Words from West Ambassadors: A Co-Op’s Perspective

Twelve weeks, 60 days, or 480 hours is all that I have in the summer of 2014 to showcase my talents as the Pharmaceutical Delivery Systems (PDS) Marketing and Innovation Ambassador Intern. To many, that might seem to be a rather extensive amount of time to become familiar with an organization, meet respective colleagues, learn about products and operations, and develop a means to an end for the designated project assignment that all Ambassadors receive every summer.

I am one of the lucky ones; this is my second term at West. My first term was spent as a Pharmaceutical Packaging Systems Packaging Engineering co-op from July-December 2013. As I returned this summer, I had a strong grasp on the company culture, expectations and projected assignment that I was to complete on behalf of the PDS Marketing organization.

The summer 2014 term has posed a challenge that I welcomed as an opportunity for personal growth in terms of my assignment. It is within my role to travel to various West facilities to research, develop and present a five-year projected marketing plan for the Daikyo Crystal Zenith® vial market. I am a packaging engineer by trade, so needless to say, this more business-like role is a challenge that allows me to evaluate another part of the organization where I can use and incorporate my technical background into a more collaborative and customer-facing role. I will continue to support the efforts of Graham Reynolds and Kevin Cancelliere, two strong leaders within the PDS organization, until the beginning of August. With more than half of my internship complete, I am confident in the knowledge and contributions that I have made thus far. In addition, I am eager to present my plan on the alternative ways of navigating through the Crystal Zenith vial market later this month.