Students Using Internships As Path To Future Ambitions

They may not have earned their degrees yet, but many students have spent the summer in the workforce while engaged in serious technical work.

- Gale Horton Gay

We asked several students to share how they spent their summer and what they learned from it.

Gabrielle Rodgers is a senior at North Carolina A&T State University. Last summer, the BEYA community award winner interned for 10 weeks at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Her position was as a process improvement engineer.

“The purpose of the shipyard is to refurbish and maintain ships for the Navy,” said Rodgers. “Process improvement engineers’ role is to be project facilitators for the shipyard worker process improvements. For example, last year I facilitated a project employing 5S knowledge to develop a one- to two-year plan improving space utilization and inventory control of a machinist workcell.

“This is not my first internship; in fact, this is my fourth. Last summer, I interned at the same facility, and the two internships prior to that were with Toyota.