Spotlight: Leah Fitzgerald (Sherwin-Williams)
Leah Fitzgerald, Emerging Media and Technology
Internship: Sherwin-Williams
“Working in a professional environment has been a very pleasant experience. It is similar to projects I have completed throughout my coursework, but I've learned that the difference is that everyone is much more devoted and serious in a professional setting.”
Through her IT Analyst internship position at Sherwin-Williams headquarters in Cleveland, Emerging Media and Technology major Leah Fitzgerald, ‘22 is seeing the impact of various technologies in the professional world. Much of her coursework, including the courses Human Computer Interaction and Programming for the Cloud, prepared her to work in a team environment configuring and implementing a mobile application for Sherwin-Williams employees.
The mobile application her team created, Kronos, is a workforce management software. Some of the features they configured for the employee mobile app include viewing their schedule, record their time punches in specific GPS coordinates (Geofencing), and request time off or swap shifts.
“Working in a professional environment has been a very pleasant experience. It is similar to projects I have completed throughout my coursework, but I've learned that the difference is that everyone is much more devoted and serious in a professional setting.”
Leah will be staying at Sherwin-Williams to work full-time in a rotational IT program post-graduation. While she has enjoyed the functional work of her internship, she is excited get new experiences in different Sherwin-Williams departments and is grateful for the professional networking opportunities she gained from this experience.
“What I enjoy most about this internship is actually seeing the impact my work has had. Until I start my new role in June, I am supporting the rollout of the mobile application and it has been received very positively from employees in the stores. The goal was to eventually help employees be more productive while in the stores and we are getting that feedback from employees.”