Delphi selects M.B.A. student Ranelle Royal for Global Supply Management internship
May 11, 2007
KOKOMO, Ind.—Master of Business Administration student Ranelle Royal of Peru has been selected for an internship with the Global Supply Management department of Delphi Electronics and Safety in Kokomo.
“Internships at Delphi are extremely competitive as the company recruits nationally,” said Candy Norman, who coordinates student internships as Indiana University Kokomo’s Assistant Director of Community Outreach. Royal introduced herself to Delphi representatives at a campus career fair this spring. Delphi invited Royal for an interview and offered her the internship the next day, Norman said. “The recruiter e-mailed to thank me for referring Ranelle and said that she was very impressive.”
Starting in May, Royal will conduct supply chain and market research on Delphi’s wireless and semiconductor products. Working with supervisor Troy Zerbe, Royal “will document the size of the market, the number of players involved, the total market capacity, and demand,” for such products, said Mary Ann Fultz of Delphi Staffing.
The company offers around 45 summer internships in Kokomo each summer, with the goal of finding candidates to hire as full-time employees, Fultz noted. Most of these internships are in engineering fields. The position offered to Royal was “one of the very few non-technical positions open,” Fultz said. “And, Ranelle was good fit.”
Royal holds a Bachelor of Arts in Telecommunications and East Asian Studies, which she started at IU Bloomington, but completed in the Republic of (South) Korea as an exchange student at Yonsei University in Seoul. From there, she moved to Japan and worked in international advertising for four years. Returning to the United States, she continued her career in marketing and sales, using her previous experience and fluency in Japanese to focus on Asian markets.
“When we interviewed Ranelle, we saw that she had excellent communication and organizational skills, and a good ability to work independently,” Fultz said. “Her experience in conducting Internet and other business-related market research and her studies in marketing information and supply chains were a unique match to this internship. A lot of lucky things came together.”
Royal feels equally lucky to have earned Delphi’s attention. “It’s very much a compliment. They are very selective,” she said. “Candy and [M.B.A. program director] Linda Fitch made the initial contacts, with Candy ultimately persuading Delphi to include IU Kokomo in the pool of universities receiving the exclusive internship announcements. Without them, this would not have happened.”
Royal called the internship “ideal,” for the way it brings together so many of her professional interests and areas of expertise—information technology, supply chain management, and international business. “I’ll have a lot of opportunities to learn.”
She also hopes to make a solid contribution to Delphi. Her internship supply chain research will “put meaning to data so that Delphi Electronics and Safety can better define their operation’s supplier and commodity strategies and have a clearer picture of their overall business opportunities. My goal is to create a robust, reusable strategic database of supply chain research that the department can continue to utilize for analysis and reporting after the internship is finished.”
In addition to an M.B.A. though IU Kokomo, Royal is simultaneously taking classes toward a B.S. in Computer and Information Technology from Purdue University College of Technology. Royal has concurrently maintained a 3.9 GPA in both university programs. She anticipates completing both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in May 2008.
Royal is a member of Purdue’s Golden Key International Honour Society, which recognizes the top 15 percent of college juniors and seniors in their academic fields. For the 2007–08 school year, she has been awarded scholarships in academic excellence from the Purdue Kokomo 400 Club, Purdue Golden Key chapter, and the Brad Stansberry M.B.A. Scholarship from IU Kokomo’s School of Business.
Faculty members on the Kokomo campus have been “very approachable” in her studies since her return to college life, Royal said. “Coming back to school, I was forced to turn my problem-solving skills inward—to identify my academic weaknesses and quickly shore up on those areas. I constantly ask my professors questions, and their dedication to help students learn allows me to make the most of my studies. In comparison to some younger peers, I think an advantage of being an older student is knowing the difference between just ‘attending school’ and exerting effort to actually study in preparation for a future beyond the classroom. I am fortunate to sincerely recognize the importance of an educational opportunity and to give it my best effort.”
Adapting and learning new things has been part of Royal’s life. Her family traveled with her father’s career in the Air Force. They lived for a while in Guam and eventually settled near Grissom Air Force Base in Indiana.
World Explorer kits that Royal encountered in fourth grade further spurred her interest in foreign cultures. Each kit covered a different nation and contained coins and other tangible items representing the country. In working for and learning from an international company such as Delphi, Royal mused, she will continue “walking a path that I started as a kid.”
To learn more about student intern opportunities through IU Kokomo, contact Candy Norman at caanorma@iuk.edu or (765) 455-9406.
