BARKING SANDS — For the third consecutive year the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility has welcomed college students in the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium Internship Program. The six-week summer course immerses students in their fields of interest. They are
BARKING SANDS — For the third consecutive year the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility has welcomed college students in the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium Internship Program.
The six-week summer course immerses students in their fields of interest.
They are required to turn in weekly journals and, at the end of the program, write a final report about their experiences. The reports are then sent to HSGC.
Each intern receives a stipend of $3,000 to help cover college tuition. The interns are Tiffany Eliana from Hanama‘ulu, Eric Fune of Koloa, Geoffry Tran of Hanapepe and Melissa Peck from Kalaheo.
This summer the program runs from June 14 to July 23. Eliana and Fune work in the Communications Department under the mentorship of Alan Chun, Range Communications Division head.
Chun said, “They get to see what the real-world working environment is like.”
Eliana, a sophomore at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas majoring in computer engineering, says this internship is a good opportunity when summer jobs can be hard to find.
Fune has found this internship to be a good opportunity as well. It is his second summer participating in the program at PMRF. This spring he plans on graduating from the University of Hawai‘i Manoa with a major in electrical engineering.
Fune, who lists PMRF high on his list of possible work places, said, “This internship will help me to get contacts if I want to work here after I graduate.”
Stu Burley said he wants to give interns a chance to experience what it is like to work in the high-tech industry.
The hope is that students will come back to work on Kaua‘i because of their experience as interns, he said. There are many departments available to interns in the science and math fields, said Burley.
Tran, a sophomore at the University of Hawai‘i, worked under the mentorship of Chun last year, and this year switched to the Manu Kai Optics Department.
Tran said, “There is more diversity with what I am doing. I get to see the different systems they use.”
This fall both he and Fune will have the opportunity to give eight-minute presentations of their summer internships to a panel of students and faculty at UH-Manoa.
Peck is working in the Public Affairs Office under the mentorship of Tom Clements.
“Melissa is able to combine her technical skills with a desire to teach and communicate as an intern with the PMRF Public Affairs Office,” said Clements.
“She immediately stepped in to help with a very successful science camp field trip for the Young Presidents Organization, and helped us to finally get the official PMRF Facebook page online.
“Both efforts are very important to PMRF’s civic outreach and are very much in line with HSGC program’s intent to inspire Hawai‘i’s youth to pursue high tech opportunities,” Clements said.
The HSGC Internship Program is sponsored by NASA and administered through the HSGC at UH-Manoa.
For the past three years Burley, associate director of HSGC at Kaua‘i Community College and Kaua‘i industry, has visited high-school students during their senior years to talk about the program.
He collects names, resumes and applications, and pairs students up with summer internships most beneficial for them.
Marie Paiste, human resources liaison at PMRF, has been the point of contact between PMRF and the HSGC for as long as it has been on Kaua‘i.
Together with many other people from the University of Hawai‘i and NASA, Burley and Paiste help make the internship program possible for college students.
For more information, visit www.stukauai.com or e-mail stu@stukauai.com.
