The summer after her sophomore year, senior business management major (with concentrations in entrepreneurship and marketing) Jessica Spinks was shy and quiet.

But those traits don’t cut it in the management world.

A year later, she was more outspoken and her internship hosts took notice. Spinks was awarded Senior of the Year by INROADS New York/New Jersey Region Inc. INROADS is an international organization that places talented, minority youth interns in business and industry to prepare them for corporate and community leadership. INROADS operates 50 offices around the globe and serves more than 4,500 interns at 400 companies.

Spinks was placed with Fisher-Price, a Fortune 500 company. She worked for the company at its store in East Aurora (N.Y.) in the summer of 2008 and this past summer.

“[Jessica] showed the most improvement from all my Upstate New York interns from summer 2008 to summer 2009,” said Ana Marte, INROADS manager (New York/New Jersey Region). “She was proactive and made things happen—both academically and with her return to the Fisher-Price toy store as an INROADS intern. She allowed herself to be challenged and in the process gained confidence, a new skills set, and great evaluations from your sponsoring client.”

“It was a pleasure to have Jessica as part of our team,” said Kathy Benton of the Fisher-Price toy store. “She is a hard worker who was well liked by her peers and our customers.”

“I personally saw Jessica’s dedication to INROADS and her enthusiasm for her position at her sponsoring company,” said INROADS Regional Director (New York/New Jersey Region) Doreen Wilburn-Smith. “It is my hope that we have many more interns with her character and loyalty.”

During her latest internship, Spinks was responsible for event planning for American Girl and Power Wheels products, which included the set up of displays featuring new items.

“Working for the company showed me a lot of things I had learned about in my coursework,” said Spinks, who serves as a resident assistant in Davis Hall, a liaison for diversity for CAB (Campus Activities Board), and secretary for the Sociology, Criminology and Criminal Justice Club. “The company lets the interns do almost everything, including sitting in on meetings with the vice president of marketing.

“This experience with Fisher-Price and INROADS has opened a lot of doors for me,” added Spinks, who had the opportunity to network with people from various areas of business at INROADS training sessions.

Spinks aspires to enter the corporate world following graduation, and then open up her own business—a mentoring program for youths—while dabbling in house flipping.