Manufacturing Internship Reveals Exciting Career Path for USU Engineering Student

Mechanical engineering student Elijah Kimmel is interning with a federal and state-funded initiative aimed at bringing a variety of partners together to support growth in Utah’s advanced material and manufacturing industry.

Kimmel began his internship with the Utah Advanced Material and Manufacturing Initiative, UAMMI, in December and is working with the initiative’s workforce program. He was referred to the internship program by Nadia Kouraytem, a Utah State Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering assistant professor.

“Our goal is to bring together public, private, community, industry and educational partners to build Utah up as a manufacturing giant and bring work back into Utah,” Kimmel said.

As part of the workforce program, Kimmel is helping research the state of career and technical education, or CTE, in Utah. Understanding what CTE opportunities are available in the state and what opportunities can be expanded is one way to increase the workforce for the state’s advanced material and manufacturing industry.

“The work I am doing with the workforce program is to help us better educate young people on what’s actually out there and to help industry understand what education is already in existence,” Kimmel said.

This work is important to Kimmel because he is the first member of his family to attend a four-year university.

“Everyone’s always been welders, construction workers, equipment operators,” he said, “and I’ve learned that working with your hands is very useful, very meaningful, and is a very viable option to provide for yourself.”

What drew Kimmel to this internship opportunity was the potential he felt it had to make a difference.

“This position stood out to me because not only is it dealing with manufacturing, which is something I am interested in, the way the position was described made me feel like I was going to be doing something useful,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel has been enjoying his experience so far and said he loves the new things he is learning.

“Every time I join one of the staff meetings, I learn something new about a small company,” he said. “I learn something new about what UAMMI is trying to do. I learn something new about networking or about an advanced manufacturing method. There's always something more to learn.”