Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. -- Interns can bring fresh perspectives and innovation to a workplace. Their eagerness and diligence allow them to see career fields outside of the box and discover new possibilities in a way that seasoned employees may not. Understanding the importance of internships to a workforce, Arnold Air Force Base recently completed its annual internship program.
The 12- week program welcomed 21 interns from across the country who were placed across various offices and facilities at Arnold. Four were hosted by the Air Force, another four by the Technical and Management Advisory Services contractor, and the remaining 13 were supported by the Test Operations and Sustainment contractor.
With the internships having now come to an end, the interns are sharing what they’ve learned and what they are taking with them as they return to school.
Upcoming internship postings will be available Aug. 25 though Nov. 7. For more information, visit online at bnh-jv.com and click “Apply now."
Name: Rachel Phillips
Internship: TOS
Area of interest: Industrial Engineering
Overall impressions: “I've had a really great team. Two other interns and myself were able to focus on a more specific project, and it was beneficial to see it all the way through and work together with my fellow interns.”
What are you taking away from your time here? “I like manufacturing, but that's mainly what our classes focus on, so it was good to see another avenue of what I could do with my major. Because reliability is very important, no matter where you work, everybody wants their equipment to work as it is supposed to. The work out here, though, definitely has a deeper meaning to me. It’s all about supporting the national defense.”
Do you feel that your internship will help you in your future career? “Absolutely. I've definitely grown professionally. I was able to meet a lot of different people and, although I was on the same team, we got to meet with different system engineers over several of the test cells. It was good to grow on the communication and collaboration side of skills, because engineers tend to be more introverted. It definitely set me up to be more communicative and collaborative.”
Name: Landon Little
Internship: TOS
Area of interest: Electrical Engineering
Overall impressions: “My initial hopes of internship were far exceeded. I was exposed to much more than I've ever seen at any other job or even school thus far. I'm studying power energy systems, but here I got to kind of touch on a lot of different aspects of electric engineering, whether that be controls or just different systems that they have here. It definitely expands my knowledge a lot more than I thought it was going to.”
What are you taking away from your time here? “My time here has definitely helped me narrow down the niche that I want to work in. I think defense contracting is kind of where I'd like to work, just from my past and the military.”
Do you feel that your internship will help you in your future career? “Certainly. I’ve learned that communication itself is really important, but also learning how to constantly communicate with the people you work with, such as craftsmen or different facilities here on base. The ability to network with groups of people whose ideas or advice can help accomplish your task is something I will definitely use going forward.”
Name: Alex Moyer
Internship: TOS
Area of interest: Electrical Engineering
Overall impressions: “My main goal for the internship was to figure out what I didn't like doing in electrical engineering. I gained a lot of experience, both professionally and educationally. I learned a lot of things about controls and power that I haven't even really got into through classes yet. I also really appreciate how everyone communicated. They took the time to answer you and help you. They also seemed to really love what they do.”
What are you taking away from your time here? “I for sure have a better idea of what I want to focus on during my senior year. I also hope to keep in touch with those I worked with here. I would love to have to opportunity to be a part of such as dedicated workforce.”
Name: Robbie Davis
Internship: TMAS
Area of interest: Aerospace Engineering
Overall impressions: “My hope was getting involved with wind tunnel testing. As an undergraduate, I didn't do much tunnel testing, and I was hoping to get involved with tunnel testing through our internships and experience full-scale wind tunnel testing. My first day on base, I was able to tour 16T [16- foot transonic wind tunnel], and just the scale of that facility compared to what I'm used to from the college side is mind blowing.”
What are you taking away from your time here? “This is not my first internship. I've gotten to co-op at other companies, so, the getting out and talking to others I was accustomed to. But here at Arnold, I was asked to solve a problem without any context. I was tasked to figure out how to do it and implement a solution without much overhead guidance. It was really beneficial because what I'm always used to, as an intern, is being handheld through the entire process. I was able to do a lot pretty much, almost free will.”
Do you feel that your internship will help you in your future career? “I definitely benefited during my time here because I've been able to explore a different side of the engineering field. I didn’t know that what I was interested in was this close to home for me. I always thought I’d have to move out West, down further South or somewhere on the coast in order to work in aerospace engineering. Through my time here, I realized I can still be close to home and do what I love.”
Name: Madison Ellwood
Internship: TRMC, Air Force
Area of Interest: Mechanical Engineering
Overall impressions: “I think the base is very impressive. The amount of technology that's being evaluated and developed here, I think, is very impressive. During my internship, I did a lot of research to help further the testing capabilities of the APTU [Aerodynamic and Propulsion Test Unit] testing facility, so I felt directly connected to the work here.”
What are you taking away from your time here? “I believe I helped improve the ability for AEDC to contribute to the national defense. The job I was given was to research and to help further APTU's abilities. The people are also great. They're very nice and everybody wants to challenge each other and push each other to be the best that they can be. So, I think that is a huge positive for the people here at AEDC and for myself.”
Do you feel that your internship will help you in your future career? “I definitely developed my research skills this summer. Last year, with the Army, I worked a lot with my hands and was very hands-on, where this year I was able to get behind the scenes and see everything that goes into developing technology. So that was very useful for my career.”
Name: Nolan Fryoff
Internship: TRMC, Air Force
Area of Interest: Aerospace Engineering
Overall impressions: “I was very impressed with everything that was here. Coming into this, I had about three or four Google searches worth of knowledge about the place. I'd really never heard of it, but when they sent me down here, everything was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. These are billion-dollar wind tunnels and it really shows. Everything's a lot bigger, and it's a pretty cool place.”
What are you taking away from your time here? “I would say this summer I was given something that was a little out of my comfort zone, which I think was good as it allowed me to really learn and try new skills that I hadn't previously done. A lot of what I had done was more looking at data and data analysis, which was probably perfect for me as I haven't been too far into the weeds with the actual engineering stuff as I just completed my sophomore year. So having something that was a little more data analyst, I thought it was pretty interesting, and it was something I thought was definitely challenging and it was a good use of my time.”
Do you feel that your internship will help you in your future career? “I think that being here has helped me a lot, especially just seeing the options that there are out here. I think that hearing about working somewhere, hearing about working for the government versus actually being out here, being able to see the people and see kind of how a lot of the processes go, is something that's invaluable and you can't replicate without really being out here.”