West Point Cadet Will Learn How ‘We Go Where You Go’ During Internship          

The Exchange will once again host an intern from West Point, as Cadet Zachary “Zach” Hall begins working in the Human Resources office at the U.S. Military Academy Exchange for a two-week internship beginning July 1.

Hall, a junior majoring in behavioral science and leadership at West Point, will work with the HR deployment program under the guidance of Talent Manager Norris Watkins, who will coach Hall virtually.

Zachary “Zach” Hall, a junior majoring in behavioral science and leadership at West Point, will work with the HR deployment program during his Exchange internship.

“He’s going to be helping us with overall recruitment, branding, and marketing of the deployment program,” Watkins said. “We’ll ask him to conduct a SWOT [strengths, weaknessses, opportunities and threats] analysis that identifies what we’re doing well and make a comparison of how competitors are managing similar programs.”

Exemplifying the Exchange’s “We go where you go” motto, the deployment program supports troops at the tip of the spear and depends on a volunteer workforce of talented associates with varied skills. Deployment opportunities are currently available in Europe, specifically in the Balkans, and in Southwest Asia.

Hall will learn about how the Exchange recruits, how volunteers are prepared for deployment, the benefits of the program, and the challenges that the program faces, especially during the COVID era.

“We want him to develop research on how recruiters are recruiting for deployed locations,” said Talent Manager Cynthia Horn. “It’s more about marketing campaigns—how can we better advertise for potential candidates to want to volunteer and deploy.”

West Point General Manager Katy Litterer said that the store will support HR’s work with Hall, adding that Hall will also learn how the store responds to customer comments, whether positive or negative, and learn the role that customer input plays in responses and resolutions.

Internships, which West Point refers to as Advanced Individual Academic Development (AIAD), are required for graduation. Hall’s internship will run from July 1 to July 17.

In 2019, the Exchange hosted Cadets Christian Falk and Thomas Bordeaux, interns who were part of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at West Point. Both worked at HQ, learning from leaders in IT and completing a required project about the Exchange’s cybersecurity, fraud analysis, and investigation, as well as advanced threat detection and malware analysis.