GSU Student Wins Scholarship for National Conference

Learning extends far beyond the classroom—and when you’re a business major, that means networking, presenting research and ideas, branding yourself, and finding your place out in the business world. Governors State University senior Tanya Ferber, a Business Administration major concentrating in General Management, has had the opportunity to develop these real-world skills in her time as a GSU student—first during her summer internship with Bimba Manufacturing and more recently on a sponsored trip to the 2017 American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) Conference in San Antonio, Texas on October 14 – 17.

Ferber says that her interest in Supply Chain Management began when Dr. Tricia Kerns, University Lecturer in GSU’s College of Business, encouraged her Quality Management students to get involved with the APICS student club at Governors State. Before she knew it, Ferber was nominated to serve as the club’s vice president. Not long after, Dr. Kerns informed Ferber’s class of an available scholarship offered by the Chicago chapter of APICS. Ferber applied, and her trip was organized and fully funded by the association.

At the conference, Ferber met representatives from corporations such as Tesla, Hostess, Miller-Coors, and Fox Century Network.

“Speaking with individuals and learning about their positions gave me a better understanding of how supply chain management pertains to all different kinds of companies,” Ferber said.

Industry jargon is often a barrier for entering workers, and Ferber recognizes a significant benefit of entering the conference as a student: exposure to the lexicon of Supply Chain Management.

“Because I am new to the field, I didn’t know all of the lingo being used,” she explains, “but APICS has a dictionary app that helps those unfamiliar with the words. Whenever I didn’t understand something, I would search for the word on my app, and then I could follow along.”

Ferber currently operates two online businesses—a custom embroidery shop and a shop that creates custom model horse accessories— is a member of the National Association of Professional Woman (NAPW), and was a 2017 summer intern for Bimba Manufacturing in University Park—a position she found through a spring Career Fair hosted by GSU’s Office of Career Services. “My primary role was with inventory,” explains Ferber. “After I completed the internship, I asked my supervisor how to label it on my resume, and he told me I was in Logistics. Now that I’m in the Quality Management course at GSU, I’ve seen the ways this position contributes in the manufacturing environment, and I’ve written about it many times in our weekly assignments. It’s been fascinating to connect my experience there with what I’m learning in the classroom.”

Successfully applying real-world experiences to classroom instruction creates the ideal learning scenario. Ferber’s experiences through her internship and her conference attendance create valuable connections between knowledge and practice that she says will carry with her when she enters the workforce.