The SciTech Internship Program helped 60 students find paid internships during its first year. That was back in 2012 when our program was still called SciTechsperience. One student from that early group was Wes Baish, who at the time was a college junior and a chemistry major at Gustavus Adolphus College. Through SciTech, he secured an incredible internship with the Hunt Utilities Group where he got the opportunity to work up north in Pine River, Minnesota, helping their team with a very unique cold fusion project.
An Incredible Opportunity
Today, Wes is a Test Lab Engineer at Sciencix, and he graciously agreed to meet with us and share his SciTech story as part of our program’s 10th anniversary celebration. The projects he worked on during that initial internship experience, he said, set the standard for the type of work and the level of impact that he would pursue in his career going forward.
Developing Skill and Confidence
Wes took the autonomy that he found while interning at Hunt and applied it to the next job he would secure. He wanted to try conducting research with a startup company and was now confident enough with this skillset to do just that, landing his next internship with Nanomotif.
The State of Innovation
From his start with Hunt Utilities, Wes was drawn to renewable energy and how chemistry and engineering could be applied within that industry. Now, having lived and worked in Minnesota for ten years, he’s seen first-hand how many opportunities our state has within this innovative field, and how that general innovation shines throughout our tech ecosystem as a whole.
A Bridge to Industry
Looking back on his professional growth and development, Wes said, one the of key, starting factors to his success was simply the opportunity to connect with a small company like Hunt that gave him that level of responsibility and exposure right off the bat. And when you come down to it, helping students easily and confidently cross-over into industry, is what SciTech’s all about.
Join in the Celebration!
In the 10 years since SciTech began, our program helped over 2,250 interns connect with 555 companies in 142 cities state wide. We hope you’ll join us this month as we celebrate the incredible impact SciTech has had by following our daily posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Help us spread the word by leaving likes comments and sharing the videos with your contacts.
Because you never know, your share could be the catalyst to the next life-changing internship.