Students Find Interning Makes For Valuable Classroom Connection

An internship is stressed as an important way for students to gain work experience, develop insight into a career path, cultivate colleagues, and possibly earn money, but there’s also another benefit that’s often overlooked. Interning can help connect what’s taught in the classroom with workplace applications and enhance understanding of concepts.

- Gale Horton Gay

 Several of the students US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine contacted agreed that interning helps to deepen an understanding of what’s read in textbooks and discussed in lecture halls.

Kiante Bush graduated in December 2016 from Morgan State University with a degree in transportation systems engineering and a focus in supply chain and logistics. Currently he’s an Accenture Federal Services technology analyst, which involves utilization of technical architecture, IT, strategy, and program management to deliver solutions for U.S. federal agencies.

While in college, Bush interned for Northrop Grumman as a supply chain analyst as well as for JPMorgan Chase as an operations analyst.

Asked about the internship/classroom connection, Bush said it is significant.

“In many cases, internships helped me to better understand the real-world application within much of the material absorbed in the classroom,” said Bush. “Often certain terms and concepts may not resonate most effectively until they can actually be put to use. For example, aside from simply studying product lifecycle, while at Northrop Grumman, I was able to gain a different perspective by actually viewing this process and becoming an essential component of it.”

North Carolina A&T State University junior Justin Neal worked as a liaison engineering intern at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in St. Augustine, Florida, this summer.