Every year, college students search and apply for summer internships.
Penske has a robust paid internship program that continues to grow. This summer, 60 college students at the Reading, Pennsylvania, headquarters are participating in internships — an increase of 20 participants over last year.
An internship program like Penske’s is important to rising juniors and seniors, who are hoping to apply what they learned all year in the classroom to a real-world setting.
Penske has many departments where interns can learn new ideas and concepts that they cannot learn in a classroom alone. This summer’s interns are working in the following departments:
- Environmental
- Facilities
- Finance
- Freight Management
- Fuels Strategy
- HR
- IT
- Marketing
- Operational Excellence
- Real Estate
- Vehicle Remarketing
- Safety
- Sales
- Transportation Energy Management
- Vehicle Supply
A Summer Work Experience that Launches Careers
Matthew Witman, Payroll intern
Matthew Witman, a junior at Temple University, Philadelphia, is working in the Payroll Department this summer.
“I believe interning with a company as large as Penske Truck Leasing provides an exceptional opportunity for college students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to a real-world setting,” Witman said. “I would like to walk away from this internship with a better understanding of what is expected of full-time associates in a corporate environment.”
Many students are looking forward to learning outside of a classroom setting, because often times these skills are best acquired in an internship.
Penske interns have networking opportunities in both a professional and peer setting, along with the opportunity to complete a community service project each summer.
Students are spending their summer with Penske from 29 schools across seven states:
Delaware
- University of Delaware
Massachusetts
- Bentley University
Michigan
- University of Michigan
New York
- Hofstra University
- Rochester Institute of Technology
- Wagner College
North Carolina
- Elon University
Pennsylvania
- Albright College
- Alvernia University
- Arcadia University
- Bloomsburg University
- Elizabethtown College
- Kutztown University
- La Salle University
- Lafayette College
- Lehigh University
- Lock Haven University
- Millersville University
- The Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus
- The Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus
- Robert Morris University
- Saint Joseph’s University
- Temple University
- University of Pittsburgh
- Ursinus College
- Villanova University
- West Chester University
- York College of Pennsylvania
South Carolina
- University of South Carolina
What to Know about Penske Internships
To become an intern, students must meet the following requirements:
- Full-time college student pursuing a bachelor’s degree (some internships require specific areas of study)
- GPA of 3.0 or higher
- Entering junior or senior year
- Completion of some core curriculum classes is preferred
Fatima Odebisi, Marketing intern
Fatima Odebisi, a senior at The Pennsylvania State University, is an intern in the Marketing Department. Odebisi says she hopes to “learn more about how the creative and business components of marketing and advertising intertwine in one’s job tasks.”
“I want to see how my strengths play to each side, how I work in both and what I can improve on,” she said.
Brendan Clark, Billing Operations intern
Brendan Clark, a Billing Operations intern, said he has learned a lot.
“I have never worked for a company, especially of this size, and experienced such a welcoming and inviting community like there is here at Penske,” Clark said. “I have had a diverse upbringing and met many different perspectives and personalities. No other place, whether a work place or public environment, has the culture and high standards that I have seen here at Penske.”
Bobby Kemp, Marketing intern
Marketing intern Bobby Kemp will be a junior in the fall at Pennsylvania State University.
“I am most excited to apply some of the knowledge — either statistical or miscellaneous — that I have gained throughout my college career thus far,” Kemp said. “Additionally, I hope to learn a little more about the business/marketing side of working for a company, because I don’t have as much experience with those kinds of things.”
The internship is a 12-week program that includes several networking opportunities, company events and community service activities, along with the opportunity to grow and learn from the company.
Are you interested in a Penske internship for 2020? Keep a look out for the summer 2020 internship program application, which typically goes live in early February.
Visit gopenske.com/careers to learn more about internships and other careers at Penske Truck Leasing and Penske Logistics.
By Emma Creamer, Communications and PR Intern.