杏吧传媒

08/20/2020
By University Relations Staff

With all the COVID-19 disruptions, the summer of 2020 could have been a washout for so many 杏吧传媒 students. But plenty of River Hawks managed to nail down internships and find聽opportunities that are aligned with their studies, gaining valuable hands-on experience and expanding their professional networks. Here鈥檚 a sampling of some of the positions River Hawks聽landed this summer.

Taking Stock in the Cloud

Linh Nguyen spent the first week of her data science internship at Nasdaq this summer familiarizing herself with the underlying architecture of cloud technologies like Kubenetes, Apache Kafka聽and Amazon Web Services.聽

By the end of her 10-week stint with the global financial services company鈥檚 Cloud Data Service team, Nguyen and her fellow interns from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown聽University had developed a product that was just weeks away from production: a WebSocket (the two-way communication protocol used by web applications like email and Twitter) that can聽provide clients with a live market data feed.

鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of unbelievable considering we didn鈥檛 know much about the technology when we started out,鈥� says Nguyen, a rising senior double-majoring in computer science and mathematics.聽鈥淲e are really proud of what we accomplished with the help of Nasdaq engineering support.鈥�

Nguyen, an international student from Vietnam, landed a spot in the Nasdaq Futures Internship Program in early March, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit. She was relieved to learn that聽the program could continue remotely.

鈥淚t was a little awkward at first. Instead of your manager walking you around and introducing you to people, you would just talk to people when you got a Zoom link. But it turned out to be聽really awesome,鈥� says Nguyen.

Finding His Groove in Nashville

Luke Bilodeau was determined to land an internship, despite the disruption and potential perils that came with COVID-19.

The sound recording technology senior got his wish. He spent the summer in Franklin, Tenn., interning at the famed Sound Kitchen Studios, which boasts the likes of Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley,聽Katy Perry, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift and Keith Urban among its roster of recording artists.聽

Bilodeau applied for the internship in the spring as COVID-19 was bringing the economy and everything else to a halt.聽

鈥淚 was determined to get an internship regardless of the circumstances, because I wanted to move forward to keep my knowledge fresh,鈥� he says.

Bilodeau, a native of Taunton, Mass., describes his work at the studio as 鈥渆xhilarating.鈥�

鈥淚 love that professionalism shines over everything we do. I have gotten to meet and work with a few famous people, and companies that I hadn鈥檛 dreamed of, at least not this early in my聽career. And I think that I have definitely found the career that gels the best with me personally,鈥� he says.

Banking on Robots

Business administration major Nadine Chamoun wondered what she鈥檇 gotten herself into when she found out she鈥檇 be programming a robot as part of her summer internship at Needham Bank.

鈥淚 was second-guessing myself thinking, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know if I can do this,鈥欌�� says Chamoun, a rising junior from Walpole, Mass.

But Chamoun, whose concentrations are in finance and management, knew she鈥檇 be challenging herself when she landed the information technology system development internship. Getting聽hands-on experience with robotic process automation is a career-broadening skill that Chamoun hopes will jump off her r茅sum茅.

鈥淩obots and artificial intelligence are the future of everything, even in business,鈥� says Chamoun, whose work involved setting up automation modules to teach an online robot to perform聽certain tasks such as working with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

鈥淭here was definitely a learning curve, but I鈥檓 so glad I鈥檝e been able to learn how to do something like that,鈥� says Chamoun, who was able to work on site as part of a socially-distanced four-person IT team at the bank鈥檚 headquarters.

Given that many companies have had to cancel or scale back their internship and co-op programs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chamoun says it鈥檚 more important than ever for students聽to 鈥渂e persistent and open-minded鈥� in their searches.

鈥淚 was kind of open to anything, because any experience for me was a good experience,鈥� says Chamoun, who estimates she applied to nearly 50 positions this spring.聽

Aiming High Leads to Opportunity

Economics major and club rugby player Marvens Francois thrives in situations where he鈥檚 part of a team. That鈥檚 why his summer internship with the U.S. Air Force Civilian Service has been such聽a good fit.聽

鈥淚 feel working with the Air Force gives you that opportunity to be in a tight-knit community where it鈥檚 not just about money and things. It鈥檚 a family where you鈥檙e working for your country and聽you make a difference for your country,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a team and you鈥檙e working for the United States of America, and that really appeals to me.鈥�

A rising senior, Francois learned about the internship at a campus career fair for economics students. He applied for the internship in financial management service 鈥� and got it. While his Air聽Force Premier College Internship is virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he says it鈥檚 been a great experience.聽

It鈥檚 worked out so well that he plans to continue the internship part-time during his senior year, which will put him on track to get a job through the PALACE Acquisition (PAQ) initiative, a two-聽to four-year training program in the Air Force Civilian Service that prepares new graduates for permanent positions.

Helping with COVID-19 Testing

Max Legault, a public health major from Littleton, Mass., had planned to clock some patient care hours this summer by working as a certified nursing assistant (CNA). But due to the pandemic,聽two of the CNA programs he applied to shut down and two others filled up.聽

So Legault volunteered instead to work with Lowell Community Health Center on the state鈥檚 Stop the Spread campaign, helping to test Lowell residents for COVID-19 at a walk-up and drive-up聽outdoor testing site, which changed its location each week. Stop the Spread, which tested 4,000 Lowell residents over four weeks, is part of a state effort to slow community transmission in聽congested urban centers.

Legault said working at the mobile clinic was great experience: He cross-trained to fill every role, from checking people in and getting their information to talking people through doing their own nasal swabs. He鈥檚 also volunteered to help out with testing of UML students, faculty and staff who must be on campus this fall.

Even though Legault started experiencing mild COVID-19 symptoms the day after the mobile testing ended, he鈥檚 proud of what he and other 杏吧传媒 student volunteers accomplished,聽working with Lowell Community Health Center staff, Trinity EMS professionals and other volunteers.聽

鈥淚 feel very strongly about having done that work. We helped a lot of people,鈥� he says.