simply as a time to “pay dues,” where the intern assists regular employees From high school to real-life engineering with routine tasks as a way to learn the business and get an idea of what their chosen career would be like. Employees at the Boeing Huntsville That’s hardly the case at Boeing. site in Alabama were introduced to At sites across the company, college several young faces this summer— juniors and seniors, and even some high school students. high schoolers, are given opportunities The select group of students worked to perform real-world work and solve with and learned from Huntsville business-relevant problems. engineers on a variety of activities “It’s no longer enough to have interns related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM. watch as more experienced employees Seven students from Bob Jones do the work,” said Rick Stephens, senior Huntsville site manager in charge of theHigh School in Madison, Ala., spent vice president of Human Resources and eight weeks as part of Huntsville’s program. “Our long-term objectives are Administration. “It’s been demonstrated Engineering High School Internship to promote STEM at a high-school level, that performing hands-on work is the most Pilot Program. Each of the budding get the students interested in STEM- effective way to learn. The experience engineers was paired with an employee related careers and give them insight interns gain by solving real-world problems from Advanced Designs and Prototype into what we do.” is so valuable, I can see hiring someone Solutions, the Huntsville Design Center Jacob Locke, one of the high school with a lower grade-point average who or the International Space Station students, said the experience of working has intern experience over another Payload Integration department. These in an actual engineering environment candidate with a higher GPA but no employees served as mentors and was invaluable.“It is hard to understand,” Locke said,guided the students through a number internship experience.” “how different disciplines of engineeringof real-life engineering projects. Internships also give Boeing a glimpse collaborate on a project until you actually“This is a way for Boeing to attract of how these students could fare as full- the best and the brightest talent at an take part in it.” time employees, enabling the company early age,” said Robert Grondin, the – Christian Chapman (intern) to identify the top performers as the ones PhOTOS: (Above) High school interns Jordan Riley, foreground, and Brandon Leach prepare component tests at the Huntsville, Ala., Stress Rupture Lab. ERIC ShINdElBOwER/BOEING (Below) This was the second year University of Kansas mechanical engineering major Trudy Curley spent as a Boeing intern—last year with Commercial Airplanes in Everett, Wash., and this year with Boeing Research & Technology in Mesa, Ariz. (Inset right) Curley hopes her work with manager Caleb Frederick on the Apache program will help her become a Boeing design engineer. BOB FERGuSON/BOEING 40 BOEING FRONTIERS / OCTOBER 2012
Frontiers October 2012 Issue
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