Grace Interns Making a Difference this Summer

At Grace, we know that the future of our company and industry is dependent on the next generation of game changers. In an effort to help build a future pipeline of talent in our industry, Grace offers a hands-on, 12-week, summer internship program for college students to help develop their skills and gain technical knowledge. This summer, Grace hosted 20 interns both remotely and in-person as part of a hybrid model of learning due to the pandemic work restrictions.

Check out what three of our interns had to say about their internship at Grace: 

“I had a chance to work with two different managers and learn two totally different sides of engineering this summer,” said Crystal. “I was able to apply everything I have learned in the classroom and use it in real life.  Helping to build the reactor was more theoretical and involved lots of engineering calculations, while the other opportunity was learning how to make and test a product, giving me a hands-on experience and inside look into product development. I felt like a real engineer.”

As a rising senior at University of Maryland majoring in chemical engineering, Crystal plans to complete her masters in a five-year program offered by her university.  

All it took was for Sequoia to spend one summer working in the world of industrial chemistry.  It was her experience at Grace that helped her make the educational change from bio-chemistry to chemical engineering.

“I had a phenomenal experience at Grace,” said Sequoia. “It’s been an amazing opportunity to experience real life work, which had a positive impact on my educational goals. I figured out this is where I want to be when I graduate, working as a chemical engineer for an industrial company, preferably at Grace.”

Paige spent the first part of the summer helping the lab implement a data analytic software. The project finished ahead of schedule and she was then given the opportunity to work on other data analysis projects and continue her internship until the end of the year.

This internship changed the trajectory of her academic studies. “Instead of getting a Master’s in Chemistry, I am going to take a gap year, work in the industry and then get my MBA,” said Paige. “This internship gave me the opportunity to cultivate a new side of chemistry. I found out I like the business side more than the laboratory side of chemistry.”