This summer, I had the fantastic opportunity to work for the largest privately owned company in the world. Cargill is like that little kid that has his hand in all the cookie jars. From grain and livestock, to beauty and law, Cargill does it all. I was lucky enough to work at 1 of the three export facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. I was located in Westwego, LA just outside of New Orleans, this facility is one of the largest assets Cargill owns in the grain industry. My plant operates 24/7, and because of how busy we are, they only take on one intern, I was fortunate enough for it to be me. As a production supervisor intern I got to spend my time doing what I love to do: getting to know and talk to other people. I had a lot of freedom and spent my time with everyone in the plant from the leadership team down to the production employees. I learned a lot from everyone’s stories and I learned a lot about myself along the way. I spent my days bouncing around from group to group getting involved with whatever I could, talking to as many people as possible, and building relationships. I got to understand how our location operated on a leadership level, a supervisor level, a maintenance level, and a production level. I would get my hands dirty with the maintenance crews, go onto the ships with the supervisors, or sit in meetings and discussions with the leadership team. I learned how to start and stop the train (called the Dinky) in the picture above, I learned how to dig a barge (when you take the grain out of the barge on a big machine called a leg), and I learned a lot of supervising people. I learned the importance of building relationships and trust with people you work with and that in order to get them to perform their best for you, you have to have that relationship and trust. This summer has placed me out of my element in so many different ways, I have never worked at a grain facility, never lived on my own, and never been down south for more than a week. I’ve learned a ton about the exporting of grain and I’ve gotten to meet and interact with people all over the world. I’ve faced challenges like never before, and I’m one more step closer to being the person that I want to be. I am grateful for my time here and I think everyone should experience an internship as early as possible because since I’m so young, I’m fortunate enough to get to experience another internship next year as well.
