Kristen Hoy

Hometown: West Chester, PA
Class Year: 2019
Major: Integrated Business and Engineering – Finance & Mechanical Engineering
Minor: Aerospace Engineering

Summer 2019 Internship: Research and Development Engineering Intern, West Pharmaceutical Services

“This summer I worked in the research and development department of West Pharmaceutical Services in Exton, PA. West Pharmaceutical Services is a publicly traded and global company who creates injectable systems for pharmaceutical companies. Specifically, R&D falls under innovation and technology at West. My role was to determine if there is a new market West could get into and how West can leverage current technology and knowledge to penetrate that market, while still being a part of a nationwide team. This internship allowed me to leverage both my engineering and business knowledge.

I began the summer by just doing market research, looking at suppliers’ and competitors’ 10-K statements to see how the products in the industry were doing. This gave me a rough idea of the size of the market I was exploring. To gain more knowledge of the market and West itself, I met with a variety of people at the company to hear their perspectives on my research and to learn more about West from the point of view of an engineer, a marketing operations specialist, and anyone who I thought could give me a new perspective. During these conversations, I continued to build my network, but more importantly I gained perspective and advice from a variety of different individuals with various backgrounds, which helped my project greatly. I also coincidentally met a few Lehigh alumni along the way—an added bonus. Then once my research was completed, I began narrowing down what the market’s needs were and how West could move forward if they were to try and penetrate a new market. To help with this I led a four hour multidisciplinary meeting to help ideate possible solutions. This led to some new ideas and great conversations about the market and the potential for West. I concluded my internship with a poster board session where all summer interns’ work was illustrated and the entire headquarters was invited to this session. This was a nice way to wrap up my internship and inform other West employees of what I was doing this summer and update the individuals who helped me along the way.”

Value derived from internship experience:

“One of the most important things I learned this summer was the importance of ‘why’ behind everything. From ‘why are consumers buying this product’ to ‘why are we as a company/team/department doing this?’ Asking and learning the ‘why’ in business is valuable because it makes sure you have your priorities in order, and you are on track with your project. Moreover, I learned the importance of collaboration and communication. My project would not have been successful without the help of my team, various West employees, and other interns. Whenever I was stuck or wanted an opinion on something, a fellow employee was always willing to help and provide a new perspective, and this really allowed my project to be successful. As I was writing this, I received an email that my project is continuing to be explored and it was due to a combination of everyone at the company working together.”

Kristen’s career goals:

“After working at three different companies as an intern, I realized that I would like to start out with the product design of mechanical engineering and solving engineering problems by building a solution. As my career advances, I can see myself liking the project management side of business so I can see a project from the start to finish, which will utilize both my engineering and finance backgrounds.”