How I spent my summer vacation
9/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
For lacrosse team captain Mike Norelli ’05, the months that he put in at the Continuous Improvement department at Binney & Smith (parent company of Crayola and Silly Putty) taught him a significant life lesson.
“Hard work, effective communication and leadership are the three qualities that are essential to success in the real world,” says Norelli, who earned his spot for one of the coveted internships by maintaining a position in the top third of Lehigh’s Norelli conducted time studies on manufacturing equipment to help identify major causes of downtime, and then developed ways to decrease downtime occurrences. In his most successful project, he studied the two production machines that extrude, cut and wrap Crayola’s Model Magic dough, and then designed and assembled a retractable belt scraper. His invention increased uptime efficiency by 11 percent, which is projected to save the manufacturer $250,000 annually. It was also noteworthy for the fact that it represented the first intern-produced plan presented to the corporation’s vice president. On another part of the globe, two-time cross country captain and track star Alex Hudgins ‘05 focused his efforts on researching a less expensive way to produce titanium metal at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in Hudgins and several students before him benefited from the strong ties between the materials departments of both Lehigh and the Because Imperial is situated in the center of “I was there for a total of 10 weeks, and it was pretty intensive,” he says. “But, as long as I got my work done, I could have a flexible schedule and travel through Despite their positive and rewarding internships, both Norelli and Hudgins were eager to return to the Lehigh campus at the end of summer and resume the often grueling schedule of highly accomplished scholar-athletes. “Balancing school and sports is a challenge, but it’s worth it,” says Norelli. “Being a part of a team, especially a close-knit team like ours, has been the most rewarding part of my Lehigh experience.” Hudgins agrees: “I’m fairly active on campus, and of course, I have to keep up with academics,” he says. “And that doesn’t take into account competing for and being a leader of a Division I athletics program for three seasons a year, four seasons in a row. Then you have to throw in a social life once in a while. It’s a tall order, but it’s all worth it in the end.”
Story by Linda Harbrecht, University Relations
