Through a lens of seamless support and unparalleled opportunity, students working at Elanco find themselves at the center of an environment where talent thrives, skills are honed, and relationships are forged while also having the opportunity to impact the business to make the lives of animals better.

Elanco is a global animal health company spanning more than 90 countries across the world. Following the vision of “Food and Companionship Enriching Life”, the company’s products and services help prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets.

Sydney Nelesen (ChE ’24) supported the company in the summer of 2023 as a Process Engineering Intern. Following the first conversation Nelesen had with the company at Purdue University’s Industrial Roundtable, she applied. From that point forward, Nelesen continued to have a seamless process.

“After applying, interviewing, and accepting their offer, Elanco was very helpful in communicating with us and making sure all details were known. They also assisted in facilitating our travel and housing for the course of the internship, which is something I have found to not always be standard. The transparency of information and their assistance with transitioning us into life at our locations was something I greatly appreciated and valued in the months prior to beginning work,” Nelesen said.

During her 12-week internship, Nelesen gained hands-on industry-specific experience through a variety of project-based activities.

“My responsibilities for the summer started with a project involving the replacement of a heat exchanger system impacting multiple products formulated in my building. This project provided me with valuable hands-on experience and several opportunities for learning. Through this project, I was able to fully research several of the products made at the site, explore the machinery used in these processes, and talk to many people who are experts in different areas around the plant. I was also able to research new equipment and manage working with several vendors to determine different solution paths, the units needed for these solutions, and their sizing and capacity requirements. I very much appreciated knowing this project was on the list of tasks needing to be completed in the next few years at the site and wasn’t just something thrown together for an intern.”

Elanco promotes three core values within its company intern program: Purpose, Potential, and People. In addition to the industry exposure, Nelesen credits the attention that the company has for fostering networking, collaboration, and encouraging professional development.

“I was able to spend time meeting with the directors and senior directors at my site as well as from corporate headquarters. From these meetings, I was able to gain valuable career insight and advice from listening to their stories and asking questions. I appreciated the emphasis that Elanco put on these interactions and the lessons I was able to take from them,” Nelesen explains. “Elanco was great at planning events outside of work for us to interact with each other. We had several opportunities to explore Indianapolis whether it was through networking events with corporate leaders or fun opportunities to go watch a baseball game downtown. It was also easy to plan things on our own, which Elanco made convenient through their help securing living arrangements near the other interns. Having a great network of people who are in the same situation as you makes adapting to work life and being on your own much more manageable.”

A culture of community and support reigns as a core quality of the internship experience at Elanco. Following the completion of the program, interns have the opportunity to receive full-time offers. Nelesen was among those who completed the program and received an invitation to return as an employee upon graduating in May 2024.

“My decision to go back was influenced largely by the people at Elanco, the working environment, and the industry they are in. The pharmaceutical industry is so easy to feel connected to because of the prevalent and widespread impact on the community and because of the ability to fully utilize my chemical engineering degree. In addition to the connection to industry, the connections made with the people at my site and the lessons learned from them make it exciting to go back. My internship experience helped me to see I am ready to graduate and prepared to enter the working world.”