Students at The Ohio State University are gaining hands-on experience at Honda, applying what they learn in the classroom to challenges ranging from vehicle safety and product quality to sustainability and resource circularity.
“This program reflects the strength of the Honda–Ohio State Partnership,” said Alissa Comella, co-director of the Honda–Ohio State Partnership. “Launchpad gives our students a chance to explore career possibilities in real-world settings while also giving Honda a pipeline of talented, motivated Buckeyes eager to contribute.”
Through the Honda Launchpad program, students are introduced to career opportunities at Honda and pathways to internships and co-ops. For students who have continued their journey with the company, those opportunities have led to meaningful work across Honda operations.
“Launchpad allows Honda to build relationships with students early while giving them meaningful opportunities to learn about our company, our work and the careers available to them,” said Meredith Reffey, department lead of Workforce Pipeline at Honda and co-director of the Honda-Ohio State Partnership. “By connecting the Launchpad experience to our co-op program and creating a clearer path from strong performance to full-time employment, we are building a more prepared talent pipeline while helping students envision a long-term career where they can make an impact at Honda.”
Lucas Caldwell, an Ohio State chemical engineering student and member of Launchpad’s Beta cohort, spent the summer at Honda’s Resource Circularity Center in Marysville, Ohio.
Caldwell developed a recovery strategy for copper scrap generated from wires and wire harnesses across Honda’s North American operations. He also built two tools with the help of artificial intelligence to streamline his team’s work.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned this summer is that no job happens alone,” Caldwell said. “Every project deals with collaboration and working together with employees.”
Emerson Schnipke, an Ohio State computer science and engineering student and member of Launchpad’s first Alpha cohort, worked in Honda’s Crash Safety Department.
Schnipke developed a web application that helps engineers validate crash data, checking formatting and identifying missing files before information is entered into Honda’s database.
“My project helps to simplify hours of painstaking manual validation to an automatic process that runs in a number of minutes,” Schnipke said.
For Lila Conway, an Ohio State sustainability student, the experience introduced her to a career path she had not initially considered. Working in supplier sustainability, Conway studied biodiversity and waste practices and developed recommendations for potential supplier-facing targets.
“I never expected to be working at an auto manufacturer,” Conway said. “It’s taught me that sustainability can be applied to anything.”
Rachel Perrigo, a third-year industrial and systems engineering student, spent the summer as a technical analysis intern in Honda’s Market Quality Department in South Carolina.
Her work included identifying quality trends, supporting root-cause investigations and participating in recreation testing, where customer concerns are reproduced in controlled environments to help determine their causes.
“Something that I’ll be taking away from my internship is the importance of structured problem solving and being able to take a step back and identify what the root cause actually is, rather than just addressing the symptoms,” Perrigo said.
While their work spans different disciplines, the students’ experiences show how Launchpad can connect classroom learning with professional opportunities and give students an early look at potential careers with Honda.
For students considering where those opportunities could take them, Schnipke offered simple advice: get involved.
“The best piece of advice I can give is to show up to as many events as possible and be both an active listener and an active participant while you are there,” he said. “It may just lead to a rewarding career at Honda.”