Hey Everyone!!!!
Welcome back! As you might know, 27 April was the last day of classes here at USC! Yep-on the semester system, you have 15 weeks of classes, and that’s it! A bit different from what you might be having in high-school. This Monday and Tuesday are what we call ‘stop-days’ …..a chance for you to collect yourself…notes, and study a bit before any finals you might have this coming week. Finals go for a week from this Wednesday till next Wednesday. I have on Thursday, two Monday, and one Tuesday! Yikes! Wish me luck.
But whenever I think that all looks grim in finals (and I am too guilty of this, given all the great buds and opportunities I have to relax around campus during stop/exam days), I think back to what one of my professors said in my sophomore year “there is life beyond exams” and funny enough, since it was a strength of materials class, he would say “I hope that this class has not stressed you out so much that you have left the linearly elastic region!” ahahahha only engineers would laugh at this joke!
At any rate, wanted to quickly share with you what I’ll be doing this summer, so that you know where I’ll be reporting from! I was lucky enough, with the help of some great friends who worked at Boeing last summer, to score an internship in the Aerodynamic Performance and Sales Support team at Boeing Commercial Aircraft (BCA) in Everett Washington! You might be familiar with The Boeing Company if you’ve ever flown in your life – and or if you are so much as thinking of going in to Aerospace engineering.
Ever seen the biggest building in the world?
Well, now you have, and this is where I’ll be working!!!!! Now, no pictures are allowed inside, but to give you a little perspective, there are full line assemblies going on in there, and the hangar doors allow for an almost 220 ft. wingspan to fit in between the pillars….in other words, fully assembled aircraft come out of there and head out to the completion facility.
I am really stoked to be working in my department because it will give me an opportunity to fuse my two diverse backgrounds that I have been talking about for ever- the hard analytical side of engineering as well as my (always growing) understanding of the markets and study of human interaction through economics.
I start on 18 May, if all goes smoothly, and will be up there for most of the summer, until some point in August, when I’ll return back here to USC for my final year!
Some of my goals for this summer are:
-To become a finer engineer- Through a more detailed understanding of my specialization within aerospace engineering.
-To gain an appreciation of how government and professional industry interact in the arena of commercial aircraft.
-To maybe even ride on a test flight!
-To become more productive and further improve my organizational technique.
-To learn as much about the company as possible!
-To meet loads of other cool interns.
-To meet John Cashman, Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief test pilot and director of Flight Crew Operations.
On my way up to Seattle, I’ll be stopping in several places. From LA to Minden, NV, to visit the instructor that originally soloed me. Then from there to Mt. Shasta, CA to see some beautiful natural sites. From there to Gresham, OR- an inside joke from a favorite movie of mine- Scent of a Woman with Al Pacino. Then from there straight up to Seattle!! Here’s my map!
Be on the look out for Tweets as to my whereabouts during my drive up~ mid- May.
On a separate note, congratulations to all those Seniors who made their final decisions on colleges yesterday! You have worked hard and deserve it- if you are reading this blog, I think it is safe to assume you have chosen USC- so welcome to the family and FIGHT ON!
Be on the look out for updates this summer periodically to see more about what engineers at Viterbi do during the summer.
It’s been a great year with each of you and hope you all have the best of success on finals, and an excellent summer too!
Until soon!
