Two students from the Haslam College of Business will attend the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) annual conference thanks to a gift from Caterpillar, Inc. The recipients, Joshua Caddell and Michael Stovall, join the Caterpillar Supply Network Fellow program in its inaugural year.
Doug Gray, general manager for logistics at Caterpillar, says the company chose to establish the fellowship because of Haslam’s reputation for producing top talent in supply chain.
“Caterpillar and the University of Tennessee have a long history of partnership, and the Caterpillar Supply Network Fellow program is a great enhancement to that partnership,” Gray says. “Our goal is to provide the best and brightest supply chain students the opportunity to attend a world class event.”
Caddell, a junior, and Stovall, a sophomore, were chosen from a pool of 20 students who submitted essays regarding the influence that artificial intelligence will have on manufacturing supply chains. Caddell and Stovall will shadow young professionals from Caterpillar during the conference, choosing and discussing sessions with them.
A recent transfer from North Carolina, the student exposure to industry at Haslam exceeds Caddell’s expectations. “I’m excited for this opportunity to represent one of the top supply chain programs in the country and one the best companies,” he says. “That is not an opportunity you get everywhere as a student.”
For Stovall, the fellowship presents a natural progression in his exposure to CSCMP. “’I’m involved with the student CSCMP chapter and look for every opportunity to maximize my experience at Haslam,” he says. “This fellowship will be a great way to learn more about supply chain from a company perspective.”
John Bell, an associate professor of supply chain management at Haslam, says connecting undergraduates with Caterpillar employees at the conference will give them an opportunity to think like professionals. “They can learn what problems real companies are trying to address and how to apply the concepts they learn at the conference to those problems,” says Bell.
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