Herff senior Tarik Wilkins takes organizational leadership lessons learned at Polytechnic@UofM to summer internship at AutoZone headquarters
August 11, 2026
While some students spent their summer break at the beach, Herff College of Engineering senior Tarik Wilkins spent his time away from the classroom as an intern at AutoZone Store Support Headquarters in Downtown Memphis.
Wilkins is a 29-year-old student completing his Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) in organizational leadership through the Polytechnic@UofM, a department focused on guiding non-traditional students toward career advancement by teaching real-world skills.
As an intern in AutoZone’s organization development team, Wilkins spent the summer creating an online e-learning course for new managers at AutoZone.
“I’ve had to go all over AutoZone to pool content,” Wilkins said. “During my first week, my team gave me a 430-page slide deck of information on how to interview, how to select talent, how to deal with performance management, and where to go for IT issues. I had to compile all of that information that a new manager would need to know and put it into a 45-minute online presentation.”
The flexibility of the Polytechnic@UofM convinced Wilkins to seek his BAS in organizational leadership at the Herff College of Engineering. Originally interested in pursuing a degree in industrial-organizational psychology, Wilkins hit a roadblock in finding a program that offered it. At the Polytechnic@UofM, Wilkins found the courses he was looking for and the ability to pursue his education as a non-traditional student.
“I looked at the classes offered at the Polytechnic@UofM and I tried to find a degree that allowed me to take as many of those classes related to industrial-organizational psychology as possible. Organizational leadership was the most compatible major," Wilkins said. “It also offered me a valuable pathway forward that fits around my life responsibilities. I mean, the reality is that fewer 18-year-olds are choosing college. When we look at college and education in general, there is less interest in the belief that college is valuable. I think part of the answer is to explore ways to get more non-traditional students over the age of 21 into college and how we can make college valuable for that demographic and that’s what I’ve experienced at the Polytechnic@UofM.”
Even before Wilkins set foot in AutoZone headquarters, he had six projects on his plate. Overwhelming at first, he said he managed the workload with support from his mentors at AutoZone and the university relations team.
“Every intern is given a navigator, which is a mentor that we work with throughout the internship,” Wilkins said. So, each step of the way, there was support, even down to the workshops we had on things such as public speaking and understanding emotional intelligence.”
The Herff senior said he learned just as much through the culture at AutoZone. Leadership concepts, such as wearing red AutoZone shirts every Monday in support of AutoZone’s store workers, left a lasting impact on Wilkins.
“AutoZone has really been a great experience. I haven’t had a bad interaction with what we call auto owners yet,” Wilkins said. “I think one thing that especially stands out to me is that when you get a check, it says ‘This was made possible by a satisfied customer.’ And that piece about the Monday dress code, which is a red shirt just like someone would wear if they were in the distribution center in the store, all of it is tied back to making sure our customers are satisfied.”
Wilkins already had a firm grasp of leadership when he entered his internship with AutoZone, having taken part in Herff College of Engineering Dean Okenwa Okoli’s Leadership Class.
During that class, Wilkins spent an entire semester learning what trust looks like in the workforce, how to influence workers, and how to build rapport with team members. The class also taught him the importance of being able to speak to people at any level, whether that means high-level technical concepts or breaking those ideas down into more relatable terms for non-engineers, and how to make decisions during tense moments by separating emotions from facts.
“Once you become a leader of people, part of the challenge becomes building influence and getting your team to buy-in,” Wilkins said. “Sometimes, you might be a leader and you might be a decade younger than your team. So, the question becomes, how do you build rapport? How do you get those buy-ins so that they can trust the recommendations you’re giving them? Part of it is building a relationship with those team members, asking them questions, and figuring out how this team works and that’s all in the attempt to build trust.”
Wilkins has developed his understanding of organizational leadership through institutions in Memphis, such as the Polytechnic@UofM and AutoZone, and he plans to give back to the city by using those skills to inspire Memphians for years to come.
“One thing about Memphis is, it’s difficult to encourage a million people after seeing the history that our city has had, but there’s a quote that sticks with me: ‘Every tree was once an acorn.’ And so, within everybody is the potential to be great. Despite the challenges our city has faced, there is still potential for great things to happen. So, the leadership lesson in there is that, as a leader, we always want to find ways to remain humble and to find gratitude,” Wilkins said.