Career coaching, internship fuel pre-graduation corporate job offer

September 10, 2026

Most college seniors spend their final months frantically polishing resumes and scouring job boards. Columbus State University senior Joseph Belle is spending his senior year stress-free.

Thanks to a successful summer internship at HD Supply, the environmental science major already has an employment offer in hand and a full-time corporate job waiting for him after graduation.

Belle didn’t land his dream role by accident; he built it intentionally from day one on campus. Small class sizes led to insightful faculty mentorships. Hands-on research and study abroad experiences strengthened his resume. And a meaningful connection with his career success coach led to a summer internship, a Thayer Scholarship to cover his living expenses and a job offer.

Small classes, big fieldwork

Belle—a Columbus native—can trace his interest in environmental science to his days as a student at nearby Columbus High School. Encouragement from one of his high school teachers led him to seek out colleges where he could pursue his interests. He found that opportunity at Columbus State, “and it’s been an amazing journey since then.”

According to Belle, one thing that made that journey “amazing” at Columbus State has been the university’s small class sizes. He credits those with having an immediate difference in his academic journey.

“A lot of my upper-level classes have had 10 students or less, so that really gives me that one-on-one experience with my professors,” he shared. “The professor can come up to your desk and say, ‘Hey, do you understand this? Let me walk you through this one more time.’”

Those classroom encounters translated into faculty mentorships and hands-on, field-based experiences that further fueled his internship competitiveness and career prospects: “I’ve even been able to go into the field to do research—and I mean, this was like graduate-level research.” Belle said, describing projects where he collected water samples and analyzed topography to evaluate local water supplies.

Belle took his learning even further during a study abroad service-learning trip to Manaus, Brazil. As a Tower Scholar in the Honors College, he received a grant to fund the experience, which included working with Project Quelônios. Through the project, he witnessed conservation work in action deep in the Amazon rainforest.

“Spending spring break in Manaus and the Amazon rainforest was more than just an international experience—it was a reminder of why I chose to study environmental science in the first place,” Belle explained. “It’s one thing to study these concepts in a classroom— but it’s completely different to witness them in action.”

A career coach in his corner

When it came time to prepare for internship opportunities, Belle connected with Columbus State’s Center for Career Coaching. Working with his career success coach, Reggie Gooden, he learned what he needed to navigate the internship application process.

“Basically, it’s like a toolbox,” Belle said of the Center for Career Coaching and its services. “They’re your friend, they’re your mentor, and it’s their job to help equip you and prepare you for that next level of your career.”

Belle checked in with his career success coach (whom he describes as “a down-to-earth guy”) every couple of weeks—sometimes just for a few minutes by phone or in person, with emails and texts in between. Gooden helped Belle restructure his LinkedIn profile and clean up his resume, but one of the best pieces of advice he gave Belle was to obtain an industry-recognized OSHA certification before his internship.

“I’m so glad that I took its advice and did it,” Belle said. “Having that certification made my team look at me differently—like, ‘okay, this kid actually knows his stuff.’”

During his summer at HD Supply in Atlanta, a wholesale subsidiary of The Home Depot, Belle applied his classroom knowledge to practical situations. He actively participated in environmental, health and safety projects throughout the company’s national footprint. He created visitor safety brochures, adapted mobile safety checklists for warehouse managers, and examined injury trends across various distribution centers.

He credited the analytical skills he honed through his field research with providing a solid foundation that shortened the learning curve in the early days of his internship. But learning in a fast-paced corporate setting also meant developing new workplace skills—ones students don’t easily pick up in the classroom—such as accepting constructive feedback that isn’t always sugar-coated.

“I had to understand and swallow my pride a little bit when I submitted a project, and they emailed me with a list of 15 things to work on,” Belle admitted. “I had to realize they weren’t saying ‘you’re dumb’; they were saying they want to see me do better and see this project succeed.”

Hindsight helped Belle (pictured with his manager and HD Supply senior environmental, health and safety specialist Kelsey York Hardin, CSP) see that the workplace etiquette advice from his career success coach was beneficial.

“Just working in that professional corporate setting—that’s a big transition from college. That’s one thing that Mr. Reggie helped walk me through: how to operate when you’re in that environment, what the dress code is like, how to interact with people who are a little bit older than you,” Belle recalled.

The ultimate test came at the end of the summer, when Belle had to present his findings directly to HD Supply’s CEO and executive leadership. He credited his role as president of Columbus State’s Model United Nations team with giving him the public speaking confidence to handle the high-stakes boardroom setting.

“You’re in front of these high-level executives, and you as a little-known intern are trying to tell them, ‘You know, I changed the company!’” Belle joked. “Having that experience where you have to get up and speak in front of 50 or 100 people directly correlated to that moment.”

Punching his ticket

When the corporate offer arrived, Belle’s family was thrilled—though he said they needed proof: “I don’t think my parents believed it when I told them on the phone,” Belle laughed. “I had to come home and drop the offer on the table.”

Could he have gotten that job offer without the internship?

“It would have been a lot more difficult. I might have been able to, but the internship was like a direct pipeline to it,” Belle admitted, noting the internship experience provides him with the advantage of knowing the people he’ll work with in his professional role.

With his career path secured in Atlanta, Belle is using his final two semesters at Columbus State to focus on student leadership and to encourage his peers to study abroad. His journey underscores that every moment in college is an opportunity to build real momentum for the future. In the spring, he’ll add Oxford, England, to his study abroad stops, which include the Servant Leadership excursion to Brazil and a semester-long experience in New Zealand (where his roommate was a student from China).

“This is something I’ll carry with me, not just as a memory, but as motivation moving forward in my career,” Belle said.

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Media contact: Michael Tullier, APR