Intern Insight: My PTAC Experience

Written by: Melissa Valerio, PTAC Intern

My experience with the PTAC team has been a blessing in my life. From the start people have been so caring and kind to me, making me feel part of the team. Veronica Clark has been a mentor for me in this experience. She has been key throughout my whole time working here, because of her patience and ability to explain me everything which has been a virtue in this whole process.

At the beginning, I was unsure of what I was doing but Veronica was always there to offer me help and support. It was a rough start since I did not understand most concepts about procurement, but the PTAC team has been without words more than helpful in teaching me all the steps I need to know in order to be successful in my position as an intern. I have also learned many procurement terms and things that most people do not know about or even knew they existed. I am glad to be apart of the market research efforts that PTAC provides to their clients. Knowing how important this in being a successful contractor makes me understand the importance of good research.

Working with the PTAC team has allowed me to mature and grow in so many aspects in my life but even more as a person. More than knowing about everything that has to do with PTAC they have also focused on teaching me things that are more important, and I can put into my everyday life. For example, after meeting with someone Veronica taught me to send them a thank you letter for giving me some of their time and to show them how grateful I am for that. Also, I started off as a super quiet and shy person so for me to say good morning and good afternoon it was kind of challenging but since time went by it has been more easy and has made me open up more and get out of my shell as Veronica used to say. I was able to meet so many important people during events, thanks to PTAC showing me how to network and meet new people.

University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services and the PTAC team have received me with open arms since the first day and I am more than grateful for interning with them for two semesters. They showed me what it is like to work in a company with a good environment since I feel like few companies have such an awesome environment as they do. For me it was more of a life experience rather than a “PTAC experience,” since I was able to learn uncommon things that most interns do not get the opportunity to learn. Everything I have learned and get taught everyday makes me more professional and those are things I will put it into practice every day with whoever I encounter throughout my journey. All these experiences have made me feel more knowledgeable and richer as a person thanks to the PTAC crew.

Overall, my experience with the PTAC crew is going to be an unforgettable experience, I am thankful for the opportunity of getting to work with the best team.