Leah Tesfa, SEAS ’24, Harare, Zimbabwe
This summer I had the amazing opportunity of working at New Hudson Facades, NHF, as a mechanical engineering intern on the JP Morgan 270 Park Avenue Project. Being a MEAM and Accelerated Robotics Masters student with a depth in research experience from my previous summers, this summer was the first time I explored an internship in industry. Entering into this internship, I therefore strived to get as much applied Mechanical engineering experience and exposure to what life as a mechanical engineer in industry would be like before I graduated. Looking back at my summer experience I can say I surely gained so much more than I was expecting.
My summer internship at NHF was filled with great experiences, growth, and exposure to new perspectives. Summing up my time there, I believe I can divide my internship highlights and aspects I appreciated about my experience into 3 categories: Skill Refinement, Career Development and Industry Perspective.
Coming into this internship I really wanted to put to the test the skills that I had gained in the classroom with real world problems. From part drawings and modeling to prototyping and testing, I was able to really hone in on the skills that I had garnered during my time at Penn. It was empowering to see how my statics classes helped me make good design choices, or how my thermal dynamics classes equipped me to better understand optimal interior wall insulations or how my machining classes aided me in creating part drawings and tolerance stackups!
Fortunately, during the summer, not only was I able to practice all the skills I already accumulated at Penn, due to NHF’s aim to expose their interns to several parts of the company during the internship, I was able to leave NHF with a belt of new skills. From exposure to product management, the thermal and structural analysis that goes into signing off a project, to navigating new 2D designing software, I learned a lot of new skills during my internship at NHF. With this new perspective I was also able to tailor my Fall semester with courses that would give me the opportunity to explore topics that sparked my interest over the summer even further!
If I were to give an example of one of the projects NHF gave me that really gave me room to grow, it would be one of the last projects of my internship, where I was tasked with an independent R&D assignment. In this project I studied a specific component in previous NHF projects, interviewed experts, created a detailed research and analysis document of all my findings and afterwards designed and tested what I predicted to be a better model of a subcomponent of this part. Not only did this project allow me to spread my wings and really own my own assignment, NHF allowed me to be an expert in an area that hadn’t been explored at the company before. This clearly showed me the value that the company put on the work of interns and how they allowed interns to tangibly contribute to the company. An opportunity I was grateful for.
Last but not least another highlight of my summer internship was the opportunity to experience what life as a mechanical engineer in industry is like. This experience was made even more enjoyable by the family atmosphere that NHF cultivated at the workplace. Not only was NHF filled with experts in the curtain-wall field there was a clear effort in making NHF a supportive, productive, and fun environment that made going to work such a joy. Taking a sneak peek at what life will be like after graduation, I thank the New Hudson Facade employees for giving me great examples of what work-life balance in this industry looks like and for supporting me all the way.
Without a doubt my internship experience this summer has been so fruitful, productive and enlightening, and I wouldn’t have had the chance to take advantage of this opportunity without the generous support of Career Services. Thank you, Career Services, for making my career development goals this summer a reality. I look forward to using all that I’ve learned and gained this summer as I enter into my senior year.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2023 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
