Active Learning

Katie Ferguson spent her internship learning how to run a fleet of ships like the one behind her.

Katie Ferguson
Alpena, Mich.
Transportation and Logistics Management
Computer Information Systems

Internships enable students to put their classroom knowledge to work in the real world. For Katie Ferguson of Alpena, Mich., that means spending the summer and fall of 2005 learning how to run a fleet of ships on the Great Lakes.

Ferguson is majoring in both Transportation and Logistics Management and Computer Information Systems. That makes her a perfect fit for the summer internship at Great Lakes Fleet Inc. in Duluth, Minn., which owns eight freighters hauling iron ore, stone, coal and other bulk products to ports around the lakes.

Each student majoring in Transportation and Logistics Management must complete an internship with a transportation company, government agency, manufacturer or product distributor. Demand for UW-Superior interns is high, and students have worked for employers such as railroads, airport authorities, trucking companies, auto parts manufacturers, port authorities, Mississippi River towboat companies and federal regulatory agencies.

Gregg Ruhl, Director of Sales, Marketing & Traffic for Great Lakes Fleet, decided Katie could handle a lot of responsibility. “We are giving her regular duties that someone has to do every day,” he says.

Ferguson’s schedule at the fleet’s office includes preparing a daily morning report for company executives on the position of the fleet’s ships. She then compiles information – where each ship loaded, how long it took to load, how much cargo was loaded and which customer to bill – and sends the information to the fleet’s accounting office. She also is learning how to dispatch ships, and uses her computer skills on special projects.

For Ferguson, the internship offers invaluable experience.

“School provides you with the background; it gives you the tools you need,” she says. “But actually going out and doing the job; seeing how those tools are used – that’s what’s really important.”