Internship Spotlight - Samantha Vail

	From:	Seattle, WA
	Major:	Business Management
	Company:	Boeing
	Location:	Senior

When asked if she's always known what she wanted to do, Samantha said, "I know it's the classic answer, but I haven't." Actually, a lot of people know from a young age what they want to do; but some people, like Samantha, are good at a number of things and have trouble deciding which of their talents and interests to pursue.

Enter the internship. Since going to school here, Samantha has studied business management with an emphasis in marketing. She applied for several internships online, but never heard back from any of them. In the end, she was offered a position interning with The Boeing Company.

"My grandfather used to work for Boeing, and the office I worked out of is in my hometown, so it was really nice to be there," Samantha said. Her grandfather, however, was an engineer, while Samantha undertook a very different role in the company. She helped refine and improve the internal audit of processes and procedures.

Otherwise known as site assessments, Samantha traveled to Boeing's St. Louis office in her third week as an intern. There she observed how to conduct the assessment which would be the first one ever performed at the Seattle location. Back in Seattle, Samantha compiled necessary documentation and held preparation presentations for those to be assessed. "My duty was to meet with each employee and evaluate their performance with the company based on a grading model," Samantha said.

For most interns, that would be a difficult task, because of their newness with the company. This interviewing process presented her with a new experience as she explained: "Boeing hasn't hired new employees since about the 70's. Their current employees are much older and experienced than me, and are very intellectual; so sitting down with them one-on-one and conducting evaluations was probably my greatest challenge."

Samantha helped construct the finance department's Intranet website, which is used for internal finances and protected by several security systems. She also got to sit in on certain meetings with some of the top officials at Boeing. Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) Site Director Kathy Anderson, and Vice President of Marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes Randy Baseler were among those she met.

"The people I got to work with were just great! Every morning we'd sit and talk about the Mariners for a bit, I played on a company softball team, and they awarded me with a certificate of achievement. They just treated me really well," Samantha said.

Samantha explained how this internship expanded her capabilities, and how she learned to adapt to new environments. "It was a great way to take my learning from school and apply it to a real world working experience," she said. "It was one of the most beneficial working experiences for my career."

Samantha will be hired permanently as a financial analyst at Boeing after she graduates. "I actually just got an email from my boss saying 'we're keeping your seat warm here,'" she said. "I'm really excited to go back!"