To Infinity and Beyond...

Its been nearly a month and a half since I last posted and what a summer it has been. Currently, I am sitting in the IOE department at U-M and waiting to start my graduate student orientation. As an active member of the IOE department, everything seems so comfortable. Essentially, I could walk through the entire department and into each office blindfolded. One of the best things about the department are the people and with each familiar face, I get the question "how was your summer?" With that, it became yet another opportunity to reflect on my summer and mostly on my Tauber experience.

Honore and I on the Big G Cereal Floor

Since leaving General Mills two weeks ago, I've had the opportunity to release. I visited Honduras shortly, went to Miami, and spent a good amount of time in Chicago for a family wedding. Though, when packing my things up for Ann Arbor I find myself smiling and excited to share my summer experience in Minneapolis with those I will see shortly.

This summer, I grew so much. As a reminder, my Tauber experience was in Minneapolis with General Mills, as my team focused on a capacity planning strategy for General Mills. We were placed in the snacks division and specifically looked at Chewy Bars - which I will never look at the same way again (due to my thorough understanding of the whole process). I am proud of my accomplishments at GMI and feel that my partner and I made an impact at many levels.

As a note, a key piece of our project puzzle was solved within the final three days. This led to many great findings and though I did not plan on working during my final weekend in Minneapolis - it was well worth it! Our end deliverables consisted of tools and recommendations to aid in future capacity planning. One of the tools was innovative and came together in the last two weeks. In order to play into the GMI culture, my partner and I nicknamed this tool "Buzz" after Buzz Lightyear. (General Mills teams nickname their projects to keep them "secret" from division to division.)

In a nutshell, General Mills did a great job sponsoring Tauber for the first time. I took time to learn from other cross-functional departments. I gained exposure to GMI's Top Management (e.g. Senior Vice President John Church) who were all very open and welcoming to Tauber. In fact, their awareness was top-notch to what Tauber is and what we were doing. Additionally, I had time to visit amazing plants, some even unrelated to my project; these visits were something I really enjoyed and wanted to do. Lastly, our Vice President and project champion hooked us up with tickets behind home plate at a Twins Game. As a huge baseball fan, this is an experience I'll never forget!

My seats from GMI at the Twins game (row 3 behind home plate)

Now, as I return to Ann Arbor and embark on my final semesters at U-M I am grateful for many things - professionally, Tauber is the greatest of all. With full-time recruiting set to pick up in two weeks, and Tauber's final Spotlight! presentation set for September 16th the best is yet to come. My experiences within The Tauber Institue have made me a better leader, employee, and most importantly a better person. I have made connections (at General Mills, within Tauber, with faculty) that will last a lifetime. I have had experiences worth telling to interviewers - fitting for any question. That said, its time to prepare and get ready for another school year!

I encourage potential students to apply to Tauber, past students to be grateful for their experiences, and others to appreciate what this Institute does to many lives. It truly allows students, like me, to set their goals... "to infinity and beyond!"