EiR Spring Break Trip Leads to Summer Internship

A spring break trip might not be the first place one would think to find an internship, but a trip to San Francisco with University Residences’ Executive in Residence (EiR) provided the connection Purdue sophomore Laju Eribo was looking for to obtain her summer internship.

Eribo is a member of the EiR Learning Community, which provides a unique opportunity for residents to meet successful Purdue alumni. Through learning community activities and EiR visits to campus, students gain one-on-one and small-group mentorship opportunities with Boilermakers who are at the top of their companies and industries. Perhaps the most unique experience available to students in the learning community is the opportunity to participate in a spring break trip to visit with executives and alumni where they work.

Eribo began looking for opportunities to get involved on campus and connect with mentors shortly after she was accepted to Purdue. She found that the connections with executives catalyzed by the EiR Learning Community piqued her interest and applied to join. It turned out to be the right fit.

“I’m naturally a very ambitious person,” Eribo says. “

I’m one of those people who has a sevenyear plan of goals I want to accomplish, so it was important to me that I had that mentorship early on. It was really important to me to have people in industry who can show me how to get there.”

Eribo quickly found community and mentorship from executives, learning community leadership and her fellow students. She cites learning community leadership, such as Bryan Austin, Tammy Loew, Cheryl Brantley and Jordan Richards, as being influential due to their enthusiasm and dedication to the program, as well as visiting executives like Hemmie Schechter for their industry advice and personal attention. She also developed close relationships with like-minded students.

“I ended up making some of my best friends on campus from EiR,” Eribo says. “It’s nice being around people who have similar goals. We’re all in college and, for some reason, not everyone is thinking like this, so it’s nice to be in a cohort of people who are headed in the same direction and have the same drive. I was able to make friends with genuinely amazing people I can grow with both socially and professionally.”

As part of EiR’s 2024 spring break trip, Eribo and students in the learning community visited Celltrio, a company that manufactures robotic-based products for the life sciences industry. While there, they toured facilities, got to observe robots in action and met with CEO and Purdue alum Charlie Duncheon (BS Industrial Engineering).

“It was a natural highlight of the trip for me,” Eribo says. “It was enlightening because I had never seen anything quite like that before or robots being used in that way. It was amazing to see how the robots move and how they’re trying to improve cell culturing.”

Towards the end of the visit, Duncheon mentioned that Celltrio was looking for interns, which immediately got Eribo’s attention. Afterward, she contacted Duncheon to learn more. Although Celltrio didn’t have an open internship that directly connected with Eribo’s major in business analytics and information management, Duncheon looked over Eribo’s resume and recommended that she apply for a position anyway – one she was ultimately successful in obtaining.

“EiR is all about putting yourself out there and going after what you want,” Eribo says.

“EiR leadership and executives are always advocating for going after what you want and pursuing your goals, so I was 100 percent motivated by all the energy surrounding me to go after it.”

Eribo spent the summer as an intern with the systems engineering team, working primarily with data analytics. The first four weeks were spent learning R, a computer programming language that formed the basis of the platforms she later used to analyze data. Her most significant project entailed breaking down preventive maintenance issues for robots and providing recommendations for various processes such as the order of spare parts. She also spent time on part validation testing to ensure robots were reacting to protocols correctly and ensuring electrical, software and hardware components were working synchronously.

In addition to practical, hands-on experience, Eribo says she received valuable guidance on setting values and priorities for her career and learned to interact with different groups of people. Perhaps most valuably, Eribo was empowered to work independently to propose solutions that made an impact on the company – which provided a boost to her confidence.

“One of my biggest insecurities going into college was that I feel like I’m likable and a good talker, but when it’s actually time to show my skills, I struggle,” Eribo says. “This internship was very reassuring for me because I learned that I do have that logical part of my brain. I can break down problems and solve them. It gave me more reassurance that I can go into technical fields and excel in them.” Eribo has already accepted a summer 2025 internship as a consultant in Deals Transformation at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the meantime, she will serve as a mentor for younger students in the EiR Learning Community and continue to serve as an EiR ambassador. She leaves the following advice for students who may be interested in similar opportunities.

“Don’t be afraid to ask for opportunities or put yourself out there,” Eribo says.

“The worst that can happen is someone can say no – and they probably won’t even do that, they will say they can’t help you and find someone else who can. From what I’ve seen with Purdue alumni and the Purdue community is that it’s very accommodating and people want to push you forward. You never know who you’re going to meet or who is going to help you get to where you want to go. Be bold about what you want.”