UNI Internships Provide Real-World Experiences

Lexi Soldwisch, an accounting graduate student, worked as an accounting intern over the past summer. She had connected with Rockwell Collins through the career fair at the McLeod Center, which included plenty of UNI Panther connections. The two recruiters who spoke with her were UNIBusiness alumni, and some of the vice presidents of finance at the company are UNI alumni as well.

It was an especially unique experience given the state of Rockwell Collins during the summer. In September 2017, United Technologies announced it would acquire Rockwell Collins, an aerospace company. The merger is expected to go through sometime in the next few months.

Soldwisch and the rest of the accounting and finance interns worked hands on with some of the acquisition details.

“We had a great experience with it just being before the acquisition,” Soldwisch said. “That's a rare thing to see, and a lot of us were very involved with it. The company met with us and helped us understand what they needed us to do to help prepare.”

Rockwell Collins also put Soldwisch and the rest of the interns through networking, development and training sessions. The company even put on an event for all of the 400-plus interns working there in the summer.

Soldwisch used the internship to learn and gauge her interest in the corporate accounting world. While she has already accepted a position in public accounting, she said the internship opened her mind. She encouraged others to do the same.

“It was a very positive experience,” Soldwisch said. “They valued us and gave us hands-on projects that allowed us to see how it will help the company in the future.”