Name: Justin Matthew
Major: Supply Chain Management
Hometown: Downingtown, PA
Internship: Colgate-Palmolive (Piscataway, NJ)
When Justin Matthew, Class of 2028, searched for the location of his summer 2026 internship, he only had two requirements.
He wanted it to be with a reputable company.
And he wanted it to be somewhere where he could learn a lot.
He found both.
Matthew, a junior supply chain management major at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, returns to Alter Hall this fall after spending his summer interning with Colgate-Palmolive at their Global Technology Campus in Piscataway, NJ. A multinational consumer product company, some of the brand’s most recognizable products include Colgate toothpaste and mouthwash, Irish Spring and Softsoap soap, Speed Stick deodorant and Ajax homecare cleaner.
In addition to gaining the highly valuable experience of working in-person at a large professional setting, many of Matthew’s responsibilities included completing tasks that tied directly back to hissupply chain education at Fox.
“My official role was as a North American Direct Procurement Intern, meaning many of my responsibilities centered on tasks like corporate logistics/planning, data analysis and external vendor management,” Matthew said.
“Some very educational tasks to me included transforming raw supply chain data into clear, digestible information for company leadership, aiding/monitoring tracking systems for plant managers throughout the United States and overseeing outreach to suppliers in regard to collecting their data reports.”
For Matthew, tasks like these showcased immediate value relating to not only his Fox School education, but his future in the supply chain industry.
“This internship experience gave me valuable insight into the real-world context for my supply chain coursework, and how critical business analytics directly impact daily operations in a large corporate setting,” Matthew explained.
“Those hands-on tasks relating to business intelligence and direct procurement experiences made me feel prepared to deliver immediate value within a full-time supply chain role, one that I hope to obtain after my graduation from Fox.”
Out of all the tasks he completed, there’s one he’s most proud of.
“A major aspect of my outreach to suppliers was collecting ‘Certificate of Origin’ letters from them, documents from the supplier that certify what materials we use from them,” Matthew said.
“To maximize efficiency for both our department and the suppliers themselves, I created a Google Form for the supplier to input their data into, and once they submitted it, it would generate the data as a PDF within my email inbox, streamlining the entire process.”
Whether it was ownership of projects like that, or the benefits of having the chance to network with established professionals within a desired industry, Matthew stresses the importance of a summer opportunity like the one he just experienced.
“An internship is essential because it bridges the gap between class concepts and real-world execution and also helps you gain professional insight while considering what direction you’d like your career to go,” Matthew said.
“Not only did my internship give me great experience, but it also gave me professional confidence when doing things like project ownership—and that feeling is invaluable.”