As the month of April winds down and students head home for the summer to study or work, several choose to go the internship route and experience a unique blend of both. Because April is National Internship Awareness Month, Capitol Technology University is highlighting 3 bright young minds who worked hard to score competitive internships in highly lucrative STEM fields and will spend the summer gaining invaluable industry knowledge while pursuing their degrees.
Nelson Alvarez
Rising junior computer science major Nelson Alvarez entered the Capitol Tech Employment Fair back in February with a stack of resumes and left with an internship at KBR.
KBR, an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services company, was founded in 1998 and provides a massive breadth of technology solutions to a wide array of industries including cybersecurity, space, transportation, construction, software development and more. They serve governmental and commercial clients, and are a global technology giant.
Nelson’s work at KBR will relate to software engineering, and he will focus on a project that he will be able to choose himself on the first day of the internship, which begins in June. He is eager to gain real-world experience in the software engineering field and dive into an area of interest that will enhance his understanding of his academic coursework once he returns to the classroom.
Audrey Fraser
One fateful day as rising senior astronautical engineering major Audrey Fraser checked her email, she found a message from Capitol, informing her that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was seeking students like herself to apply for their internship programs. She excitedly applied and was accepted, and is now counting down the days until she’s able to get to work.
The NOAA plays a large role in studying and caring for the planet’s oceans, coastlines, and climate in an effort to protect and maintain the natural resources that exist there. The agency’s mission statement is, “To understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean, and coasts, to share that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.”
At the internship, Audrey will work on two different satellites as a Satellite Simulator Engineer where she will configure and troubleshoot the satellites’ operations. She is thrilled to be able to apply what she learned in the classroom at Capitol to the real world setting of her internship, and would love to continue work with the NOAA in the future after graduation as she potentially pursues a Master’s degree in Space Operations.
Andrew DiPietro
Andrew DiPietro, a rising junior and astronautical engineering major, also found luck at Capitol’s February Employment Fair, scoring an internship at SBP Consulting LLC.
SBP is a consulting firm that serves clients’ IT and radio frequency (RF) engineering needs. Using Motorola brand devices, they provide coverage testing for wireless and cellular as well as public safety systems. The company also provides RF engineering services such as system configurations and upgrades, plus standard IT integration services like Microsoft Outlook email setup and technical support.
While this type of work will be new to Andrew due to his background in astronautical engineering, the internship does not require experience in the electronics field and provides each intern with hands-on training before assigning them projects. Once he completes training, he will work as a coverage testing engineer testing RF signals. He looks forward to the new opportunities this role will bring as it is his first technology-related position, and it also comes with the added perk of employment-based travel.
We wish each of these students well in their internships and we can’t wait to learn about their experiences more in-depth when they return to campus in the fall!
Are you interested in getting an internship of your own? Capitol’s Career Services department can help!