The Cullen College of Engineering's Technology Division might not seem like the most likely place to find an internship partnership with menswear giant Tailored Brands, but that's exactly where you'd have found them earlier this Spring at UH Sugar Land as part of the Catapult Initiative.
The Catapult Initiative was launched as part of the Technology Division's Supply Chain & Logistics Technology program, in response to the global supply chain disruption first witnessed during the initial COVID outbreak in 2020. Supply chain and logistics operations are the connective tissue of all modern corporations and are a critical link within and between consumer systems.
The initiative allows students to explore real-world problems from the lenses of both supply chain and logistics, and industrial engineering, while learning more about the available career opportunities in these high-demand, high-growth fi elds. Their most recent partnership with leading omnichannel retailer Tailored Brands – a company founded 50 years ago here in Houston that's brands include Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank, Moores and K&G Fashion Superstore – is no exception.
The joint effort was spearheaded by Yaping Wang, Undergraduate Program Director of Industrial Engineering and Instructional Associate Professor, and Margaret Kidd, Undergraduate Program Director of Supply Chain and Logistics Technology and Instructional Associate Professor. The event brought in more than 50 application submissions by UH students to a handful of open internship positions with Tailored Brands.
Students from both programs had the opportunity to interact in-person with several Tailored Brands representatives, including EVP & Chief Supply Chain Officer Jamie Bragg, in a quick-rotation interview format before formally submitting their applications online. If selected, a student will have the opportunity gain real-world knowledge and experience in the supply chain field, plus to the opportunity to showcase their own specialized individual skills.
“The goal here is to have folks do some real knowledge and project-based work that not only gives them experience, but allows us to kind of utilize some of their technical expertise to solve problems,” Bragg said. “I think it's a good mutual fit because we could use the help, and they could use the experience, and who knows where that leads to post internship [or] post-graduation.”
Port Houston is a convenient local resource for students interested in supply chain logistics and related fields, and Tailored Brands itself. According to Bragg, bringing shipments up through the Panama Canal and into the Port of Houston is quicker than routing them through West Coast ports, and that has held true over the last few years as multiple disruptions have rocked global supply chains.
“Everything that's happened over the last two and a half years – all of the disruptions kind of beginning with the Trump-era tariffs and China, and then working our way through COVID, and then the labor disputes in the West Coast ports and the war in Ukraine – everything has a cascading effect on the global supply chain," he said. "You have to be pretty agile to roll with the changes."
A proud UH alumnus himself, Bragg graduated in 1992 before a full Supply Chain and Logistics Technology program was even offered as a degree option. At the time, the topic was relegated to a single undergraduate course. Instead, he earned a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, and later completed a master's degree in Business Administration as well.
The program has seen a great deal of growth and success in the meantime, and that's part of why it's so important to him to keep Tailored Brands' headquarters, operations and talent local to the Houston area. It's this reinvestment in the community and strong regional partnerships, like with the University of Houston, that allow both entities to grow and thrive together.
In addition to getting the chance to pitch their skills, this collaborative internship event gave students the opportunity to gain valuable face-to-face time with Tailored Brands executives. Career and networking events like this one are invaluable to students as they progress in their careers, begin to enter the professional world and make decisions about the values that matter to them in a prospective employer.
"We've talked about culture. It's not just about the money,” Kidd said. “I mean, there's got to be a cultural fit, too, right? And I felt like they, as executives, demonstrated that. They're real people and would be nice people to work with.”
Cullen College of Engineering students – from Industrial Engineering to Supply Chain and Logistics – are entering a world with a nearly endless array of career opportunities and specialization options. Both instructors look forward to future opportunities to hold similar events that allow the University of Houston to continue to strengthen community ties, discover new, mutually beneficial opportunities for students and produce top-quality industry candidates.
"You know, it's not only good for the students," Wang said. "It's kind of like a win, win, win, right? It saves time for the company, and it also helps the university increase the visibility of both programs. All we want is the best for the students – the best opportunities. Working with Tailored Brands was time well spent."