The proposal for Seton Hall and Hackensack University Medical Center to start a new medical school may still be years from being realized, but the Stillman School of Business has already begun the first of six semesters in its two-year contract to provide Hackensack with business-side interns.
The internships are in the area of supply chain management or the overseeing of information, finance and otherwise in the chain of supplies from the supplier down the line to consumers. The University has worked with HUMC before but only with the Nursing School, never with the Stillman School.
According to Dr. Renu Ramnarayanan, who is supervising the project for the Stillman School, the interns will be working with the inventory management systems associated with their ambulances. The students, three of whom are graduate students and the other two undergraduates, will have a goal of evaluating the system and recommending improvements.
Ramnarayanan says the opportunity, which is open to any business school student regardless of major, offers great exposure to the supply chain management area. “It gives them “hands-on” experience, fulfilling one of the main missions of the Stillman School which is “putting concepts into practice,” said Ramnarayanan. “There are tremendous job opportunities in the area of supply chain management and it gives students the opportunity to experience this area and see if they want to make a career out of it.”
The requirements for business school students who want to apply for the internship are completing the core course in Statistics (BQUA 2811), said Ramnarayanan. The internship will, however, be limited to six students a semester, graduate and undergraduate.
Samantha Cutrone, a junior, is one of the interns currently working with HUMC. She said that she is a beginner in the field of supply chain management, but during the time she has put in this semester, Cutrone has already learned a lot.
“We spent the first couple of weeks getting oriented with Hackensack in itself as well as the EMS team. As a group we are in the phase that studies the current system for supply chain on site and then will move on to try to find a more efficient system,” said Cutrone. “We get to visit the ER and go on ride alongs to understand the system. It actually really helps us find the balance between efficiency that business students focus so much on and having that safety net of extra material in times of real emergency.”
Cutrone said that the internship only requires an on-site work day once a week with the rest of the work being done through conference calls and independent work.
“I think that what students will be able to apply what they have learned in class into a real life experience. I know that is the quintessential thing to say for an internship, but it really teaches you that we don’t live in a hypothetical world,” said Cutrone. “We really lucked out with an amazing support system in Hackensack UMC. They want us to succeed and most importantly learn in this project.”
Eric Hostettler can be reached at eric.hostettler@student.shu.edu.
