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!! :)