My time at Wright-Patt gave me a peek into what my future career in engineering could entail. Before taking on this opportunity, it was difficult to fully grasp what kinds of responsibilities and qualities went into being a good engineer. The only references I had before was within my engineering classes at OSU or by word of mouth from working engineers. Although I had worked hard in all my engineering classes, I still feared going into my internship and finding out how little I knew. I was surrounded by brilliant people, well-experienced in the field, and I did not want to disappoint anyone. I expressed this concern to some of my co-workers and other interns, and they graciously reassured me of what kind of expectations they had for my time there. It was comforting and helped me feel more at ease in the new environment. It also allowed me to feel more connected to those around me as I no longer felt ashamed for how I felt because many others felt the same way.
The environment was unlike any other work environment I had been in before. Prior to this internship, I was used to working in the chaos that came with food service and hospitality careers. Although these careers did build good practices that I took with me into this internship, such as communication and flexibility, there was such a drastic difference between the two areas of work. Even as just a clueless intern I still felt respected and trusted in my work environment. I was trusted with my time and how I would manage it to get the tasks I needed done, a contrast to the previous work establishments I was at. This change challenged my time management skills, which I believe they improved over this summer because of it, and these skills went beyond the internship as due to the 40 hours a week schedule I was aiming for I had to manage my time better outside of work as well since I had additional goals outside of my internship.
I found myself easily adjusting to the new work scene. This originally came as a shock to me because, as I mentioned earlier, I was worried about stepping into an unfamiliar environment. I was relieved to find that my classes at OSU, specifically my Intro to Engineering, Physics, and SolidWorks classes, had set me up for success when it came to my internship. The Intro to Engineering classes had prepared me to collaborate with a team toward a specific goal. My physics classes equipped me with the proper knowledge for the project topic, and, lastly, my SolidWorks practice allowed me to have the skills to help bring the end goal to life. With this confirmation that I had the right skills and knowledge, I began to take on a new sense of independence and confidence.
Along with my knowledge, this transformation was due to the encouragement of my superiors and co-workers. As I mentioned earlier, it meant a lot to me when those around me reassured me of what the expectations were and that many others felt the same way. This, again, gave me a new sense of belonging in the work place and thus translated to me feeling more comfortable and confident in myself. There are two instances where I could fully see just how much I had changed over this short period of time. The first was when my boss told me how he was impressed by the way I got things done and did so by finding the right people to talk to. I noticed that as my confidence built up over the summer, I could complete a task with little to no monitoring; I could confidently find and speak to who I needed to, to get the job done. Although I saw a little of how I had changed simply through the actions I was taking, but it was my boss’s words that really reaffirmed to me that I had grown. The second instance is when I had my out briefing presentation. This was a big deal to me as I had never done a presentation on something with so much significance as well as in front of many higher-ups in the workplace. Along with this, the presentation had to be 20 minutes long, which would have been my longest presentation to date. My presentation went great with all my preparation, guidance from co-workers, and the fact that I had become more comfortable with those around me. I received great feedback from those in the room, and after my presentation, I was offered to stay on the team during the school year. This final big step really showed me how far I had come from just the beginning of the summer and showed me that I could trust myself to do, and do it well, what I set my mind to.
This growth I had over the summer meant so much to me, beyond what I had originally expected. I grew up in a very sheltered home, I went to the same school for my whole life, and overall never had a change of environment until starting college. College was the beginning of my growth of independence but I was still figuring myself out and feeling the pressure from those back home about who and how I should be. I relied on my family back home to make me feel confident in my decisions. Doing this internship entirely on my own showed me that I can trust myself to make the right decisions and achieve the goals I set out to achieve. This meant the world to me, as it felt like a weight had been lifted off of me, the fear of “can I do this?”, “am I doing the right things?”, or “am I do enough?” was dimmed. Although these are questions that will always linger, the trust and confidence my project gave this past summer is much stronger now than any of those doubts.
I really did not take many pictures over the summer, but here are a couple that I did have:
