ESUP student workers get real life experience

This summer, four student workers helped keep the ESUP team moving forward. While two have moved on, two will remain throughout the school year. Program Director Andy Hill said of the student workers, “We really appreciate having the opportunity to give real life work experience to our students. They have been great contributors to the Program as they have learned to apply their education to real life software development, project management, and other project related activities.” 

Student workers (left to right): Ryan, Chris, and Anna. Not pictured: James

One of ESUP’s first student workers is Chris. Coming from Duluth, MN, Chris enjoys working at ESUP because he thinks it’s beneficial to work on a team in a real work environment. Another positive of working for ESUP is learning and using skills that are potentially relevant to his computer science major. Chris’s supervisor Shannon Gibson, Application Development project director, said he has been a “wonderful addition to the application development team, assisting with PeopleSoft builds for the Campus Solutions workstream.” Chris has enjoyed learning how a real office environment functions and the steps and processes that go into getting things done. Chris will continue to work for ESUP throughout the year. 

Anna made great contributions to ESUP this summer by, “[being] a quick study on the PeopleSoft Portal tool helping us enter content for the rough draft,” according to her supervisor Susan Geller, Portal project director. Geller is continually impressed with Anna, saying, “she even put her academic training in communications to use in our brand genesis project.” A Plymouth, Minnesota native, Anna enjoys playing tennis, spending time outdoors and traveling as much as possible. She will continue her time with ESUP throughout the school year, and describes her time at ESUP, so far, as “insightful” because of “[the opportunity] to work closely with the portal leadership team and to see the progression of the portal and all the decisions that go along with that.” 

James was another ESUP student employee this summer. Though he has returned to school up in UND where he is studying to be a teacher, his favorite thing about working for ESUP was being exposed to new opportunities. Whether it was learning new computer skills or meeting new people, James described his experience at ESUP as “enjoyable” because of all the new people he met and his contribution to a project. Outside of school and work, James’s favorite activities are photography and lacrosse.

Ryan, ESUP’s fourth summer student employee, spent his time working as a program assistant, which means he helped with any and all projects. Ryan is a double anthropology and political science major who is headed to Amman, Jordan for fall semester where he will study at the Jordanian Institute for Diplomacy in Amman. He hopes to strengthen his Arabic, meet the locals and immerse himself in the Jordanian culture. 

ESUP greatly appreciated everyone’s hard work and looks forward to finding new learning opportunities for their student employees.