GP offered me the unique experience to leverage my business education with the international business knowledge I had learned within the GLS program and throughout my study abroad experience. During my internship, I was assigned to assist GP Harmon (the recycling leg of GP) to perform a quantitative and qualitative analysis on entering into foreign markets, with the ultimate goal of presenting my findings to the upper level executives to aid in their decision-making process. Throughout my project, I was able to refine my communication and presentation skills by interacting with clients of various cultures and leadership positions within the Harmon organization.

Similar to my individual experience, the GP internship program as a whole provided a rewarding program and experience for all the participants. All of us were assigned an individual mentor who made a constant effort to make the experience as beneficial as possible, whether it meant taking us to a casual lunch or allowing us to shadow different divisions within the GP organization. I was also able to interact with Georgia Pacific leaders at almost every level, for the C-suite executives to plant controllers. It’s hard to wrap your head around the operations of such a large corporation, but GP definitely made a constant effort for us to see the range of opportunities the company offered, whether it was managing a distribution center to working in the corporate office.