The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command Logistics Center hosted a ceremony on May 6 for 17 graduates of its internship program, which is now in its 10th year.
Maj. Gen. Todd Royar, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command commanding general, said he looks forward to working with the graduates and encouraged them to take what they’ve learned and use that knowledge to make improvements where they can.
“I’m excited for you. You’ve completed your internship and I want to thank you for a job well done. Now you have the license to go learn … take what you’ve learned and put that into practical application,” said Royar. “I promise you, you will find ways to do things better. You will have the opportunity to change the way we do things, and I would ask you to do that.”
Lisa Thomas, ALC human resources division chief, said the internship program is an important recruitment tool for ALC.
“This program helps us do what I call ‘build the bench’ so we can train these employees to be the future of logistics.” said Thomas.
The internship program is situation-based and is reassessed at the start of each Army fiscal year to ensure funding is available and the mission is still viable. The team also looks at the number of entry-level vacancies at the ALC.
“Funding is one of the most important factors, but we also work with the activity career program managers to determine if it’s feasible to host a class the following year,” she said. “We don’t just recruit a class after the current one graduates; there has to be a need.”
The program is open to recent and upcoming college graduates.
Thomas said her team coordinates with the career services departments at colleges to host recruitment sessions targeting students in specific degree fields with high grade point averages. The in-person sessions are traditionally held in the spring.
The preferred degree programs include: logistics supply chain management, business management, business analytics, accounting or finance, and computer science. There are no applications to fill out, but each candidate must provide a resume; on-the-spot interviews may be offered.
The program is a three-year, full-time internship with the first nine to 10 months in an academic environment. The interns are Department of the Army civilians and begin their career as GS-5’s working in life cycle logistics career fields. At the end of the program, interns will have progressed through the General Schedule system to ultimately graduate the program as GS-11s.
“The majority of their first year is classroom training to teach them the basic functions and the theory behind what we do here and how our business operates,” said Intern Program Supervisor Dianna Westbrook.
“This year we wanted to add rotations to incorporate more hands-on training to give them an opportunity to see some of the things they are learning about in action but, due to the pandemic and the COVID-19 numbers rising, that was not a possibility this year.”
The majority of the classes are taught by current AMCOM employees, but Westbrook is quick to point out they are not all part of the ALC workforce.
“The interns are not just learning logistics,” she said. “They are also learning about human capital and resource management. It’s important for them to learn those things because all of it impacts logistics. A huge part of the training program is helping them see the bigger picture. We don’t operate on our own; we are a machine and it’s important for them to understand how the machine works as a whole, not just one piece of it.”
The decision to host an ALC internship class for the 2022 year has not been announced, but interested applicants should contact their school career services department for upcoming information session dates.
The members of the of the 2021 graduating class are:
- Letiva Adkins of Decatur, AL
- Megan Bowling of Meridianville, AL
- Sonji Brown of Columbus, GA
- Della Canady of Burgaw, NC
- Emily Clay of Metropolis, IL
- Haley Ellis of Huntsville, AL
- Evan Groce of Russellville, AL
- Kayla Holt of New Market, AL
- Kyle Lasch of Decatur, AL
- Kyle Mathis of Hartsell, AL
- Joshua Mitchell of Guin, AL
- Ashley Morgan of Hytop, AL
- Cameron Robinson of Chicago, IL
- Emily Stanley of Toney, AL
- Brittany Toney of Clarksville, TN
- Darah Wigington of Rogersville, AL
- Jennifer Williams of Huntsville, AL
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