Released: Wednesday, October 28, 2010

Harry Miller Corp recently hosted Emilie Darroman, a French Exchange student through the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). Ms. Darroman, a fourth year graduate student at the National Graduate School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Montpellier, France, recently completed a four-month internship at HMC’s Philadelphia laboratory.

Ms. Darroman’s academic concentration on the synthesis and characterization of polymers and ceramics was furthered by the opportunity to perform quality control testing, formula revision projects and raw material substitution and evaluation under the Supervision of Nick Ariano, Vice President and Technical Director of Harry Miller Corp.

“Emilie quickly acquired proficiency levels in the QC process and we allotted time for her to work in the product development area.” said Ariano, “She served as an assistant to chemists on development projects, including a few projects where alternative components in existing product formulas were under evaluation.”

The cross cultural benefits are attractive and beneficial to hosting US businesses as well as the exchange students. Europe is often ahead of US-based companies in areas such as “green technology” and working with students who are particularly tuned into these types of developmental subsets can vault production and the attractiveness of US companies to international clients.

“An exchange student can learn our culture and values by immersion, while exposure to a foreign student opens the minds of our own staff to different thought-patterns, problem solving approaches and experiences,” said Harry Miller Corp President, Bruce K. Entwisle. “We want to encourage students to enter ‘rust belt’ industries because those industries are not seen as sleek or ‘sexy’ as more high tech fields. But, innovation is innovation and experiencing that will capture and inspire the student and get them excited about other possibilities in our industry for future innovative developments. We enjoy being a part of making that happen and we enjoyed the opportunity to host Emilie.”

Ms. Darroman worked with the staff from June until the end of September, 2010 when she returned to her studies in France. She reports that her internship presentation went well and that many of her friends and family were curious about her American experience and she says she enjoyed sharing “my amazing stay” with them. The staff at Harry Miller Corp is following her educational progress and keeping her up-to-date on the local events (including her interest in the progress of the Phillies in this year’s National League Championships).