Enjoying an internship is as much about the people you work with as the work you do. In a field as collaborative as engineering, getting along with the people you work with is so important. In that regard, I have been extremely fortunate to genuinely love working with everyone. Everyone in the traffic group has not hesitated to welcome me as one of the team and have done so since I started here last summer.

I spent all last summer (and winter break) working with our studies group and was extremely fortunate to have built up some real-world knowledge and learning how the office works. Despite not working with the group much anymore, the connections have remained! Getting to talk and joke around with the entirety of the traffic group makes the day go much faster! (Although being an intern does not exempt you from being the butt of the joke sometimes!)

Getting the chance to work with Neal and Chris in the signals and lighting department has been an awesome experience. Learning about a field of engineering that is not even mentioned in school, let alone taught, has been a challenge but incredibly rewarding experience. Getting to jump in and learn with hands-on experience has always been the best way for me to learn, and I got that opportunity on my first day back! Jumping into something headfirst is bound to lead to mistakes occasionally, but like Chris likes to tell me “the mistakes are how you learn it for the second time”. The patience of the group has emboldened me to not be afraid to be wrong, because they genuinely want me to learn. No matter how busy we are, Neal, Chris, and Chelsea have never shown frustration with me not knowing something, and are willing to explain something as many times as I need to get it into my head (usually a few).

Being an intern at Carpenter Marty Transportation has been everything I could have asked for, and then some. Being an engineering office, you expect some semblance of an uptight, stressed-out attitude. Our office is as easygoing as you can hope for, while still maintaining professionalism. Nobody in the office minds a quick conversation about weekend plans, golf scores, or the best episode of a show. As I mentioned above, working for a good company can make or break your experience. I have been extremely fortunate to work for the engineering firm I can imagine, and there is nowhere else I would rather work.

Describing my experience in a word, I would just say it has been awesome. I think I said it last summer, but it bears repeating. Thank you all for taking me under your collective wing, and always helping me become the best engineer I can be. You guys are the best!

Alex Holmes

Ohio University

Class of 2024