Last Friday, I had my last day of work at my summer internship. Over this three month stretch, as well as all of last summer, I had the opportunity to work at a chemical company working on projects with engineers and scientists in industry. I learned so much about the chemical engineering profession and also gained valuable experience working in the real world. This article could never capture fully how great this job was, but I hope to share with you some of what made up this exciting milestone in my life. To Alisha, Jill, Dan, Kristina, George, Jay, and to all at MicroChem, this article is for you!

The summer after my freshman year, I earned a job at MicroChem Corp. in Westborough, Massachusetts working as an intern for the engineering group. I was a measly college student entering the professional world, and I was overwhelmed to say the least. The first day, I went through safety training in a conference room with big swivel chairs and a smart board and speaker phones. This business setting really showed me that this was the real deal. I knew that this was the beginning of my career and I knew that working at a company doing science was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Still, it all seemed so professional. Was I really ready to do real-life work? After all, I had only just completed general chemistry. However, I received much training and guidance from my colleagues, and after a few weeks, I felt confident in my ability to complete my assigned project.

Over the past two summers, I worked on three main projects in both the scale-up and development engineering areas at MicroChem. Each project immersed me further into the microelectronics industry, one which I didn't know existed for chemical engineers before I applied for this job. My time at MicroChem has exposed me to a whole new area of chemistry and real-world engineering, and this is one of the reasons that I have enjoyed my job so much; I am constantly learning new things.

Perhaps the best part of doing projects at my internship was working in the laboratory. Each project I conducted had me doing hands-on work from making batches of chemicals to collecting and analyzing data. I was quite lucky to have an opportunity to learn how to operate lab equipment and gain so much experience in how engineers work in the real world. By the end of each summer, I was back in that conference room giving presentations to my supervisors and colleagues to show them my hard work. I can't thank my colleagues enough for all they have taught me, and I can't wait to go back over my winter break to continue this journey towards becoming a chemical engineer!