Senior sharpens variety of skills over four years with GE Transportation

Summer was anything but a time to goof off for Paige Wallace, a senior from Erie.

That's not surprising, considering that she is double-majoring in communications and public relations and double-minoring in accounting and writing.

She's been putting all of her varied skills to work the past four summers with different internships at GE Transportation in her hometown.

GE Transportation is a global technology leader and supplier to the railroad, mining, marine, stationary power, drilling and energy storage industries.

Wallace's internships with the industrial giant included global security, base-cost productivity, communications and pricing.

She had the most success, she said, being a base-cost productivity intern in the summer of 2012.

Her goal, she said, was to work together with a team to dissect the costs associated with producing each locomotive and see if she could find a more cost-effective way to produce them.

“We really helped lower the production cost without devaluing the locomotive, which was a huge success for GE,” she said. “I feel we really made a difference.”

Working in base-cost productivity, she said, was much different than her first internship, which was in global security.  There she organized international meetings, helped write out company policies and procedures, and helped run drills, she said.

Another year, she worked as a communications intern, helping to reorganize the company's website and make it more user friendly and the information more readily available to those who needed it.

For her most recent internship, Wallace said, she was able to use her skills in communications and accounting as a pricing intern.

Her job then was to figure out why clients chose to drop contracts with GE Transportation and how to look better when compared to competitors, she said.

“It is amazing to take part in such a successful internship,” Wallace said. “I have met so many nice people,and I personally had an effect on the business.”

During her internships, Wallace said, she was able to apply the knowledge she acquired at Pitt-Bradford to help make a positive impact on the company.

Her advice to future interns?

“Self-motivation is key. People are more willing to help you if you help them,” Wallace said.

-30-