This summer, students from the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics discovered new avenues for professional preparation and practical hands-on experience. Lerner College students pursued an array of internships, externships and other professional development opportunities. From MBA scholars to undergraduates entering their second year at UD, students across a spectrum of Lerner programs shared their experiences accomplishing an assortment of projects.
Our “My Summer Internship” series highlights these unique experiences, showcasing how students translated classroom knowledge into real-world success.
Guy Rettig, Class of 2026 hospitality business management major, spent his summer as a hospitality and planning intern for United Airlines.
Lerner: How did you find out about this internship? Why did you pursue it?
Rettig: I found out about this internship by looking online at areas of interest in the industry.
Lerner: What was the most exciting task or project that you completed?
Rettig: The main project I focused on was a project analyzing the international beverage provisioning, to create a more efficient inventory of beverages offered in-flight.
My favorite part of the internship was traveling to a Boeing facility for a future aircraft development meeting.
Lerner: What did you learn from the internship that you think you wouldn’t have learned elsewhere?
Rettig: Working with multiple teams to design ideal service procedures, and then compromising with what is possible given the weight and space restrictions on an aircraft.
Lerner: What is an example of a time where you were able to apply what you’ve learned at Lerner to your role?
Rettig: Utilizing a skill set built in-classes practicing presentations, I was able to create a professional capstone presentation to present to the entire commercial division of the company (450+ employees) which was also attended by the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).
Lerner: Did you face any challenges during your internship? If so, what was the issue and how did you overcome it?
Rettig: For my project I was setting up a study to track beverage consumption on over 390+ individual flights. The catering operations team was unsure if the operation would be able to support this study. I had to pivot and change the scale, location, and time frame of this study, indulging in traveling to different airports to help conduct part of it myself.
Lerner: What are your career plans, and how do you think the internship will push you closer to your professional goals?
Rettig: In the future my goal is to pursue a career in corporate planning for food and beverage operations. This summer interning on the food and beverage team was a huge step forward, helping to reaffirm my interest in this field.