By Ryan Ulrich
Assistant Managing Editor
While many high school students are only able to see rockets in museums, two Costa students are learning how to build them. Mira Costa seniors Anna O’Connor and Lauren Koch are interning in the aerospace industry.
Koch and O’Connor are interns for Northrop Grumman however, they are interning for different branches of the company. Koch is helping out in the astrophysics department of Northrop, while O’Connor is a part of the database Engineering division which is currently working on a military communications satellites program.
“I enjoy working at Northrop because everyone is super friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and inclusive,” O’Connor said. “At work I have been assigned a wide variety of engineering tasks and projects that include programming and creating engineering documents.”
The internship was open to all seniors at Costa, however, only a few people applied for the program, O’Connor said. Because many students did not show interest it was not a challenging process and most of the applicants were given an internship position, O’Connor said.
“It was drawn to the internship because I thought it would be a logical step for me because I want to pursue a future in the aerospace industry.” O’Connor said.
To receive internship, the students had to fill out a formal application which involved them providing their academic performances with a specific focus on science and math performance. The internship had a minimum commitment time of eight weeks. O’Connor is currently in the middle of her internship while Koch will not officially start until the summer.
Link: Northrup holds a number of events relating to aerospace technology as well as engineering.
“Even though I haven’t officially started i’m extremely excited to see what I am able to learn from this experience,” Koch said.
O’connor decided to apply for the internship because she was an intern at Boeing, another aerospace company last summer and enjoyed the experience. Koch however, has always had a passion for science but her interest in astrophysics is relatively new, Koch said.
“I’ve always had a passion for physics and engineering,” O’Connor said. “ I gained my first real exposure to aerospace engineering when I participated in an aerospace engineering challenge my junior year, it’s an amazing field that many students would probably find interesting”
The internship will allow the students to learn about the aerospace world in a professional setting, koch said. In the future Koch hopes to pursue astrophysics in college and beyond and possibly seek a job in the same field.
“I’m hoping to continue working in and exploring that area of astrophysics in college and hopefully out of college as well because it is very interesting,” Koch said.
O’Connor plans on studying aerospace engineering in college and working in the field when she graduates. Both Koch and O’Connor will be attending the University of California Berkeley after their internships.
“I definitely plan on entering the aerospace engineering industry and hopefully I eventually work for a company like Northrop Grumman.” O’Connor said.
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