Persistence pays
Natalie Wilcox ’21 landed two engineering internships to set herself up for career success.
Applying theory in practice
While many students were scrambling to find summer work when internships were canceled during the pandemic, Natalie Wilcox ’21 found herself at LaGuardia Airport at 3 a.m. surrounded by heavy machinery.
Wilcox, a civil engineering alumna from Malverne, New York, had lined up a 12-week internship with the civil and environmental engineering firm Langan in New York City.
“Given that New York was the epicenter of the pandemic early on, I was almost completely certain my internship would be canceled,” recalled Wilcox. “However, I kept in touch with the human resources representative throughout the process. Eventually, I found out my internship would take place, but it would be shortened to two weeks.”
Wilcox then contacted Haugland Group, a construction company on Long Island where she had interned the previous summer, and they invited her back.
Valuable Experiences
The geotechnical engineering internship at Langan consisted of intense training in AutoCAD, a computer-aided design and drafting software application, and in federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations.
In addition, Wilcox visited many active construction sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.
“The most exciting thing I experienced was a massive excavation project at the American Museum of Natural History,” said Wilcox. “Everything I learned in my geotechnical engineering class came rushing back to me.”
On returning to Haughland Group Wilcox was assigned to a taxiway paving project at LaGuardia Airport and a construction job at the Walt Whitman Bridge, among other projects.
“I worked a 36-hour job over a weekend at LaGuardia,” said Wilcox. “There was a ton of planning that went into it. I sat in on the meetings that preceded the operation. I joined the team during the first overnight shift.”
The work at the Walt Whitman Bridge also took place in the evening.
“I enjoy being out in the field no matter what time of day it is, so I jumped at the chance to witness the installation of steel girders. I was able to watch steel construction take place for the first time.”
The two internships, combined with a URI education, provided Wilcox with great learning experiences to launch her career.