How has this experience (Internship) made you consider your college path that will ultimately lead to your career?
I have been considering how this internship has changed my view on what I will do in college. I have talked to many of the workers who were past interns and they told me about their experiences with physics in college and how its hard, but if you make sure you study it isn't too much of a hassle. I of course know that hard studying comes out with good results, but I'm just concerned about the math level. There is a lot of math in college physics and I'm not ready yet to be able to understand something that needs multiple layer of knowledge to understand.(ex. trigonometry and calculous) I am currently still very interested in chemistry, but If I in college I was still interested in engineering I could consider chemical engineering. From one of the Atec workers, I learned that chemical engineering is the best of both worlds, and through research I found that chemical engineers have a vast amount of opportunities for employment. There are openings for chemical engineers in things like energy, oil and gas, food drink, plastics, water treatment, pharmaceuticals and toiletries. It's not like all of these sound appealing to me, but it surprises me how many opportunities there are. I will need to take Palomar classes in math regardless if I want to become an engineer or not, but the thought of pursuing an engineering career is interesting to me. I'll be commenting on Micah and Matthew Mau's blogposts.
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How did you measure the success of the work you did while you were an intern? What did you learn from this?
I knew I was successful in my internship when I learned something and was able to apply myself to it or do something valuable with that knowledge. This ranges form knowledge marked down in notes for further use, a mini lesson that I will be able to use when calculating the input force of a company tool, or when observing a mechanical test that goes as planned. I learned what it is like to be in a lab formatted job, where success is achieved through predicted results. If I was testing an implant I would need to know how it would break with an amount of pullout force. How did you make a meaningful contribution to your workplace? I implemented myself into the workplace at first doing lots of work around the office. For my first week I scanned and filed about a whole shelf full of of thick binders full of old company parts into a digital format. This was busy work, but I was really doing a favor for all of the engineers, because now they didn't have to flip through binders and could just look on a document with file links. I always try to shadow my mentor or one of the engineers when they are dong active work, always trying to ask questions and take notes. Whenever I need help on one of my calculations I can simply just ask anyone who knows about physics, which is about everyone in my office room. How was your work as an intern meaningful to your education? The work I've been doing is very interesting, but at first I wasn't satisfied with it. I didn't know that the work I would be doing was going to be so physics based, but after learning more about it and practicing with the company tools I've started to find an interest in engineering. I'm not sure if this will be something I want to continue in college, but this experience will definitely benefit me in future physics classes. I will have physics next year and most likely have them throughout college. How might internship influence the direction of your life? I think the opportunity to learn what working as an design engineer is very valuable when deciding what I want to do in college. Engineering is intriguing to me, especially after learning about chemical engineering, which is a mixture of my favorite topic chemistry and elements of engineering. Usually chemical engineers work in pharmaceutical companies, but the job range is almost limitless with an expansive amount of job opportunities in many different careers. How did your view of life beyond high school change or develop during your time as an intern? I learned that if you have a healthy workspace, life after high school can be quite similar, except you are an adult with responsibilities. Many of the engineers around the office are probably just as playful as they were in high school, but they still do their work well when collaborating. After experiencing this I think that as soon as you are not enjoying what you do life after high school starts to have a bland taste. As long as I can do something that brings joy to me, I will be fine moving on past high school. |