Not surprisingly, recent circumstances have presented some unexpected challenges for graduating senior Quavis Johnson. “COVID-19 significantly impacted our project,” Johnson says of the supply chain practicum project he spent his final semester working on.
For the project, Johnson spent weeks working with his classmates to optimize the picking process for Duke Energy’s North Carolina warehouse. “We had been going to the distribution center weekly to observe operations and acquire data,” he says. “ … but since we couldn’t do that anymore, we had to go by the limited information we had already gathered, as well as information from case studies at other companies.”
Fortunately, the robust set of skills and experiences Johnson had already acquired as a student helped him and his teammates pivot and complete the project successfully.
When taking his introductory business courses, Johnson says supply chain management was the field he could envision himself working in the most. However, it wasn’t until he completed his supply chain internship at CPI Security during his senior year that he truly discovered how important supply chains are to businesses. “Without it, companies literally do not have the resources they need to be successful,” he says. “I learned just how much supply chains across the world are moving at all times.”
Johnson capitalized on his newfound interest by also serving as an officer for the Supply Chain Club his senior year. “I got to see up close everything that goes into planning tours, getting companies to come to the networking events, and preparing for monthly club meetings,” he says.
Outside of academics, Johnson has been equally proactive — he served as a student leader for a campus ministry called Summit College and played club and intramural basketball.
After graduating this May, Johnson plans to move to Nashville, Tennessee — and while he’s still in search of the right full-time job opportunity there, he plans to take with him the “Think and Do” motto of NC State and the confidence it has brought him. “I feel [the motto] shaped my student experience by really emphasizing that I am capable of doing well in any class or succeeding at any problem life may throw at me. If I try my best and apply my mind to the best of my ability, I know I will be successful.”
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