Novinium, provider of electrical cable rejuvenation for power utilities, is celebrating its 10th year of offering a comprehensive, engineering internship program for university students at its headquarters in the Seattle region. The program is designed to give university students entering their junior or senior year, in pursuit of a degree in mechanical, electrical or chemical engineering, a chance to demonstrate their motivation and professional readiness to join a world-class engineering team.
Past success has encouraged Novinium to expand the opportunity to graduating high-school student poised to enter college in the fall in pursuit of a degree in engineering. “There were many unknowns with starting this brand-new, high-school program,” said James Steele, engineering manager at Novinium. “We engaged local high school career counselors early and were blown away by the caliber of local high-school talent that applied! This year we welcomed Kira Murillo to our engineering team, a graduate of Liberty High School in Renton, Washington, who enters the University of Washington’s mechanical engineering program with sophomore standing thanks to her participation in Bellevue College’s running start program."
Steele further noted “Our interns have played an integral role in achieving project milestones and hitting our timelines.” This summer Novinium also welcomed Garret Berkey from Seattle Pacific University and Chris Pinto from the University of Portland.
“This internship was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn how to handle the workload and daily goals of an engineer in the field,” said Garret Berkey. “As a student you begin to understand concepts, but here at Novinium I have applied what I have learned in ways I did not imagine coming in. The engineers here have made the interns feel like part of the team. I have learned how to put together reports per company standards and how to document tests so that they can be repeated by others. This internship has also taught me that when you are welcomed as a valuable individual as part of a team, it propels your learning and work much further than you can do on your own.”
“As interns, we came into the company and on the first day were greeted as part of the team,” says Chris Pinto. “We were given integral roles in team projects. Everyone here is welcoming and I could really see my impact on the team that helped me to succeed and learn from my mistakes to grow as an engineer as well. This industry of cable rejuvenation was completely new to me coming into this internship, and now I can say with confidence that my mind has been filled with new ideas and interesting ways to bring my knowledge back to school with me and allow me to apply myself better in the classroom.”
“My experience at Novinium was amazing,” says Kira Murillo. “I was very nervous coming in, especially since I was coming in right out of high school, but everyone at the company was so friendly and helpful. At Novinium, I was creating my own experiments and writing formal lab reports for it. This internship taught me independence as well as teamwork in a work environment.”
