Fortune 500 railway companies don’t often need to remove acres of rare palm trees from their properties, but when Union Pacific was faced with this issue, they turned the problem over to five pre-business students at the BYU Marriott School of Business.
As part of a winter 2024 on-campus internship through the BYU Marriott Business Career Center, students Miriam Call, Melissa Mains, Eli Nelson, Wesley Olsen, and Clayton Roberts partnered with Loup Logistics, a subsidiary of Union Pacific, to solve a unique problem involving 8,000 blue hesper palm trees that were in the way of growth at a transload facility in Phoenix.
“We were in the dark,” says Mains—now a global supply chain management student from Bentonville, Arkansas—about starting the project. “We wanted to represent BYU well, but we didn’t know anything about palm trees at the start of this project” Mains and her team were tasked with learning about the market for blue hesper palm trees to consult Union Pacific about the best way to remove the trees.
At the beginning of the semester, Roberts, from Minneapolis, now studying accounting, asked whether the trees could be repurposed as wood chips or if it would be most cost-effective to bulldoze the trees. After conducting some initial research, the team decided to figure out how to sell the palm trees.
But knowing they wanted to put the trees on the market did little to make the project more straightforward. “It was the most ambiguous thing ever, because you couldn’t research the market size of this specific palm tree,” says Call, now a marketing student from Omaha, Nebraska. Undeterred, the five interns started out by making 151 phone calls to nurseries and potential buyers to gather information about the demand, price point, and transportation logistics for blue hesper palms.
As the team worked to crunch the numbers and prepare the data, they checked in weekly with their contacts at Loup Logistics who helped with their project. “Effective communication and leadership are maybe the biggest things I learned from Loup Logistics,” says Nelson, now a strategic management student from Seattle, who learned from the way the representatives gave positive feedback to encourage and inspire his team.
The representatives from Loup Logistics confirmed if the students were moving in the right direction or if they needed to make adjustments, but Mains says that, for the most part, the students were trusted to manage the project on their own.
At the end of the internship, the students presented their findings to a room full of executives from Union Pacific and Loup Logistics and recommended that the railway company hire a third-party broker to sell the trees over the next several years. Call says presenting to so many top officials made the team “feel that our recommendations were truly valued by Union Pacific executives and decision makers who, in the end, did take our recommendation.”
The students agree that the internship prepared them for future projects, both at BYU Marriott and in their careers. Call loves being able to talk about the experience because of its uniqueness; she compares the problem her team faced involving 26 acres of palm trees to “one of those weird math problems” involving absurd quantities of fruit.
Roberts learned from the ambiguity of the project. “Sometimes your bosses aren’t going to give you a lot of direction because they want you to have to figure it out and brainstorm with your team,” he says. Nelson is grateful for the learning opportunity he had working on a real-world problem outside of classroom practice scenarios.
Besides learning the ins and outs of the palm tree market, the five students incorporated team bonding activities into their internship—like the occasional bagel Friday—and worked on their applications to various programs at BYU Marriott. Nelson describes his team as a support group where he and his teammates could discuss their strengths and offer advice. “The opportunity to collaborate as a team,” Call says, “and to help each other figure out what we all were good at was something really valuable for each of us.” Since the internship ended, all five students have been accepted into various programs within BYU Marriott.
While researching rare palm trees, gaining hands-on experience, and applying to BYU Marriott programs, the team members found a strong bond that enriched their learning experience. “We had the dream team for this project,” says Mains.
Nelson agrees. “The experience you have in an on-campus internship really comes down to your team,” he remarks. “If each team member is determined to have a good experience and produce good deliverables and good outcomes for their client, then no matter what—no matter how big or small the company—you’re going to gain skills that will benefit you in the work.”
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Written by Elizabeth Walker