An LSU mechanical engineering student landed a prestigious internship at Nike’s North American Distribution Center in Memphis, Tennessee this summer. Out of 70,000 applicants, only 200 were chosen for the internship — Colby Faust being one of them.

Faust, a senior from Denham Springs, did not expect to be chosen for the internship because many of the applicants picked were either Division I athletes or engineers from Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

“At first, I was like, hold on,” Faust said. “I can’t get a job at Nike because I’m a mechanical engineering student. But then I started looking into more roles and kind of what exactly the job description was. And I was like, ‘Oh wait, I do know how to do these things and I am part of this situation.’”

He said being chosen was a dream come true. 

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m about to work for Nike and be at one of the most prestigious internships that you can get here in college,’” Faust said. “It was a great day. I called my extended family, I called my parents. I didn’t really tell anyone I was in the process because I didn’t want people asking me about it that much in case I didn’t get it.”

As an intern, Faust was brought to the intern combine, a mock of the NFL combine, where teams look at various aspects of freshman athletes such as their speed, agility and passing ability to make draft decisions. The intern combine was at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, a suburb of Portland.

At the combine, interns were put into groups of five and given three days to develop a business proposal to present to higher-ups in the company.

“So [on] the first day, they pitch it, you meet your team.” Faust said. “The second day, you work on your project and on the third day you present, so it’s very quick, and it’s very fast. They give you a business case that you have to do and think of ways we can bring the next generation of athletes into Nike.”

Faust said mechanical engineers at Nike design, test and quality check their shoes in order to make sure that they are the best quality they could be for their athletes. 

However, since Faust worked at Nike’s distribution center in Memphis, his job mainly consisted of working on different mechanisms to get products directly to the consumer more efficiently and effectively.

“On the engineering team, it was a mix of between industrial engineers and mechanical engineers,” Faust said. “I would say just engineering concepts you learn in general and the way engineering schooling wires your brain and changes the way you think. [Those are] the things that I definitely applied into my internship.”

Faust enjoyed his time at Nike. He said that the goal of the brand is for anyone who dons Nike attire to feel like an athlete, even if you’re not a professional one. 

“The leaders at Nike are very, very great,” Faust said. “They really are just there for the people, and they make sure that their employees are very happy and taken well care of, so my time was amazing. Growing up an athlete, it was kind of a dream come true … to see a brand that has been with me through some of my most life-defining moments and actually be able to work there.”

Every year, Nike hosts “Just Do It” Day, a teambuilding day with sporting activities, visits from professional athletes and performances by high-profile musicians. In 2022, rappers Drake and Travis Scott performed and athletes like LeBron James and Carmello Anthony attended.

“From my experience in Memphis, they had big groups of teams playing flag football, they had kickball, they had all kinds of sporting events,” Faust said. “They had a DJ out there, kind of a concert area, food, drinks. It’s just a day to celebrate Nike and celebrate the culture of the company.”

Faust said that there’s a lot of competition for these high-profile jobs at bigger brands like Nike, Adidas or Under Armour with many applicants coming from Ivy League institutions. However, Faust advised students not to let this stop them from chasing their dreams.

“Just do it,” Faust said. “As long as you work hard and put your best foot forward, you can do anything in this world. And my belief, work hard, keep grinding and just really stay passionate about what you’re doing. You never know where life is going to take you.”