Every January, the Kinkaid School offers a program that enables students to pursue their own interests in lieu of the normal curriculum. “Interim term” is always the most popular and exciting time of the school year as students engage in a specialized profession or interest through either independent studies, trips abroad, or internships. As a high school senior, I have had a growing interest in engineering, particularly mechanical engineering, for many years now. This month, I have had the privilege of interning at Haynes Whaley, and so far the experience has been fascinating. Interestingly, I have found that my interest has changed more and more towards structural engineering.

After one week of internship, I have made a dive headlong into a highly interactive experience and met a lot of smart people. I am particularly surprised to see that so much work goes on outside of the normal design work.

Beginning with marketing, the busy and seemingly unpredictable schedules of Derick, Larry, and Amy have showed me how important marketing and public relations are to the company’s success. After shadowing Derick and meeting with Amy, it has been interesting to see these people scramble to meet deadlines, build relationships, and put together important presentations.

Meeting with Virginia and Robert has exposed me to the day to day operations that must exist to keep this office running smoothly.

Throughout the week I met several engineers, however my meetings with Wally and Marco were special highlights. I was exposed to the “art” of structural engineering and some of the tools that help make it come together: AutoCAD and RISA.

After meeting with all of these engineers, I have learned that the common denominator to good engineering practice is experience. The intuition that goes with the development and design of a building’s structure seems to require a lot of experience and knowledge of codes and standards.

I have learned a lot from everybody, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I would be learning about public relations and office management in addition to just engineering. Together, it seems like Haynes Whaley has their business running like a well oiled and well “engineered” machine and it really is a special experience to be a part of the office; I am eager to learn more from them over the next two weeks.