"If it seems like a long shot, shoot long." As a rising
fifth year senior at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, shooting
long is what makes me the person I am today. Double majoring in Marketing
(College of Business) and Digital Video – Post Production (School of
Media Arts and Design) was my first long — but successful — shot.
Because I am passionate about what I’m studying
and know that this is what will make my future a success, I love every minute
of class. After college, I hope to have a career that will incorporate both
of my majors in a high-energy and self-motivating job.
Shooting long
also landed me my very dynamic internship with Dominion. I work on the
Internet and Corporate Communications Technology Team and have some fantastic
co-workers.
This summer, my big projects include shooting and editing
footage from the James River Adventure Games and an intern recruitment
video, working on obtaining my Blue Belt certification, creating and
maintaining a blog, and other large projects, some of which are confidential.
As much as I’d like to say that I have a ‘typical’ day,
I really never do and I love it. My ‘routine’ normally includes
getting to the office around 7a.m., grabbing a cup of the delicious Starbucks
coffee and some breakfast, then checking good ol’ Lotus Notes,
responding to as many emails as I can.
I then jump to my calendar to see what meetings I might
have that day, typically on consulting or team planning.
Stephen Lackey
Checking my
"Things to Do" list on my whiteboard and budgeting time for
these projects comes next. With all these things going on, I still manage
to grab lunch with the other interns at noon, which is a key point to
every one of my days.
This Dominion experience, especially because of who I work
with and what I work on, is something a textbook could never encapsulate. The
hands-on work, importance and confidentiality of my projects, and learning
while working is something only Dominion could offer. This is panning out to
be an incredible summer internship.
TJ Dyer - Millstone, CT - Summer 2007
I am a rising senior at Providence College, majoring in Biology. I
am an environmental intern at Millstone Power Station, located in Connecticut. This
is my third summer working for Dominion as an intern. Despite this, the
breadth of the work I do here at the environmental lab keeps me quite busy,
and I am constantly being challenged to learn and do new things.
TJ Dyer
Friday is the
busiest day here at the lab and I began the day working in support of
our lobster studies program. This entailed going out on one of
our research vessels and hauling lobster traps strategically set around
Millstone.
The lobsters captured from these traps are kept separate
by location and will later be returned to their respective places of
capture. Once they have been stowed onboard and the traps have
all been reset, the lobsters are brought back to the lab.
There, the gender, size, molt stage, and shell disease status of each
lobster is recorded. In addition, each lobster receives an identification
tag with a unique number on it.
In the event that we capture the
same lobster again, we can track its movement, growth rate and shell
disease onset or recovery. Once all of the lobsters have been tagged,
they are brought back aboard a research vessel and returned to their respective
places of capture.
Next,
I have to process a lobster larvae entrainment sample. This sample
was collected from the Unit 2 discharge earlier in the day, with the aid of
a special plankton net. Entrainment samples filter small marine organisms
and detritus found in the secondary cooling water of Millstone Unit 2, an 870-MWe
pressurized water reactor, and Millstone Unit 3, an 1150-Mwe pressurized water
reactor.
Processing this sample can be done with the naked eye, with
the aid of forceps and sorting trays, due to the larger size of lobster larvae. Lobster
larvae are found in four stages of development. Today, we found
a Stage IV larva, distinguishable by the development of all structures and
its unique size and coloration.
To end the day, I spent two or three hours processing
a benthic sand sample. This
involves manually picking out various species of annelids, arthropods, and
mollusks from benthic detritus with the aid of a dissecting scope and forceps. While
I only spent a few hours doing this today, the bulk of my time is in fact spent
processing these benthic sand samples and ichthyoplankton samples.
Ichthyoplankton
samples are entrainment samples collected at the Unit 2 and Unit 3 discharges
that are processed for entrained fish larvae and fish eggs.
Joan Ngamo - Canton, OH
- Summer 2007
I am a rising senior at Louisiana State University (LSU) Baton Rouge, La.,
majoring in Petroleum Engineering with a minor in Geology. I am originally
from Cameroon in East Africa. My future plan is to work for about a year or
two then get my masters in Engineering while working.
Most Petroleum Engineering students do not come to
Ohio to work. When I told my friends I was going to be in North Canton, Ohio
for the summer, they were surprised. I knew I was going to have a good time
because after I received the offer, my manager, Greg Theirl always sent me
emails to see if I needed anything else.
A typical day
at North Canton starts with Greg picking me up at my house at 7 a.m.
We get to the office at 7:10 a.m. and say “good
morning” to everyone (a practice I love doing).
I get to my desk
and check my email for any updates on my project from Co-worker Ron
M. We go over the progress of the project and add any necessary information.
I attend a conference call at 8:35 a.m. with other
Dominion departments involved in Gas Supply to know what our target for
storage will be for the next four days and also to discuss any problems
we have.
At 11 a.m., Ron and I head out to the field to watch
a well being "killed" for master gate replacement. We check
that the contractor follows the spreadsheet calculation that I sent out
to them earlier that week.
Joan Ngamo
After making sure everything
is going well, we go to another well to determine if
the casing has problems. We talk to the contractor to see if all is good, check
the current data and return to the office. I go over some spread sheet calculations
from collected data and present it to Ron for comments and adjustments. If
the calculations are correct, I e-mail the finished sheet to the appropriate
department. At
4:30 p.m., Greg takes me home and I can’t wait for the next day to come
with some new exciting projects.
I have always been worried about the corporate
world. I have heard stories of how boring it is. After less than two weeks
of working with Dominion, I felt very comfortable. The people are so friendly,
ready to help me in all I need to know. I came here knowing nothing about storage
engineering — never heard about it in school — but now, I am proud
to say I know a lot about storage and I am gathering data to use for my senior
project.
Lana Rabas - Kewaunee,
WI - Summer 2007
I am a Dominion Intern at Kewaunee Power Station this
summer. Next year
I will be a senior at Marquette University, majoring in mechanical engineering. After
I graduate, I plan to head to the workforce, but I am still unsure where I
want to work and what branch of mechanical engineering I want to get into.
At
Kewaunee Power Station this summer, I have been working on various projects
including steel quantification in the diesel generator rooms and helping to
close out the make-up water system modification.
Lana Rabas
A typical day working as a Dominion Intern for me includes arriving
at work and checking my e-mail to see if I have any new assignments to
work on. Then I continue to fill out load sheets for make-up water
equipment using plant drawings and vendor information.
After I have
about a stack for 50 pieces of equipment filled out and printed I must
go out into the field to obtain all the missing information need for
the load sheets. Once the sheets have all the required information I
must submit them for review and make any changes requested by the review.
After that, the equipment is finally
ready to be submitted into the database. Then I start over and continue
with more sheets until my work day is done.
I have been given a very rewarding
experience as a Dominion Intern. I
have learned alot over my two summers here. I'm sure this experience
will help me in my future endeavors, no matter what I end up doing.
