Ed G. Smith College of Business students (from left) Mary Elliott, Sedny Sorm, Malik Bowman and Myka Radford took part in the inaugural cohort of a first-of-its-kind internship program with the Boeing Defense, Space & Security division. Months before graduating, all four students have already officially accepted full-time jobs as procurement agents with the leading global aerospace company. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
For most University of Missouri–St. Louis students, earning a degree is a required first step toward making their dream job a reality.
But a unique program is helping a quartet of Tritons speed up that process.
This summer, Mary Elliott, Malik Bowman, Myka Radford and Sedny Sorm took part in the inaugural cohort of the Boeing Defense, Space & Security procurement internship program. As a result, they each have already accepted full-time employment with the leading global aerospace company months before making the walk to accept their diploma.
The first-of-its-kind program marks the beginning of a significant chapter in the relationship between UMSL and Boeing, giving students in the Ed G. Smith College of Business the opportunity to spend time learning the nuts and bolts of being a procurement agent for the multinational corporation, whose Defense, Space & Security division is headquartered in St. Louis. After completing the company’s eight-week training program alongside recently hired Boeing employees, the students remained on staff to support several of Boeing’s programs as part-time employees, with the option of taking up to 40 hours.
“Going into it, I was kind of expecting the stereotypical internship, where you go get coffee and do a lot of administrative work, but it was the exact opposite,” said Elliott, who is scheduled to graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and an emphasis in management. “They fully threw us into training, with real employees sending us real work. We were treated as real employees.”
That’s because Boeing sees its internship programs as a pipeline to full-time employment.
After successfully completing the summer program, all four UMSL students were offered – and have officially accepted – full-time jobs as procurement agents with the company. Bowman (BSBA with an emphasis in supply chain) and Radford (accelerated supply chain program) will switch to full-time status after graduating in December, while Elliott and Sorm (supply chain and analytics) will join them following the ceremony in May.
“This is such an amazing program, and I think it plays so beautifully into UMSL’s mission of transforming lives,” said Jill Bernard Bracy, an associate teaching professor in the department of supply chain and analytics, who helped develop and leads the program at UMSL. “You are going to get experience and then be workforce-ready day one at a company that is investing in you as a potential future employee, and I think that’s such an awesome opportunity for the students who come here.”
For Boeing, the opportunity to retain the students throughout the academic year was an important part of the program’s design. In a traditional summer internship, students might spend much of their time observing employees, leaving limited opportunity to see how they perform in the role. This program gave Boeing a longer look at their abilities while allowing the students to take on meaningful responsibilities.
“From the jump, they had real requirements, real parts that they needed to buy and place, that they needed to contract,” said Sam McRae, a senior manager at Boeing who worked directly with the students. “They had to own the quality of what they were putting out.”
The students’ responsibilities have continued to grow as they’ve transitioned into part-time positions during the school year. They manage procurement requirements from start to finish, researching parts, obtaining supplier quotes, negotiating contracts and tracking deliveries. Depending on the day, they might be working through negotiations, coordinating with engineers or helping resolve a potential delay in getting parts to a Boeing program.
“There’s a lot that happens, and as a procurement agent, you kind of take it all on,” Bowman said.
McRae said the students’ willingness to learn and tackle additional work made a strong impression. They regularly looked for ways to improve their efficiency and asked for more opportunities to contribute. That dedication and enthusiasm has carried over to the teams they’ve since joined.
The extended experience also gives Boeing a valuable head start in preparing its next generation of procurement agents. The students are continuing to develop their skills and gain familiarity with the company’s processes while completing their degrees. When they graduate, Boeing will have employees who already understand the demands of the job and can begin contributing to their assigned teams without having to go through the same initial training and adjustment period as a new hire.
“This allows us to have a day one, ready-to-execute teammate when they graduate,” McRae said. “I can place them on a team and they’re ready to go.”
The idea originated with Boeing, through company representatives involved with UMSL’s supply chain program. A proposal focused specifically on procurement led to the program, creating a model that could give students extended hands-on experience with Boeing while allowing the company to cultivate talent for a specific area of need.
The arrangement also represents a significant vote of confidence in UMSL’s Department of Supply Chain and Analytics and its students. UMSL is currently the only university where Boeing’s defense business has established this type of procurement program, a distinction Bernard Bracy said indicates the strength of the relationship between the university and the company.
“I think that speaks volumes to our students, the caliber of our program and the talent that we’re producing,” Bernard Bracy said.
For the first year, Boeing connected with prospective candidates at UMSL’s career fair and also considered recommendations from faculty members in the supply chain program before conducting its own interview process. Boeing hired the students, who now face an exciting future with a global company that offers career options at locations across the world.
“We always say to our PAs here: if you can do this role, you can do a lot of roles,” McRae said. “So, I think it’s going to be a great starting point for them.”
Boeing is already looking ahead to the next group. Recruitment is underway for next summer, and the company and UMSL are planning to make the program an annual opportunity.
“We’re excited to continue to work with UMSL,” McRae said. “We appreciate them as a huge place for us to hire, and it’s only growing for us right now at Boeing. We have a need to bring in fresh talent, and so I think partnering with UMSL and continuing that partnership is something that we’re definitely interested in continuing to explore.”
Bernard Bracy hopes the Boeing model can become a blueprint for similar programs that give UMSL students meaningful professional experience before they graduate. With a framework in place, Bernard Bracy said there is an opportunity to work with other companies to create similar experiences.
“A critical component of higher education is providing hands-on experiential learning opportunities for our students,” she said, “and this is just an excellent representation of that type of opportunity.”
