Chobani is a familiar influence in Megan Lewis’ hometown of Sidney, N.Y., just 30 miles away from its upstate manufacturing facility. The company donates its yogurt to an annual high school 5K that raises awareness of drunk driving, for example. 
When she found out that the company was offering 10-week summer internships, she jumped at the chance.
“I was originally brought on specifically as a plant operations intern in sustainability, but that changed over time,” said Lewis, a junior. “I was more on the tech side and the processing on the floor.”
A plant operations internship might seem an odd choice for a dual major in anthropology and environmental science, but the Binghamton University student was prepared. In high school, she participated in Project Leading the Way, which taught her the basics of Python, the programming language used at Chobani. Her environmental science major also helped, as it provided her with a foundation in sustainability and circular economics. 
“I knew a lot of the principles,” she said. 
At Chobani, Lewis worked on two projects broadly related to sustainability. In the first, she created a computer program to track the amount of cream used in the manufacturing process, in an effort to reduce waste. In the second, she considered the specialized replacement parts the plant’s machines needed to operate and how best to time shipments to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. 
“Basically, I went through all the processing and became very familiar with the layout. I spoke with operators to see where they saw failures, and I totalized that and background data on an Excel spreadsheet that has information for each part, where it’s used in the plant, its specific purpose, the manufacturers and shippers, and the usual time it takes to ship to Chobani,” she explained. “How can we minimize the number of trucks we’re bringing into the plant, and therefore reduce our CO2 emissions?” 
One major theme of her time at Chobani: the importance of teamwork. The company introduced her to multiple individuals who proved to be a ready source of help during her time there, and to the concept of “managing up,” she said.
The internship wasn’t the first time that Lewis recognized amazing opportunities close to home; in short, that’s also how she ended up at Binghamton. Initially opposed to the idea of attending a SUNY school, she changed her mind during a campus visit, when she learned more about the University’s academic rigor and its status as a “public Ivy.” 
“As soon as I recognized the standard here, I immediately thought, ‘Binghamton is an amazing school, and I’d love to come here,’” she remembered. 
Once she graduates, Lewis plans to stay an extra year to earn her master’s in systems science, through the 4+1 program. 
Currently, she works in Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Molly Patterson’s lab and plans to remain there for a while, potentially joining her professor on a research trip to Germany. She also hopes to return to Chobani for another internship, she said.
“It’s extremely nice to know that I can do a job well enough to go back,” she said. “It made me happy to see my college work become so applicable.”