The School is fortunate to have dedicated partners and alumni who help our students experience pieces of the “real world” prior to graduation. We resumed our travels post-COVID with a two-day trip to multiple employers in the St. Louis area in January, and then made two more day trips to see both manufacturing and corporate facilities later in the year.
Caterpillar
In September, about two dozen current students, along with Nell, Cory, and Dean Fulmer, traveled to East Peoria, where Caterpillar welcomed us for a facility tour where they build the D-Series Bulldozers. LER alumni Liz Ayala, MHRIR 21, Janet Hermosillo, MHRIR 17, and John Hupert, MHRIR 99, along with other Caterpillar leaders, joined us for a talk about their labor relations team. Thank you to Caterpillar, our alumni, and CAT’s labor and HR leaders for hosting us!
PepsiCo
PepsiCo hosted current in-person and online students at their space at the Old Post Office in Chicago in April. This included an excellent space tour, a case project, and a Workplace Skills panel. Thank you to the outstanding panelists and Matt Crocker, MHRIR 09, and his team at PepsiCo for providing our students with fantastic insight on how to be best prepared for their future careers. The panelists included Dave Burchfield, MHRIR 11, Shara Meisinger, AM 98, Allison Wiley, and Mark Bradley – representing McDonald’s, the Chicago Blackhawks, Pella, and EY.