, which manufactures packaging and retail displays, is headquartered in Appleton and has operations in five states. It employs more than 1,700 people nationwide, including more than 40 91Ƭ Polytechnic alumni. For more than 60 years, Great Northern has led the way in recyclable packaging, protective components, and retail display solutions that help customers succeed while minimizing environmental impact.
This summer, 91Ƭ Polytechnic student Owen Whitney, a double major in business administration and supply chain management, served as a supply chain intern at Great Northern’s Chippewa Falls location.
He worked independently to find areas of improvement within the company, developed solutions and ran projects to implement those solutions.
Whitney, of Morristown, Minnesota, plans to graduate in spring 2028 and would like to work in either project management or within supply chain.
“As a message for other students, I would say: do internships. I know it sounds cliché, and I know everyone says it, but they are telling the truth. Try to get one every year. Go to every career fair. I know they can be intimidating at first, but being uncomfortable is what creates some of the greatest growth. Eventually, you’ll start to see that discomfort turn into comfort, or at the very least, it won’t feel like something to fear anymore. That builds confidence, and that confidence builds you,” said Whitney, who also has minors in sales and marketing and computer science.
Whitney was one of 745 91Ƭ Polytechnic students enrolled in Career Services' Cooperative Education and Internship Program this summer. CEIP ensures structure, support and collaborative partnerships between employers, students, faculty and staff.
What were your main roles as a supply chain intern at Great Northern Corporation?
What interested me in interning with Great Northern was that not only would I get experience in a supply chain role, but I would also gain knowledge in how to run projects. Getting this real experience was valuable in many ways to me. It allowed me to learn that progress takes time, organization is vital, and that being resourceful is necessary in project management.
As a supply chain intern, I spent a lot of time walking through the days of our employees to see what would stick out to me. I did a lot of research, reached out to vendors, grabbed important details, presented ideas to my boss, planned out next steps and solutions, tested, and did what I could to finish the projects I started.
What did you enjoy most about your internship?
What I enjoyed most about my internship was getting to meet members of each role in the company and learn all about their position. This allowed me to make connections with many people and really understand how my role in the company’s process works from start to finish.
I also really enjoyed having the freedom to choose my own projects. Being able to identify an area for improvement and then take the initiative to develop and implement a solution was very interesting and rewarding. It gave me the opportunity to take ownership of my work and see how my ideas could make a real impact.
What are one or two projects you helped with at Great Northern Corporation?
Currently, the Great Northern production lines use paper quality sheets to document quality checks. A member of the company had the idea of transitioning these sheets to iPads, and I helped turn that idea into a more achievable concept. I edited a digital version of the quality sheets in Excel, incorporating features such as checkboxes, automatic timestamps, and other functionalities to make the process more efficient and user-friendly. I also developed a macro that allows the digital quality sheets to be automatically duplicated and organized as many times as needed, regardless of the number of sheets required. This will allow the whole system to be much more user-friendly, and a digital version would mean it would be much better organized.
Another project I helped with involved Great Northern’s improvement idea process, where employees can submit ideas for improving operations. However, the existing process was entirely paper-based, requiring employees to fill out a physical form, management to manually review each submission and the completed forms to be stored. I developed a digital system to streamline this process and make it easier to manage from submission through approval.
I began by converting the existing improvement idea sheet into a Microsoft Form so employees could submit their ideas electronically. I then created a centralized Microsoft List to automatically store the responses in an organized format. From there, I used Power Automate to build the workflow that connects the different parts of the process. The workflow can notify the appropriate manager when an idea is submitted, route the idea through the necessary approval levels, update the submission based on the decisions made and send the appropriate notifications throughout the process.
The project also required me to troubleshoot and adapt the system as I developed it. When I found a limitation that affected the system, I worked with the corporate IT team to find an alternative solution.
Overall, this project gave me experience designing an automated process from the ground up. While I was not physically writing traditional code, I had to use the same type of logical thinking involved in programming, such as mapping out how information should move through the system, identifying potential problems, troubleshooting them and developing solutions to make the process work efficiently.
What was challenging about your internship, and how did you face those challenges?
The freedom was one of the most challenging aspects of my internship. It is also funny that the part of my internship I found most rewarding was also one of the most challenging. I had near-complete freedom over how I structured my days, which was very different from any job I had worked before. Instead of being given a set list of daily responsibilities, I had to identify areas that could be improved and then figure out how to approach them.
My managers were always great about answering questions and providing direction, but I still had to learn how to work independently. For a few weeks, I had to take a step back and focus on improving my organization, planning ahead, and becoming more comfortable reaching out to people and vendors.
I faced the challenge with a positive attitude and a genuine desire to make a difference, and over time I became much more comfortable working independently and taking ownership of my projects. I know I still have much to improve on, but this challenge helped me grow in ways I couldn’t have imagined.
How do you hope to make an impact in your field?
I hope to make an impact by being good at what I do. My impact in project management would be knowing my company well, understanding the roles, communicating well and planning ahead. I want to make a difference at the places I work; I want to be an asset, I want to make others’ lives easier, and I want to be the best version of myself. So, I think the way I can have the biggest impact on my field is by being coachable and wanting to learn from everyone’s perspective. With that, I think I could become well-rounded and knowledgeable in whatever job I’m in.
How will your experiences at Stout help you to make that impact?
My courses and experiences have already helped me a lot. My first year, I was an undecided student and wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do. I was deciding between computer science and business, and because I like planning and thinking about the future, not knowing what direction I wanted to take was really stressful for me.
However, by listening to the students and teachers around me, I slowly started to narrow down what I wanted to do. I especially want to credit one person: Kelly Wenig, my first-year advisor. He worked with me throughout my first year to help me develop a plan and commit to something. At first, I chose computer science, then switched to business a semester later, and eventually added supply chain as a double major this past semester. That was a lot of change, but each time I considered making a big change, I went back to Kelly. He is very personable and genuinely wants everyone to find something they can be passionate about.
By listening to him and many others, I was able to slowly work my way toward something that felt like a better fit for me. And this didn’t all happen in one day, one week, or even one month. It took me two years, and I’m still not entirely sure what I want to do. But I’ve learned that it’s OK not to have everything figured out.
My experiences at Stout have taught me how important it is to keep learning, ask questions, and be willing to change direction when something isn’t the right fit. My courses have also given me the technical and business knowledge to actually turn ideas into solutions. Combined with the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had, I feel like Stout has given me the confidence and tools to find my own path and make a difference wherever I’m meant to be.
