Career and Leadership Development Academy Warehouse and Logistics Day Blog (Class of 2023)

Throughout the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce’s Career and Leadership Development Academy eight month program, each of the eight middle schools are assigned a day to write about their experiences. 43 students from across all eight New Hanover County middle schools participated in the second industry exploration day, Warehouse, Logistics & Supply Chain, on October 12. Students had the opportunity to hear from Corning’s Supply Chain Manager as well as leaders from MegaCorp Logistics and MCO Transportation. They took a field trip to the NC Ports to wrap up the day. Below is the second blog write up of the first ever Wilmington Chamber of Commerce’s Career and Leadership Academy experience.

We had an awesome time at the Ports for our Warehouse and Logistics Day! We had a few different guest speakers to talk to us about supply chain, transport, and the importance of interpersonal skills within companies. 

What we learned: 

Mega corp was created in 2009!  They work with all different industries. They don't have the actual trucks, they have the drivers who get the goods from one point to another. They have a total of 620 employees Within 5 different offices.Mega corp is nearly a billion dollar company. Most of the things we  see were shipped by some type of a shipping company. I thought that was really interesting because everything around us was shipped on truck, boat or plane at some point! The owner is Ryan Legg. The different jobs consist of sales,carrier,recruiting,administrative night dispatch and many more.They work with many companies consisting of Walmart,Chobani,Aldi,Cosco,Dollar tree and many more.They are a 3rd party lender. Did you know that the 2020 Super Bowl stage was shipped by Mega Corp?!?!

The Ports: 

So it began as we left the room and we hopped on the bus and Monica, a worker for the ports, toured us around. It was AWESOME! We saw some really cool stuff like the cranes that unload the cargo ships. We saw the crane that was at the end of the movie Iron Man 3! It was really cool to see all the stuff. And I didn't really realize how big the cranes actually were, same thing for the cargo ships they were huge.  At the end we saw a big cargo ship that was just pulling into the port! They said the boat was 1200 feet long! And they were also these machines that moved the containers.

Supply Chain:

Mrs.Esteves came in to talk to us about supply chain management. The first question she asked was “What is supply chain management?” It's the control and handling of everything needed to deliver a product to a customer. 

She said when you think of supply chain, you think it is really easy and that all you need is the product and packaging. Mrs. Esteves told us that there's alot more things to consider. EX: Raw materials, manufacturing, distributions, and disruptions. Like with water bottles, you need the water, where are you going to source the water?

Segments of supply chain management: Plan, Source,Make,Deliver. 

I really enjoyed opening my eyes to really think and consider all the details in the supply chain. I learned alot about supply chain, and supply chain management.

Corning by Berkley McEwen: Corning was founded in 1851 by Amory Houghton in Somerville, Massachusetts. Corning is a American  multinational technology company that specializes in specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advanced optics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. One thing about corning is they originally were called Corning Glass Works until 1989. Corning invented the world's first commercially viable low-loss optical fiber in 1970.

We also practiced using our interpersonal skills with Ms. Laura Primvarea! We practiced active listening. 

We can’t wait for our next trip!