience.
“What’s happening in the corporate world is, they’re not looking for college kids anymore,” Mantia said. “They’re looking for high school kids and that’s why these programs are so appealing, because they are doing talent acquisition, they’re looking for the kids in high school that they can nurture and recruit and bring back into the region.”
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