About the company:
NCXT provides management consulting and design services for companies and organizations that want to better align themselves with their customer’s needs. Currently, NCXT is working with several restaurants and libraries. They’re also developing some pretty smart technology.
To ensure they can stay as productive as possible, all while strengthening their talent pipeline, the team at NCXT often hires interns over the summer to help them develop their tech.
“We love to work with interns,” said NCXT’s President Jonathan Banks, “because they definitely bring great ideas and fresh thinking. I think the way Mars does that is absolutely awesome, because his specialization and knowledge is very deep.”
Meet the intern:
The “Mars” he’s referring to is Mourya “Mars” Kunuku, a master’s degree student from St. Cloud State University. Mars’ specialization comes from having worked in the data industry before deciding to go back to school for his second degree. With covid restrictions and Mars’ location in St. Cloud, it was an easy decision to make his internship remote. It went so well, in fact, that Banks and his team decided to continue providing remote internships going forward.
With frequent and open communication, working from home was easy. Mars especially enjoyed the weekly production meetings where Banks and the team were constantly realigning themselves with their core values.
Inspired by the company’s dedication to their mission, Mars said, “It’s really incredible what they do here.”
Mars’ internship was well-structured, designed to combine training with project work. His time was divided between a seven-day project, a 30-day project and a 60-day project.
“Not only are [interns] getting acclimated to the way our business works, but they’re picking up new skills and developing the skills that they have,” Banks explained.
As a data-visualization analyst intern, Mars’ seven-day project involved developing a module capable of processing a vast number of documents and pulling out significant paragraphs that relate to a specific topic or keyword. His 30-day project takes that technology a step further and can sort through the important topics and create a comprehensive and concise summary of the documents.
“I like challenging projects,” Mars said. “Something I can learn more about. I like when it’s difficult and I have to figure out, ‘How can I solve this?’ And every project that I’m doing is something I have not done before, so it really encourages me to complete the whole thing.”
What might seem a daunting task to some, Mars has approached with confidence and determination, much to NCXT’s delight.
“Mars is able to fill a position on our team where he’s really an expert,” Banks said. “And over the course of the last two months, he’s been able to communicate his expertise more effectively for the benefit of the entire organization.”
When his internship concludes, Mars plans to finish his degree in computer science but, he said, he’d be happy to return and work with NCXT fulltime after graduation.
“From every perspective, I’m having a great time,” Mars concluded. “I’ve learned a lot from NCXT. I get the freedom to express myself and show my abilities and produce products that can be helpful.” And, he added, “I wouldn’t have met NCXT if it wasn’t for SciTech. [SciTech] is the tree that’s connecting us. I think it’s an incredible opportunity for students.”
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