The summer after my freshman year I was lucky enough intern for Visa, in Denver, CO, the Mile High City. It was a summer filled with new friends, great mentors, interesting projects, and SO MUCH FUN!
At the end of May, I found myself in a live data center learning how complex mechanical systems maintain the environment of a data center to insure servers can adequately process card transactions without overheating.
Me and the Facilities Team
During my time in facilities, I helped conduct testing for the single chiller validation project. Along with writing MOPs for the tests, I also evaluated and analyzed the data in order to verify that operating the cooling plant in one chiller mode could maintain optimal data center conditions, as well as withstand and recover from a failure.
Surprisingly, I was the first woman to every work on the team which worried me at first, but the team was so welcoming, and were super helpful in helping me complete my project. Before the internship I had no clue as to what a data center even was, but the team taught me quickly and supported my learning along the way. They also took me out to lunch frequently, and free food is always an added bonus.
In addition to my project, I gave data center tours, planned the department cookout, and went underground to document a live excavation.
The best part of the internship was definitely the intern program. Most of the interns lived in the same apartment complex so we really got to know each other (I’ve actually met up with my intern friends even after the internship ended). There were so many fun events for interns to participate in including white water rafting,hiking, seeing a Colorado Rockies game, and competing in an amazing race style puzzle around the city.
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- Ready to Ride the Rapids
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- Hiking in Boulder
Visa even sent all the interns from around the world to their headquarters in San Francisco for an Intern Summit! We stormed the Giants stadium, completed a service project, met with Visa sponsored Olympians, and heard from the CEO!
While I won’t be returning this summer, as I’ll be in Seattle working for Microsoft, I’m so grateful to have had a fantastic first internship with a great company!
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