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Mark Cregger |
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Participants Summer Internships 2002 Main Page
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In working with John over the past two summers, we’ve completed projects that have each been unique in their own right. We’ve taken up everything from house additions to working on corporate buildings to landscaping and decks. I probably acquired more hands on skills than most students do in a summer internship. Guaranteed that none of it had much to do directly with chemical engineering, but the problem solving skills needed for each could be compared to an extent. For example, I could compare designing a framework for a house to designing a chemical plant. They both require advanced knowledge to have an idea of how much material is required to complete the project. For example, one needs to have an idea of how much wood one needs to frame the house, and one needs to know approximately how much pipe that is required in one’s plant system. Everyday, it seemed that there was a new problem that had to be solved. It wasn’t that the problem had never come up before in a previous job, but it was that the problem was surrounded by unique circumstances in the new project. Everyday work in chemical engineering can be very similar. Knowledge from solving previous problems can help solve new problems with unique characteristics. Our crew worked on three major projects this past summer among the other small jobs like little decks and minor landscaping. These projects included: a relatively large house addition, a huge deck, and remodeling the entire inside of a hair salon. Because of its size, the house addition was more like a house in and of itself than an ordinary house addition. It consisted of a three-car garage, with room to spare, underneath and four bedrooms and a bathroom on top. I got to see first hand how one section of a job could screw up the rest of the project. The homeowner tried to save money by hiring an inexperienced contractor to pour the foundation before hiring us to frame the house addition. So, we had to compensate the rest of the way to make up for the mistakes made in the foundation. The huge deck we worked on in midsummer went rather smoothly. Our last major project of the summer was to remodel the inside of a hair salon. The major problems of this job came from having an indecisive owner and having to work on the project while the business was still open. The indecisive owner set us back a few weeks because he was having trouble picking out the type of flooring that was going down. I learned from this firsthand that the customer’s needs come first. While working on the back of the salon during business hours, we had to be courteous of the employees of the business working in the front. They were actually very nice and helped us in any way they could. I also got to experience working non-standard hours when we had to work at night to complete the front of the salon. Despite this summer job not being a chemical engineering internship, I took a lot away from it. I got to meet many people throughout the summer. I learned to work with a wide range of personalities and to come to understand how to fill the customer’s needs. I also got an opportunity to further develop my problem-solving skills. All in all, it was an enjoyable and productive summer. |
Over this past summer, I worked with my neighbor John Nelson in his small
construction company, Spruce Construction. It consisted of John, an
acquaintance of John’s, a recent graduate of college, and myself. I’ve
worked with John the past two summers doing various construction
projects. John is a great boss. I’ve known him ever since my family and
I moved in our new house five years ago. He’s extremely patient, a great
teacher, and an all around comical, nice guy. I swear we did more telling
jokes than actual work this past summer. Brian, the acquaintance of
John’s, worked with us part of the summer. Our last co-worker was Johnny,
a recent graduate from Purdue with a business degree. John had found out
about Johnny through a friend he did some work for a couple summers ago.
Johnny is a hard worker who has a little construction experience. Johnny
is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. I learned a lot more than
construction this past summer; I learned to be able to work with and get
along with a wide range of personalities on the job site.