Hi everyone,
I have now been working for the Naval Surface Warfare Center for two whole weeks! Things are going great and I am really enjoying my internship. There has still been quite a bit of paperwork and training that I had to complete as a new government employee. Now that I work for the United States Navy, I feel an incredible sense of pride and patriotism. There’s a banner in the stairwell that I walk by multiple times a day that has a quote from Calvin Coolidge, “Patriotism in America is easy to understand; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.” If the choices I make have the best interest of my country in mind, then I will inherently be looking out for myself.
For the past two weeks, I have still been helping my classmate run participants for her thesis. I’m glad I have been able to assist her with this process because it has given me insight into what all goes into conducting a scientific experiment. We often talk about the research process in class, but actually setting up the experiment, running participants and analyzing the data yourself is a different ballgame. There can be pitfalls along the way. My classmate had run half of the participants she needed the first week, but had to make a change to the design of the study and was forced to start over. I believe she is on her fourth week of data collecting now. She’s doing great and should be able to defend her thesis by the end of July.
The most exciting thing I have done so far on my internship is take a tour of a Global Response Cutter 43m. A group of people from our Human Systems Integration (HSI) department traveled up to Washington DC to experience the cutting-edge technology and innovation of this boat built by Westport Shipyard, Inc. We were able to get underway (which means we left the dock and traveled through the water) and observe the operators demonstrate its capabilities. Being a young, eager Human Factors student, my fellow interns and I explored the boat and were able to make suggestions and recommendations for improvement.
I have never really known what I want to do for a career, but I want it to be something where other people will think, “Wow, that’s cool!” This job definitely has that ‘wow’ factor.
The past two weeks have been so hectic, traveling back and forth to Dallas. I even almost accidentally went to Narita, Japan but that’s another story. My seventh week on the internship was somewhat slow. Most of the time was spent in the office going to meetings and learning about general airport operations. It is definitely amazing to see how much input is needed to efficiently run an airport.
The best part of this internship I’d have to say is the interaction with the pilots. I probably chat with about 50 pilots daily and they all have advice for me. It is great to be surrounded by such an intelligent, supportive and fun group. Being a Safety Minor also, I got to meet some pilots who are on the AA Go Team, which are basically Accident Investigators. We were able to speak about things related to Accident Investigation and I learned so much. After taking SF330- Aircraft Accident Investigation class at ERAU, I was able to hold a conversation with the investigators and relate to some of the things they were speaking about. It may be something I’d like to pursue in the future.
American Eagle Pilot and the other an intern from Alaska Airlines. We hardly slept so that’s a testament of how much fun we had. The pictures to the left and above were from that trip. The one from the air shows the Grand Canyon from about 38,000 feet. I returned to NY on the Saturday and then met up with my good friend on Sunday for some fun in the city. It was an amazing weekend.
The eight-week began with so much 777s. This aircraft surrounded me. On Monday morning by 9:30 I had already preflighted two 777s. I almost made it to Narita also. That would have been funny to explain to my boss. I was chilling in the cockpit with the pilots after the preflight and the flight attendant almost closed the door with me in the aircraft. I wished she did! When I went back to the office I met two 777-check pilots and later that day had lunch with a 777 captain who was heading to Brazil later that night. The wealth of advice and knowledge you can gain from these pilots is unbelievable. The picture to the right is from the preflight and the picture below is of me enjoying the 777 First Class with a few of the crewmembers.
The following weeks will be so much more involving as the Chief Pilot asked me to give him my wish list and he will allow me to do everything on it. Next week I will be heading to the FAA Tower at JFK, and also working 2 night shifts at the Ramp Control Tower. In the near future I will be going to the New York ARTCC, have an airport and ARFF Tour, preflight Air Berlin’s A330, JAL 747-400, Finnair A340, and Qatar 777-300ER. I’ll also be working in the Maintenance Hanger too. So stay tuned and see all the pictures… Happy 4th July!
