This year's Savannah River Remediation summer interns have arrived. The 42 interns include (front row; left to right) Casey Rhodes, Logan Tihey, Jonathan Townsend, A’jay Jones, Victoria Truelove, Ximena Vasquez, Christopher York, Brandon Byers, Tu Nguyen, Tristen Fields, Zoe Wesley, Briana Young, Meredith Williamson, Robert Morgan, Jennifer Herbert, and Keaton Thurmond; and (back row; left to right) Eric Patterson, Jake Mellon, Tom Hampton, Lee Girardeau, Eddie Dernar, Michael Harris, Paul Jackson, Greg Head, Vondray Sanford, DJ Roberts, Christopher Turner, Hunter Norris, Brock Metzger, Constance Kinney, Taylor Schneider, and Michael Jaffe. Brad Lloyd, Curtis Wilson, Raven Woods, Belinda Owusu, Alton Turner, Jabril McKevie, Stuart Ralston, Austin Long, John Kolbeck, and David Webb are not pictured.
AIKEN, S.C. – Through its summer internship program, EM's liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site has gained 42 interns eager to gain hands-on experience in fields ranging from engineering to law.
The Savannah River Remediation (SRR) interns represent schools from around the South East, including the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, the University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Southern, Florida State University, the University of Alabama, Tuskegee University, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Aiken Technical College, Augusta University, Mars Hill University, and Meredith College.
However, SRR internships are not exclusive to the South, employing students from as far away as Excelsior College in New York, the University of Illinois, the University of Akron in Ohio, and the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Taylor Schneider, a mechanical engineering major from Clemson University, said that she hopes to gain real-world experience while working with the Salt Waste Processing Facility Integration Team this summer.
“The reason I accepted an internship at SRR was because I no longer wanted to only see a pump as something drawn on a piece of paper, but actually as a tangible machine that I could interact with,” she said.
In addition to students from the full spectrum of engineering disciplines, this year’s interns are working toward degrees in programs such as business, information technology, emergency management, statistics, and communications.
SRR summer interns will also have the opportunity to give back to the local community and support organizations such as the United Way.
Allison Brown, summer intern program coordinator, said SRR not only supports the nuclear industry, but also the local community.
“Our interns are encouraged to embrace and uphold SRR’s community values in order to gain the full experience of working with our company,” Brown said.
Of the 42 interns, six are involved in the school-to-work program, which promotes work-based learning in occupational areas that may be pursued as future careers. Three SRR interns are participating in DOE’s Mentorship for Environmental Scholars, a program that provides exposure to laboratory research in the computer and environmental sciences to college students.