Members from Chick-fil-A's corporate office came to the university in hopes of finding qualified students and graduates to intern with them over the summer. 
Annie Goodman/The Lion's Roar

Chick-fil-A Support Center in Atlanta, Georgia offers internships to college students of various degree programs and classifications. Robert Dugas, Vice President of Supply Chain at Chick-fil-A, along with other corporate and local members of the company visited the university to talk to students about this opportunity.

“We are here to actually provide opportunities for internships at Chick-fil-A Corporate Support Center to students at Southeastern Louisiana who may be looking for opportunities outside the area, but also, to grow professionally and personally,” said Sourcing Manager at Chick-fil-A Support Center in Atlanta Sonya Collier.

The goal of this informational meeting was to bring this internship to the awareness of students at the university.

“We are hoping to reach out to students here at Southeastern to give them the opportunity to work for a remarkable organization, all while serving the community and growing personally and professionally,” said Collier.

The internship will be a 10 week paid program in summer of 2017.

“Chick-fil-A is a company that stands alone in that we provide a unique service and opportunity to not only our customers but also our staff members,” said Collier. “We pour into the students that become a part of our internship program. We cultivate their knowledge. We help them grow professionally. We also make sure that they have well rounded experiences in that we provide day-to-day operational experiences for them, and they’re doing meaningful work.”

The internship will allow students to work in a corporate setting in various fields of the company.

“Students should actually care about this opportunity because it will be a real opportunity for them to prepare themselves for real-life world experiences,” said Collier. “It gives them a chance to take the knowledge they’ve gained from textbooks and apply them to the day-to-day world they’ll be working in.”

The application period for 2017 is swiftly coming to an end, so students are urged to apply as soon as possible if interested.

“They’re gonna have to be very attentional and very diligent,” said Collier. “Our window of opportunity for 2017 internships is very narrow at this point. We’re actually on the back end right now, so if they’re interested, we encourage them to take proactive measures now by going online to chick-fil-a.com and applying for the internship. If they get approved from a prescreening perspective, they actually will be given an opportunity to fill out the application, which is very lengthy, but we definitely want them to fill out the application in its entirety.”

The Office of Student Affairs set this event up with Chick-fil-A believing it could be beneficial to the students. They worked closely with the College of Business to spread the word about this to ensure a good turnout.

“We’ve also been in great connection with the college of business and some other colleges that we know the students will be able to take advantage of those internship opportunities,” said Blake Thomas, Career and Employment Specialist for the Office of Career Services. “A lot of the stuff they’re looking for is supply chain management and marketing. A lot of those opportunities come from the College of Business as well as some others, so we have a really good working relationship with those colleges and Chick-fil-A.”

After the presentation, the corporate members met with students one-on-one outside the Student Union Theatre to answer any questions students may have had.

“I think it’s important for their networking skills, their overall development depending on what they want to go into,” said Thomas. “It is important to make sure you’re networking with those individuals to make sure that you are making those connections while you’re in college so that when you’re applying for these jobs, you have some sort of networking out there to assist you to further your career.”

Sonya Collier, sourcing manager at Chick-fil-A Support Center in Atlanta, Georgia talked to sudents about an upcoming internship opportunity.
Annie Goodman/The Lion's Roar

Robert Dugas, supply chain vice president at Chick-fil-A, provided an overview of the company and what sets it apart.
Annie Goodman/The Lion's Roar