Provide a program to engage in developing meaningful work experiences to high potential public high school students that will provide young men and women with the opportunity to observe our organization, job shadow executives, have one-on-one conversations with managers and executives about college and career aspects in the industry. The program also provides our employees with an opportunity to mentor a high school student that might not otherwise have an opportunity to work in an office environment.

After reviewing internship programs, the Company elected to participate in the Dallas Mayor’s Intern Fellows Program which was modeled after the prestigious White House Fellows program. This program was created to motivate students to become the leaders of tomorrow. Through an online student profile, candidates were selected to participate in interviews with members of the HR team. One individual was selected based on the resume submitted by the student and the outcome of the interview. The student selected Contran Corporation for the 8-week Mentorship Program.

The student, a young man 17 years of age, joined Contran on June 12, 2017. His hope is to go to college with an interest of majoring in management or finance. Our goal for this talented young individual was to provide him with as much exposure as possible to a corporate environment. He was rotated through various departments, such as Legal, HR, Finance and Tax, who provided him with small tasks or projects, allowed him to sit in meetings, and gave him the opportunity to shadow individuals in different disciplines. In addition, the student was mentored by a member of the senior management team to ensure the goals of the program were met. After a successful 8 weeks, the company offered the student an opportunity to continue his internship program beyond 8 weeks, and entered into an agreement with the student and DISD School of Business and Management at Townview to continue employment with the company for the entire school year, providing the student a part time job and the opportunity to use the continued internship towards his graduation credits. Contran intends to continue to participate in this type of internship program in the future.

Patty Kropp