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Hormel Foods has continued its award-winning summer internship program, accommodating a record 83 college students who represent nearly 50 colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Last year, Hormel Foods offered students one of only a handful of virtual internships available nationwide. Despite the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, summer interns are once again hard at work, gaining real-life experience and contributing to the company’s key results virtually, in hybrid situations and in person. 

“We are excited to welcome the largest class of interns in our company’s history,” said Amy Sheehan,  director of talent acquisition at Hormel Foods. “We learned how to best navigate the virtual space after gaining insightful feedback from last year’s intern class, and now for this year’s class, we’ve incorporated  those learnings together with in-person experiences later this summer. It’s exciting to see how every year  we are able to build on this program and continue to elevate the experience for our intern classes.

Throughout the duration of the 10-week program, interns experience real business scenarios, either in  person or remotely. Each internship is paid, with interns working an average of 40  hours per week. The program, which officially kicked off June 1, will run through Aug. 6.

In addition to having an 85% conversion rate of interns becoming full-time employees in 2020, Vault recognized Hormel Foods for having one of the nation’s best internship programs in the retail and  consumer products category. The company was ranked No. 38 on the 2021 ranking of 100 Best  Internships. In addition, Hormel Foods made Vault’s 2021 Best Internships for Employment Prospects list  (coming in at No. 18), the 2021 Best Internships for Sales & Marketing list (coming in at No. 4), and the  Best Retail & Consumer Products Internships list (coming in at No. 4).

New this year, the Hormel family of companies came together to create one cohesive internship program across the organization. This change provides a consistent experience and allows the interns to see the many different career paths across the entire  organization. The summer interns can be found working at the corporate headquarters, in regional sales offices throughout the country, and with various Hormel Foods production facilities and farms.

“Our interns deserve a best-in-class experience, and we have worked hard to continually improve our  program,” said Sheehan. “Whether they are with us in person or contributing virtually, we are providing  these young professionals with the experience they need and expect from us as a company. We are  honored to work with this talented team and look forward to their contributions to the important work we  do every day.”