Summer Intern Event at Kraft Headquarters!

       In almost every location of Kraft products and brands' facilities, there are summer interns working on projects for an average period of 12 weeks. Kraft flew all ~120 summer interns to Kraftown in Glenview for an awesome 3-day event. Interns working in a range of functions for Kraft (from manufacturing to accounting to sales) all met at Kraftown on Day 1 for a continental breakfast with Oscar Mayer bacon and some PowerPoint presentations. As we all sat in the large room at round tables, I looked around and was dismayed by just how many other young men and women my age are currently having this same opportunity to work for such a huge company.

The first day (July 28) was the Meet and Greet, Service Event, and Fun Event!

      For the Service Event, our major projects were creating "healthy and active" promotional murals for local schools, as well as creating over a thousand comfort kits for Veterans through the Red Cross.
       The comfort kits contained basic hygiene articles (washcloth, toothbrush, etc.) and a handwritten note from the interns! We also created 5 colorful murals with paint and listened to music as we worked and socialized with other interns.

We were mixed up among other interns and assigned into teams for our next event: K1 Speedway indoor go-kart racing!! All 100 interns filed into the building and cheered each other on as we raced around the 2 indoor tracks, 1 team at a time on each track. My intern team was composed of interns from Oscar Mayer in Madison, some from Planter's, and a couple of guys working in manufacturing. What a great networking opportunity, as well as a chance to see what the other interns are up to for the summer at their respective locations!

Day 2 and 3 were comprised of the following events: Breakfast with Kraft Foods C.E.O. Tony Vernon, and poster presentations at Kraftown, as well as the Glenview Tech Center (R&D). The poster presentations are the perfect opportunity to present research and summer learnings in a "science fair" setting. However, I wasn't able to attend the aforementioned events because I was on a plane to Sacramento, CA for the American Cheese Society Conference! Maybe next year!! :)

Updates will soon be rolling in...

Hello dear readers!

Thank you so much for regularly checking the ol' blog to see updates on my summer adventures. The past few weeks have a created a new definition of "busy". I will have some time to create some new posts in the next few days! Stay tuned for the following topics:

-Kraft Foods Summer Intern Event
-2014 American Cheese Society Conference in Sacramento, CA
-Velveeta Shells & Cheese Sensory Study
-Kraft Foods Pilot Plant (Safety)
-Some more weekend adventures!

Thank you for your support!
Evann

Sprecher Brewery

        With Mom at the helm of the rental car, and Grampa as copilot, our mini Wisconsin road trip led us to a brewery tour at Sprecher Brewery in Milwaukee! The brewery was founded in 1985 by a former brewing supervisor of Pabst Brewing Company. The tour was pretty short, but the soda production portion was really interesting! We got to walk through the entire brewery and ended in their Biergarden, with 4 samples each to try. Grampa enjoyed their diverse arrays of fizzy sodas, while Mom and I sampled the beers.

What a great mural in the cellar! Meant to mimic
Bavarian landscapes.

Momma!

Grampa (at Kraftown)
I showed them around the Tech Center and Kraftown before
we left. Mom was amazed by the labs and said Kraftown looked "Google-y". Spirit of a start up and the soul of a powerhouse!

University of Wisconsin--Madison

The view from the hotel!

         Similar to California's UC system, Wisconsin has 13 UW schools. Madison is the campus most well-known for Food Science, especially Dairy Research. While I am in the Midwest, my mother and grandfather decided to fly and join me for a tour of this potential graduate school! A fellow intern at Kraft, who is currently an undergrad at Madison, contacted Dr. Rich Hartel and Maya Warren, a Ph. D. candidate to talk with me about their program and show me around the department!

Lake Mendota

         The evening before my morning tour, I went for a run around the campus to get a better look at the area. The campus is HUGE and right by beautiful Lake Mendota. I saw more fireflies, which still surprise me! Midwest charm. Students can go kayaking, sailing, and boating. The lake is bordered by a long trail, called the Howard Temin Lakeshore Path, and is frequented by runners, strollers, and bikes. A popular place to hang out or eat lunch is Picnic Point, a peninsula surrounded by the lake! Madison is also close to 2 other lakes, Monona and Wingra. Funfact: Wisconsin has 15,074 lakes!

This isn't Babcock, but it's just
down Linden Drive!

      I met Dr. Hartel in the morning, who is a confectionary scientist and a professor in Food Engineering. The Food Science Department is in Babcock Hall, which also has a Dairy Store. The Dairy Store sells sandwiches, coffee, and dairy products like cheese and yogurt! Dr. Hartel had just finished organizing a 2 week-long industry course in candy production. Check out one of his videos on the science behind candy corn! First, we got to know each other and he asked me about what my research interests were. After some talking, he was eager to show me the "fruits" of his labor from the candy science course. I sampled gummies, chocolate, toffee, caramels, candy tablets, and nougat! What a sweet tour!
     

Making ice cream with Maya, Rich, and some interns!

         Next, we ran upstairs to meet Maya Warren to make a sweet treat! Maya studied Chemical Engineering for her undergrad, but is now completing her doctorate at Madison with ice cream research! What a delicious project. Naturally, she stands by one of three pilot-scale ice cream makers in her lab and greets me in her GMP/PPE lab apparel, introduces herself, and asks me, "What flavor ice cream would you like to make today?" I choose Mint Chocolate Chip and as the ice cream mixes and freezes, she and I talk about grad student life in Madison. She spoke very positively about the program, students, and opportunities to get involved and assume many professional responsibilities. Her only complaint was Wisconsin winter and added, "It's not the snow, it's the COLD." This is weather that the majority of California never experiences, and would definitely be a huge adjustment. Maya answered a lot of my questions and gave me great advice for choosing schools!

Afterwards, Dr. Hartel and I returned to his office to further discuss future steps towards applying for graduate school, how to choose, and how to contact specific researchers. Dr. Hartel has written a book to answer many of these questions, which I have purchased and I recommend to UCD undergrads interested in pursuing further degrees! The book is available on Amazon.

    In conclusion, this tour and these conversations were a huge step towards my process of choosing a school, a program, and a researcher to work towards pursuing a Masters degree or a Ph. D.!! Life as a student can't end after Davis!