Description of my STEP project

For my STEP Signature Project, I obtained an internship at Columbia Gas of Ohio. Columbia Gas is a local daughter company of NiSource, which is one of the largest regulated natural gas distributors. NiSource has a presence in seven states, and serves millions of customers.

My position in the company was “Field Engineering Intern”. I was stationed in the local office in Springfield, OH. My job was to assist the Field Engineering staff with their projects. The Field Engineering department at Columbia Gas is primarily responsible for tasks related to the design of gas systems. If there was a new development outside of the existing reach of the gas mains, it would be Field Engineering’s job to create the designs for an extension of the existing main. Common aspects that would need to be considered include available pressure, cost, possible installation methods, right of way, and various communications with the city regarding work that needed to take place in the sidewalk or road. Also, among the Field Engineer’s jobs are designing fixes for leaking sections of pipe, and the replacement of old pipeline.

Currently, there is an industry-wide initiative to replace sections of pipe that are nearing the end of their expected life and are therefore prone to leakage. There are government incentives for replacement of this pipe, and thus much of the work we did over the summer was related to replacement of this “Priority Pipe”. These Accelerated Main Replacement Program (AMRP) projects were often very large, replacing thousands of feet of pipe with million-dollar budgets. During my time with Columbia Gas, I assisted with many of these projects, and designed several of my own under the supervision of my mentor.

What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project?

In my search for an internship, I sent out dozens of resumes to every kind of engineering employer. When I received an invitation for an interview with Columbia Gas, I did not know very much about the natural gas industry. While many kinds of engineering jobs have some visibility, such as working for an auto manufacturer, I never even realized that there were opportunities in the natural gas industry for engineers. As the summer progressed, I gained knowledge in many areas of the industry, as well as business, engineering in general, and finance. In all of these areas, I felt that I had a basic understanding, but my STEP signature project helped me realize how much more there was to learn.

By the end of my time with Columbia Gas I was able to complete all of the steps of my projects without assistance. After I completed a project, my mentor would audit it, but I was largely able to complete the projects independently. This surprised me, since I started the position with almost no knowledge of the industry in general, much less the specific projects and processes. I discovered that with proper motivation and instruction, I can learn new concepts and become proficient with new tasks very quickly.

In addition to my work experience, I gained experience in several aspects of life outside of college. One of the main experiences I sought at the beginning of this project was that of living alone. The first and most difficult step in this was to acquire an apartment. At the start of the summer, I began by shopping for apartments to live in that were close to my workplace. Quickly, I ran into several obstacles. First and foremost, I discovered the rarity of apartment owners willing to lease for only three months. The vast majority of landlords I called and researched only offered one-year leases, or longer. Many of the apartments that I found available to rent for the summer were in locations that were unsafe, and the rest were already spoken for by the time I discovered them. With my STEP fellowship, cost was not the barrier that I had expected. The difficulty was in finding a suitable location with a lease that fit my timeframe.

After contacting every possible apartment in Springfield, I expanded my search to Dayton, Urbana, and the surrounding areas. The results were much the same. It was suggested to me that I pursue a sublease at one of the several universities nearby Springfield. I looked into options near University of Dayton, Wright State University, Wittenberg University, and Cedarville University. Through this, I discovered that college students who are on summer vacation are not very diligent about following up with the ads they post regarding their sublets. Eventually, I found a place in Cedarville, roughly half an hour from my office. This cut my daily commute in half and was very reasonably priced.

In concert with my housing experience, I learned about food preparation and shopping. At OSU living in the dorms and being on the meal plan, there is never a time when food is not easily available. Living alone, buying my own groceries, getting food required much more thought. In addition to the meals I ate at home, I soon realized that I would need to pack a lunch to take to work each day, as eating out was becoming too expensive. I learned how to pack foods which were ready to eat, or could easily be assembled at work. After several days of forgetting my lunch at home, I began to keep the supplies for PB&J sandwiches at the office just in case I needed them. These also made for a great snack, if I was ever hungry after I finished what I had packed.

What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you?

At the beginning of the summer, much of my time was spent as a mentee of the most senior field engineer at the Springfield Office, Ethan Pope. He has worked at Columbia Gas for several years, with a couple more years in the industry outside of Columbia Gas. He was an incredible mentor, with a true passion for teaching and an honest desire to help me improve. When I first started working for the summer, I began by sitting behind him and watching him work, asking questions about the different processes and aspects of the job. Like myself, Ethan is an Eagle Scout, as exemplified by his application of the Boy Scout EDGE method of teaching – Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable. First, he would explain a new process or task to me, and proceed to work through the process before allowing me to take the controls and try for myself under his supervision. After working with his assistance, I would begin to work on my own, returning to him whenever I had questions or concerns. This method of teaching was extremely effective, and much more effective and enjoyable than the new employee instruction I received through the company programs.

In addition to teaching me the necessary skills to be able to competently assist in the engineering department, Ethan and I often talked over lunch about matters related to the gas industry, engineering, finance, business, and other topics that I often glossed over during the extremely focused mindset I have during school semesters. His insights on these topics and his constant encouragement to always be inquisitive helped me realize that the world is much bigger than engineering, and that it should be explored at every opportunity.

As a result of searching for an apartment and living on my own over the summer, I have a new appreciation for the simplicity of dorm life at college. I appreciate the two years I lived on campus, and I am now more prepared to have a successful junior year as I live off-campus for the first time. I am glad I was able to experience juggling the responsibilities of independent living over the summer before doing so this fall while taking a challenging load of engineering classes. I know my success this year will be a direct result of the preparation I gained in my STEP project.

Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life?

Being shown that the world is more than engineering is incredibly valuable to the rest of my life. While I have always been naturally inquisitive about matters relating to engineering, I now realize that it is just as important to be inquisitive about every aspect of life. Whether business, politics, industry, finance, or any of the infinite number of topics that exist, being curious and asking questions about them in a conscious effort to understand them better is an important step in being the best I can be.

The practical aspects of working and living on my own provided the opportunity to learn how to navigate aspects of real life that I had not encountered before, but most certainly will encounter again in the future. I appreciate being able to ‘practice’ those skills at a time when the cost of failure was low, and the opportunity for success was high.

Realizing the extent of what I can learn, as well as how I learn most effectively, is critically important to my continued success in school, and life after school. The reason I have been able to do well in my studies up to this point is through my constant effort and a conscious attempt to discover how I learn most efficiently. The knowledge of how effective one-on-one mentoring and repetition are for me is priceless, and I will undoubtedly be putting it to use this current semester.

I also learned the value of a mentor and will look for opportunities to find a mentor on campus, and to find others who are in need of a mentor. Taking time to invest in other people is one of the important lessons I learned this summer and I look forward to passing that on as I step into mentoring roles myself.