When I was a child, I wanted to be a veterinarian to help sick and injured animals recover. I had even tried to take care of two kittens, only a few days old, when we found them behind the shed. I hand-fed them and gave them a bath, watching them all day before determining they were abandoned. I kept caring for them until one died. A few days later, the other one unfortunately did as well. Although I was prepared for the unfortunate outcome, I understood that if I wanted to continue helping animals, I had to find better ways. I turned to the possibility of prosthetics for both animals and humans—through which I unexpectedly discovered my passion for engineering.
Searching through all the engineering majors and programs available, I decided, with my growing interest in prosthetics, that biomedical engineering fit my interests and aspirations the best. After a few years of course work at my university focusing on this field, I realized how much I enjoyed hands-on work, especially lab work, and was curious to learn about lab work in a professional setting. That said, I was super excited to embark on the internship at Indium Corporation this summer, knowing that it would give me the chance to experience what I had been looking for.
My position as the Thermal Interface Intern at Indium Corporation involved material testing and spending a lot of time in the lab. As I got used to the R&D lab, I learned there were many tools and pieces of equipment involved in my daily work that I was unfamiliar with. Apart from the computers, I had never seen the majority of the equipment before. Learning about the equipment was both exciting and overwhelming.
I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to memorize all the steps required to operate so many machines when the time came. Going through the training eased my concern, but I needed to ask the right questions, stay focused, and be involved to ensure that I understood and remembered the processes correctly. It helped push me out of my comfort zone as I learned how to speak up, communicate, and collaborate with others—something that can be difficult as an introvert.
Being new to the lab and not knowing where to find any of the useful or necessary items also forced me to make connections with other employees working in the lab besides my supervisor. Through building these connections, I found it much easier to ask for help at any point when I inevitably got stuck; everyone was friendly and helpful.
Another aspect of the Indium Corporation internship program that I am grateful for was the Lunch and Learns. During these weekly get-togethers, different speakers would come to help us learn different skills, such as personal branding, team collaboration, career readiness, and more.
The event that I enjoyed the most was when we learned about effective presentation and public speaking techniques. During this event, we were tasked with writing a story about ourselves that included an important trait we possessed and why this trait would be important to others or future employers. For this story, I chose to write about the perfectionism I had when building models for a class and how I toned it down to keep myself on track. I was then paired with a partner to take turns to present this story and receive feedback. Each time we presented, we improved.
At first, I was very reliant on the paper that I had used to write my story on. During the first two times presenting, I needed to look at it after every sentence. Once I was forced to put the paper down, I was scared that I would stumble through my words and mess up the story. My fear came true. However, I had to push through and finish the presentation of the story.
For the next couple times that we presented the story, we were encouraged to be more animated with our body language. Every sentence needed to have a hand gesture associated with it. The instructor motivated us to have bigger and bigger movements. Eventually, I was walking circles around my partner to ensure I was demonstrating my story well enough.
After the exercise, the instructor assured us that even though we may have looked weird, we were having fun. No one else was looking at us flailing our hands around to emphasize a story; no one was judging. This really stuck with me. I have realized that it doesn’t matter what others think of you as long as you think highly of yourself. And even though I looked, and definitely felt like, a fool, I was having fun and nothing else would have mattered as much.