Almost two dozen students from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s Heath Integrated Business and Engineering Program (HIBEP) recently toured Strongwell to gain a better understanding of how the company’s manufacturing and business operations collaborate daily.
HIBEP was designed to develop a cohort amongst the Tickle College of Engineering and Haslam College of Business. The objective of the cohort is to enhance industry exposure opportunities into how strategy, engineering, business functions, and information collaborate in real time.
Students majoring in Accounting, Biomedical, Business Analytics, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, Marketing, Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, and Supply Chain Management represented this year’s cohort. To provide the best and most relevant experience, students were grouped and matched with Strongwell’s subject matter experts to offer guidance and knowledge of how their fields of study apply to real world situations.

Barry Myers (Corporate Director, Marketing and Communications), Meghan Carty (Director of Supply and Chain and Strategic Pricing), Carrie Bowers (Process Engineering Manager), Logan Smith (Process Engineer), Te-Kai Shu (Community Relations Manager), Shelly Wiseman (Materials Manager), Randy Montgomery (Industrial Products Manager), Todd Berthold (National Accounts Sales Manager), and Melissa Harrison (Chief Estimator) were tour facilitators.

Upon the completion of the tour, the cohort sat down with David Oakley (President and CEO) and John Tickle (Chairman) for a roundtable luncheon to share their employment experiences, industry developments, personal history, and ongoing workforce development trends.

Many thanks to Bob Buckner (Director-HIBEP), Heather Stellmach (Program Coordinator-HIBEP), and Leslie Walton (Assistant Director-Career Development Center) for coordinating this partnership and opportunity with industry.