As a junior at Animas High School, I am required to take a three-week break from school in March and spend my time interning with a company to explore a possible career path. For my LINK Internship, I will be traveling to Boulder, Colorado to intern at Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC). SNC is a large engineering firm that works in many fields of engineering such as aerospace, telemedicine, renewable energy, and navigation systems. Recently, SNC created a design for a new space shuttle called the Dream Chaser, which can take off vertically and can land vertically on a conventional runway. SNC engineers are currently working with NASA to continue developing the Dream Chaser in hopes of having the Dream Chaser service the International Space Station.
My mentor at SNC is an aerospace engineer named Mark Gorman. I am excited to go to SNC to shadow Mr. Gorman and discover what exactly an engineer does on a day-to-day basis. I also hope Mr. Gorman can give me some insight on how the engineering world works and give me advice based on his experiences as an engineer For example, I would like to know if he always knew that he wanted to be an engineer. I’m also interested in seeing if he based his college choice off of which colleges had engineering programs.
This internship at SNC will provide me insight into my college and career path choices. I’ve always said that I want to be an engineer, but I don’t really know what exactly an engineer does. I hope that this internship can help me decide if engineering is a career path I wish to pursue. This internship will also help me with my summer planning and college considerations. For example, if I decide I would really like to be an engineer, I would like to look at more colleges that have a strong engineering school or program. However, if I decide I don’t want to be an engineer, I would like to participate in a summer program in marine biology or in architecture. I am elated to be involved with such an advanced and sophisticated engineering firm.
As soon as I arrive at my internship, I expect to sit in on daily meetings with engineer, operations, and production teams to track team actions. My mentor has also informed me that I have the opportunity to shadow some of his female peers in their positions as senior engineers, program managers, and manufacturing engineers for a few days each. For my independent project, I will create a tracking tool in Microsoft Excel that tracks the production of materials between different departments of SNC. For example, I will track one item’s development starting in engineering and ending in production. This project will help me understand how each department in SNC contributes to a large-scale project. I will have independent work time to complete this project everyday at my internship with the guidance of my mentor and his peers at SNC. Before I can start this project, I must gain an understanding of the production process and touch up my skills and knowledge of Excel. In addition to this project, I plan to write a reflection towards the end of the internship that summarizes what I’ve learned about engineering and my career path through my internship at SNC. I expect to have to work on this project and reflection over weekends and after hours in order to complete my project in time for the LINK exhibition in Durango.
The preparation for my LINK internship has helped me learn how to communicate effectively and professionally with possible employers or mentors for internships. The most challenging part of preparing for my internship was definitely reaching out and contacting Mr. Gorman the first time. I used my time wisely during Junior Seminar, a class focused on finding and solidifying LINK Internship placements, to create several drafts of an email to Mr. Gorman. The first email was the most daunting, but after I received his first response, I began to feel more comfortable communicating with Mr. Gorman.
I am excited to go and spend three weeks with Mr. Gorman and his family in Boulder, but I am also scared to be away from my family for that extended period of time. Also, I am stressed about how this internship will affect my after-school activities while I am gone. Overall, I am very eager to begin my eye-opening journey in Boulder at SNC.
My mentor at SNC is an aerospace engineer named Mark Gorman. I am excited to go to SNC to shadow Mr. Gorman and discover what exactly an engineer does on a day-to-day basis. I also hope Mr. Gorman can give me some insight on how the engineering world works and give me advice based on his experiences as an engineer For example, I would like to know if he always knew that he wanted to be an engineer. I’m also interested in seeing if he based his college choice off of which colleges had engineering programs.
This internship at SNC will provide me insight into my college and career path choices. I’ve always said that I want to be an engineer, but I don’t really know what exactly an engineer does. I hope that this internship can help me decide if engineering is a career path I wish to pursue. This internship will also help me with my summer planning and college considerations. For example, if I decide I would really like to be an engineer, I would like to look at more colleges that have a strong engineering school or program. However, if I decide I don’t want to be an engineer, I would like to participate in a summer program in marine biology or in architecture. I am elated to be involved with such an advanced and sophisticated engineering firm.
As soon as I arrive at my internship, I expect to sit in on daily meetings with engineer, operations, and production teams to track team actions. My mentor has also informed me that I have the opportunity to shadow some of his female peers in their positions as senior engineers, program managers, and manufacturing engineers for a few days each. For my independent project, I will create a tracking tool in Microsoft Excel that tracks the production of materials between different departments of SNC. For example, I will track one item’s development starting in engineering and ending in production. This project will help me understand how each department in SNC contributes to a large-scale project. I will have independent work time to complete this project everyday at my internship with the guidance of my mentor and his peers at SNC. Before I can start this project, I must gain an understanding of the production process and touch up my skills and knowledge of Excel. In addition to this project, I plan to write a reflection towards the end of the internship that summarizes what I’ve learned about engineering and my career path through my internship at SNC. I expect to have to work on this project and reflection over weekends and after hours in order to complete my project in time for the LINK exhibition in Durango.
The preparation for my LINK internship has helped me learn how to communicate effectively and professionally with possible employers or mentors for internships. The most challenging part of preparing for my internship was definitely reaching out and contacting Mr. Gorman the first time. I used my time wisely during Junior Seminar, a class focused on finding and solidifying LINK Internship placements, to create several drafts of an email to Mr. Gorman. The first email was the most daunting, but after I received his first response, I began to feel more comfortable communicating with Mr. Gorman.
I am excited to go and spend three weeks with Mr. Gorman and his family in Boulder, but I am also scared to be away from my family for that extended period of time. Also, I am stressed about how this internship will affect my after-school activities while I am gone. Overall, I am very eager to begin my eye-opening journey in Boulder at SNC.