When most students hear about internships, most might think of it as an unpaid job they look for in their senior year to get out early. For some it’s an experience to help find potential career interests or a strong resume builder. For Junior Zach Souders, it’s a glimpse of his dream job.
“I went to an internship at Goddard Space Flight center and met some of the employees. They recommended that I apply for an internship,” said Souders.“Since I’m only a junior, I don’t qualify for early release and can’t officially be an intern with NASA during the school year. However, I am continuing to help out the team in an unofficial capacity during the school year when I can find the time. I hope to return as an intern for the same project next summer, and would like to participate in the official academic year internship program [during the] 2017-2018 [school year].” Goddard Space Flight Center, located in Greenbelt, MD, offers a variety of opportunities other than internships as well. These include NASA’s Cube Quest Challenge, 2017 BIG Idea Challenge, Cubes in Space and Future Engineers Mars Medical Challenge. More information on these can be found on NASA.gov. NASA offers a variety of fellowships and scholarships as well.
“During my time at NASA, I worked on data analysis programming for the Mini Laser Heterodyne Radiometer project. The instrument measures greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmospheric column at specific locations from a portable, ground-based setup. I also did a small amount of printed circuit board design.” Many internships are used as credit on transcripts and mostly as a learning experience but Souders has a different take, “My dream is to work for NASA after attending college.”
While Souders doesn’t receive any tangible benefits he explained that the experience is still worth it, “I had the incredible privilege of working with amazingly well-educated, intelligent and helpful people that I could only have ever met at a place like Goddard. In addition, the perspective gained by working in a nine-to-five office setting with some of the most talented scientists and engineers in the world was simply priceless.”