Lea and Manuel, our dual students in International Business, gained valuable professional and personal experience during their three-month stay abroad in Houston, USA, from July until September 2024.

They were actively involved in the creation of a marketing video for our site in Shreveport, which documents the entire process from the construction to the commissioning of the new threading machine. They were also responsible for preparing outgoing invoices for the Shreveport plant on a daily basis. Another highlight of their job was helping to relaunch the website for oil and gas extraction products in North America.

In their free time, the two have taken numerous city trips, including visits to Austin, San Antonio, San Marcos, New Orleans and Los Angeles. They also explored the beaches on the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Freeport and Port Aransas. Houston itself offered them many attractions, including the NASA Space Center, various museums and parks such as Memorial Park, Hermann Park and Buffalo Bayou Park. A particular highlight was a visit to NRG Stadium for the Copa America quarter-final, where they had the opportunity to see Lionel Messi live as Argentina against Ecuador played. But they also enjoyed the culinary diversity of the local cuisine, from Mexican dishes to typical Texan BBQ. 

Lea and Manuel not only expanded their professional skills during their stay abroad, but also gained unforgettable cultural and personal experiences.

Our apprentices Nico and Erik were at our plant in Shreveport, USA, from July to September 2024 as part of their stay abroad. After their arrival, Nico and Erik got straight to work. First there was an introduction with safety rules and a tour. 

Nico was assigned to the local IT department. His contact person quickly noticed his interest in programming and introduced him to the MES team. There, Nico was given his own project “Mobile Applications” and was asked to create a basic framework with a homepage for the scanners in the plant. After completing this project, Nico created a meeting attendance application that could be used to create, edit and manage meetings and record attendance by scanning. He really enjoyed these projects as he was able to contribute his own ideas and had a great team on site to help and support him at all times. Nico also had to give a presentation about his project in English, which was a big challenge for him, but he mastered it with flying colors. 
Erik worked in Shreveport at the Hot Mill as an electrician in maintenance. His tasks included maintaining and repairing systems as well as troubleshooting. He also worked in programming and configured and tested a training station for the PLC with various components in the tech room. This station was intended to help new team members familiarize themselves with the PLC.

In their free time, Nico and Erik visited many exciting places, e.g. the Hot Springs National Park. They also visited Lea & Manuel, our two dual students in International Business, who were spending time abroad in Houston at the same time. Together they went to a Copa America soccer match. Another highlight was a tour through a swamp in New Orleans, where the four of them were able to observe alligators in the wild. At the end of his stay abroad, Nico went on a two-week vacation on the West Coast. This included trips to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
During their stay abroad, Nico and Erik were able to expand their professional skills, implement new projects and get to know American culture. Both are very happy to have embarked on this adventure and agree that they would repeat this experience at any time.

In July 2024, our dual IT students Joel-Maurice and Felix went to Grand Rapids for three months as part of their stay abroad. 

Joel-Maurice learned about the local IT infrastructure, including the key card system, server cabling and server disposal. He was also involved in the migration of old systems and brought new ideas and cost savings to the plant. Felix has trained supply chain employees in the production planning tool as well as the sales and production planning process. He supported the implementation of MProCs Outbound at the plant, worked on SAP application development and visited the BENTELER plant in Holland.

In addition to work, they participated in a taco festival with goal wall shooting and throwing, celebrated four accident-free years at the Shreveport plant and socialized with colleagues from various departments, with whom they also enjoyed regular restaurant visits. They were also part of a joint baseball game with colleagues from Hagen. Every week they explored new cities and took trips to Toronto and Niagara Falls. On top of that, they spent beach days in Grand Haven, Holland and South Haven, attended Nascar races, went for walks and hikes on trails and in nearby forests. Numerous cultural activities were also on the agenda, including art museums and the Ford Museum in Detroit.  

Joel-Maurice and Felix enjoyed their stay abroad to the full and are now returning to their dual study program in Paderborn with many new impressions under their belts.