(left to right) Dan O’Neil and and Will Browning of Dell EMC interview Beacon College student Luke Hill for a summer internship position.
Three Beacon College students in February earned summer internships with Dell Technologies after emerging from a crowded field of candidates during the tech giant’s second annual recruiting safari to Navigator territory.
Dell Technology recruiters tapped Ary Brown, Luke Hill, and Erik Johnson for the coveted 10-week internships in Round Rock, TX. that were up for grabs.
In January, Dell Technologies representatives, for the second year running, visited the campus on a two-day recruitment trip. On day one, student attended an information session reviewing the opportunities Dell Technologies affords talented recruits. The American multinational information technology giant boasts some 140,000 employees worldwide and ranks 35th on the Fortune 500 roster of largest United States corporations.
These summer internships pay $17-$20 an hour. Students also receive lodging, plus roundtrip travel expenses from Florida to Texas.
On day two, Will Browning, director of infrastructure delivery services for Dell EMC, and Daniel P. O’Neil, director of service delivery at Dell EMC, tested applicants during 20-minute interviews for three internships: IT technical analyst, strategic program management, and advanced analytics.
This year, 14 students competed for the coveted slots. That’s up from 10 last year.
“This speaks volumes about the good work that the CIS faculty and its chair are doing with the students,” said Esteban Lopez, director of corporate and academic outreach at Beacon College in Leesburg, Fla. The nonprofit liberal arts school is America’s first accredited baccalaureate school to educate primarily students who learn differently.
For Browning, the January visit was his second Beacon recruiting expedition. This time around, he said interviewees came with their A-games.
“How refreshing it was to hear [Beacon] students’ responses to questions,” he said. “Definitely not cookie-cutters.”
Beacon’s supply line to Dell Technologies owes to the vision of Steve Sturr, a Beacon parent and vice president of infrastructure delivery services for Dell EMC — part of Dell Technologies, which equips clients with servers, storage, and data protection technologies. Sturr, while visiting his daughter Sydney last year during her first year, recognized promising students who not only could benefit from Dell tutelage, but also who could benefit down the line the company’s bottom line and boost the neurodiversity of its workforce.
“I won’t be surprised if Dell returns next year to recruit four to five students,” Lopez said.