For This Enterprising Student, it Was the Egg that Came First

Growing up on a small farm in Millersville, Pa., Andrew Herr always thought he would work for an agricultural operation close to home - that is, until he got the internship of a lifetime.

In January 2005, the Animal Sciences major traveled with the Penn State Poultry Science Club to the International Poultry Expo, where he met representatives from Rembrandt Enterprises, Inc. Rembrandt, a division of Taylor Corp. based in Rembrandt, Iowa, provides pasteurized liquid egg to food-service companies throughout the world.

While at the event in Atlanta, Herr was given a formal interview with the company. Because Rembrandt had never offered an internship program before, company officials asked Herr to put together an internship proposal, which they reviewed and accepted. "They approved the proposal and flew me out to Iowa to meet the management team," explains Herr. "They offered me an internship for the summer of 2005 working with their chief operating officer."

That summer, Herr helped develop a new data-collection system and 2006 budgets for the entire company. Rembrandt officials were so pleased with Herr's diligence and hard work that they asked him to return in the summer of 2006 to work directly with Rembrandt's CEO, David Rettig.

The second time around, Herr was involved in much bigger projects, which entailed creating business models for alternative egg products and co-authoring a $20 million expansion proposal for Taylor Corp.

"The support and early opportunities with the egg industry that Penn State provided really helped prepare me for this internship," says Herr. "Having previously had an internship with Wenger Feeds and being active in the Poultry Science Club were a big help as well."

Before his graduation in May, Herr spent a lot of time outside of class working for Rembrandt from home and traveling to Iowa many weekends. Herr is now living in Iowa, where he has begun working full time as Rembrandt's new head of market development.