“Seeking: PhD Level Intern, Skills Required: theoretical modeling, kayaking, hiking, skydiving, paintballing, etc…”

Think your eyes are playing tricks on you? This must be a joke?  Most people think that graduate students doing summer internships is practically as impossible to believe as the tagline above. But in my case both are actually quite possible!

This summer, I was blessed to go on an amazing internship at Intel. It was the perfect break point, as I had just finished up my masters thesis and quals last semester and was preparing to head straight into my PhD work this fall semester. So, I packed my bags and shipped my books to warm, sunny…..Oregon. You read it right, no California, no Silicon Valley as I was previously accustomed to, I was headed to Hillsboro, Oregon. Needless to say I was not to thrilled, but ironically it was the most thrilling summer I have ever experienced.

As you can see from the pictures, not only was I intellectually stimulated working with some of the most amazing minds in theoretical process modeling, but I also enjoyed hanging out with the other “thrill-seeking” graduate interns in our sparse free time. I went skydiving (for the 2nd time), kayaking, whitewater rafting(Mt. Adams), and paint-balling. We had an amazing time as we worked hard and played hard all summer. I would have to say that it was great to see how meaningful the work we do at MIT is to industry, especially to a giant like Intel.

I would definitely recommend interning at some point in your graduate career, paintballing….not so much(I still have bruises)!