Some companies need no introduction, and Rose-Hulman students are helping strengthen their brands around the world. With summer internships at prominent companies such as Nike, Tesla, Smucker’s and Walmart, these students prove that the influence of one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Colleges in America transcends global borders.
Kim Carey, a senior from Whiteland, Indiana, is majoring in chemical engineering. This summer, she worked as an intern at the J.M. Smucker Company. At Smucker’s, process engineers play a crucial role in troubleshooting quality and equipment issues.
Carey worked daily on three key projects at Smucker’s. First, she focused on enhancing worker ergonomics and safety for a cleaning task, addressing current safety and feasibility issues in the existing process. Second, she evaluated the feasibility of decommissioning a piece of equipment that has frequent breakdowns. This project includes addressing worker safety considerations and ensuring bread quality. Finally, she investigated how a bread quality measure impacts downstream performance to illustrate how the company can reduce equipment issues and product buildup. As part of her internship, Carey was able to buy various products at the cost of production at the company store.
“My dream goal is to use my expertise as a chemical engineer to help lead initiatives within a company aimed at implementing safer and more sustainable practices,” said Carey. “The practical experience and problem-solving skills I acquired at Rose-Hulman prepared me to make significant contributions in my role at Smucker’s and to pursue leadership positions in the industry.”
At Rose, Carey is involved with Greek life. She is the social chair for AXE, the professional chemistry fraternity, and a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority.
Jacob Durenberger, a senior from Excelsior, Minnesota, is majoring in mechanical engineering with concentrations in aerospace and automotive engineering. This summer, Durenberger interned at Caterpillar Inc. The company is best known for producing large asphalt pavers with screeds, soil compactors and asphalt compactors.
“A corporate dream goal I have is to create positive change for the people I work with,” said Durenberger. “Rose is helping me work towards these goals ... Dr. Jason Winkle and Dr. Miles Canino are two professors who stand out in my mind who have taken a step further in my engineering education as they’ve intertwined the business/entrepreneurial aspect of engineering into the problems we’ve worked through in lecture.”
At Rose, Durenberger is the PA announcer for football, basketball and baseball. He is heavily involved in Greek life as the current recruitment chairman for Pi Kappa Alpha. He is the logistics lead for Rose’s orientation team and gives admissions tours for Rose. Durenberger also plays the bass guitar in the jazz band and stays active by playing Greek league intramural sports.
Adam Johnson, a junior from Heath, Texas, is majoring in mechanical engineering. This summer, he interned at SpaceX in Cape Canaveral, Florida. His internship involved reliability engineering, and he worked on a programming project to predict how many times certain parts and assemblies can be safely and economically re-flown for the Falcon and Dragon programs. Johnson also worked with several engineers and vendors during part escapes and contaminants that pose risks to missions.
“Something I love about my internship is the location in Cape Canaveral,” said Johnson. “Getting to see multiple launches every week never gets old, and the Falcon Heavy booster landing for the GOES-U mission has definitely been the highlight.”
At Rose, Johnson is a member of the Combat Robotics team that designs and builds small-scale battle bots that are designed to break other people’s hard work (or sometimes break themselves).
“It seems as though every career avenue I look towards, I’m easily able to find a resource on campus that can point me in the right direction, no matter what that may look like,” said Johnson. “I know Rose is setting me up for success, not only from the knowledge I gain in the classroom, but also because I feel seen as a person with my own goals and aspirations.”
At Rose, Johnson is captain of the cheerleading team, president of Student Activities Board and Lilly Scholars Network. She is also a member educator of Chi Omega, involved in the Rose Drama Club, an admissions ambassador and orientation leader.
Canon Maranda, a senior from Oak Lawn, Illinois, is majoring in computer science and software engineering. This summer, Maranda interned as a software engineer at Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas. As part of his internships, Maranda worked on inventory management systems for international stores, which supports more than 4,500 locations in eight countries. His work revolved around designing internal tools that encourage collaboration between cross-functional teams within the department. On his first day, Maranda felt as if he was working as a full-time member of his team, given tasks that had a significant impact on the team and, in turn, in-store associates and customers.
“It still shocks me that the work I'm doing this summer is helping millions of employees and hundreds of millions of customers live to the fullest extent of Walmart’s core values,” said Maranda. … As interns, we’ve also had opportunities to network with company executives, including CEO Doug McMillon.”
Maranda’s goal is to pursue a career in software where a significant benefit to the product’s users is at the forefront. He enjoys solving problems that leave a positive impact and credits Rose for helping with this by providing the skills, both technical and interpersonal, to help him succeed. He believes the real-world project experience at Rose prepares students to take on new tasks that impact millions of people.
At Rose, Maranda is involved in the Rose concert band. He is also a computer science teaching assistant and former Rose-Hulman Ventures intern.
Tucker Martin, a junior from Rome City, Indiana, is a mechanical engineering major. This summer, Martin interned at Tesla, Inc. in the Powerwall Production and Equipment Engineering Department. The Tesla Powerwall is a home battery that can store energy from the grid or solar panels and power a home during the day, at night or during an outage. Martin is treated as a full-time engineer and given projects that are challenging, yet meaningful to produce the Powerwall.
“Rose has given opportunities that I never saw imaginable. The engineers I work with at Tesla know of Rose and know the college is challenging yet sets you up to hit the ground running in internships and after graduation.”
At Rose-Hulman, Martin is involved with Greek Life and serves as vice president of assets for Pi Kappa Alpha.
Gwynneth Menzie, a senior from Terre Haute, Indiana, is majoring in chemical engineering and biochemistry and molecular biology. This summer, she interned at Marathon Petroleum Company working on projects relating to the distillate hydrotreater and the penex. These units are critical in the refining industry, and Menzie’s projects revolved around optimization and economics. She had the opportunity to work closely with operators and lab technicians and was able to quantify the economics behind utilizing bypasses on different units. She also performed multiple pressure and cooling water surveys out in the refinery.
“Something cool about this internship is the other Tech Service interns and I climbed to ‘the light,’ which is the tallest part of the platformer,” said Menzie. “We got to write our names at the top, and it was so pretty being up there and seeing out for miles. Being able to go out into the refinery and perform hands-on work like surveys and unit walkdowns were definitely my favorite parts!”
Her dream goal is to work full time with Marathon at any of their refineries. “It is amazing being able to connect some of the topics I learn in the classroom and tie it directly into the work I completed this summer!” said Menzie.
At Rose, Menzie is a supervisor at AskRose Homework Help and a member of SASE. She is also president of OXE and vice president of ChemE Car.
Ruke Sam-Ogaga, a senior who grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, but originally from Nigeria, is majoring in computer science. This summer, she interned at Nike and worked on the Cloud Infrastructure team primarily focusing on Nike’s AWS and Azure usage company wide.
During her time at Nike, Sam-Ogaga met CEO John Donahoe and the designer of Nike’s Air Monarch IV and Uptempos. And she said it’s common to see pro athletes around the Nike campus.
“What I love the most about working at Nike is how creative everyone here is,” said Sam-Ogaga. “Because Nike is an apparel company, I am around many artists and designers that offer a new perspective for how I approach coding.
At Rose, Sam-Ogaga is involved with the National Society of Black Engineers and Africa Student Union.
Libby Smith, a senior from Williamsport, Indiana, is a mechanical engineering major and manufacturing engineering minor. This summer, she interned as a process engineer with Tesla Inc. in Fremont, California. She worked with BIW/SX, meaning she worked on the Tesla Model S and Model X line BIW (Body in White) — the pre-paint models. Smith audited more than 90 stations, revised over 60 documents, and rectified 70+ part numbers. She built a repertoire with many of the production associates and learned what it takes for the cars to come together. After developing this understanding, she moved into design and reverse engineering projects.
Smith designed a support stand with the in-house fabrication team, and it was lineside within a few weeks. She also had the ability to put her reverse engineering skills to the test, redesigning many grommets used on the line for robotics and she used a special resin 3D printing technique that yielded huge cost savings.
“Having the capability to execute projects and solve problems in an open-ended fashion really allows you to think outside the box,” said Smith. “On top of all these projects, I was able to shadow other departments, learn new software, and meet incredible people. It has been a chaotic and challenging 13 weeks, but it has pushed me to be a better engineer and young professional.”
At Rose, Smith is president of Chi Omega and president of Rose’s ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) chapter. She is also involved in the Battery Workforce Challenge Team.
Jackson Summers is a sophomore from San Juan Capistrano, California, majoring in civil engineering. This summer, Summers interned at Monster Energy where he worked on collegiate marketing projects. Summers helped market Monster at events as well as plan events for the company to attend and sponsor. One of the highlights of Summers’ internship was working at X-Games.
“My dream goal is to own a firm in the civil engineering field and manage it myself,” said Summers. “Rose is the first step to my dream because a great degree is a perfect foundation.”
At Rose, Summers plays on the baseball team.