Every summer at KNA Structural Engineers, we invite two engineering students to work in our office as interns to help them expand their skills and give them a glimpse into what their future career could look like. This year we welcomed Araxi Malazian, a recent high school graduate who will be starting at USC this fall, and Ryan Millward, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student who was with us in 2018 and decided to join us for a second summer! Araxi was helping out in our BIM/CAD department, and Ryan was working under the supervision of Principal Ben Pitts as an intern engineer. Both students had the opportunity to work on current projects at KNA, bridging the gap between what they’ve been learning in the classroom and real life.
“I am very grateful for my time at KNA. Working here has helped me feel confident that I correctly understand concepts taught in my classes by reinforcing that knowledge with actual problems on projects.” –Ryan Millward
Both students rose to new challenges each day, giving them more confidence each time they completed a task successfully. Ryan and Araxi were also able to accompany other KNA engineers on several site visits, which helped to broaden their scope of experience.
“I learned a lot about the profession and greatly developed my skills in AutoCAD during my time at KNA, but more so found the experience invaluable because it gave an excellent insight into what life would be like as an engineer. The daily interactions with coworkers and increasingly difficult tasks became easier each day because every conversation and project helped me develop essential workplace skills.” –Araxi Malazian
As we know from working in this field, a career in engineering does not simply consist of one person doing isolated calculations; it is a collaborative effort that requires a strong team. “I am extremely thankful for the support of all the people working at KNA; everyone has been incredibly supportive and excited to share the concepts that they have learned from their experience. It was always fun to come to work and have a new problem to think about and learn from,” Ryan commented. Araxi also felt the same way, adding, “I am very grateful for this early glimpse into life as an engineer and for the very warm, welcoming group of people at KNA that made this experience so incredible.”
Not only were both of our interns able to sharpen their engineering skills, but we thoroughly enjoyed building relationships with each of them. We know they will be successful and wish them the very best in their studies and future careers!