As the summer comes to a close,  Trinity students’ internships and summer research positions are wrapping up as well. Each summer, several students are hired for internships or are chosen to do research in various departments. Students from several grade levels stayed on campus to do research with professors or were able to do internships in different places around the world.

Junior Zeina Zayat did summer research on campus for the second time this past break, and continued her studies with Steven Bachrach in the chemistry department. Zayat did her research on computational chemistry, and was even published as a co-author with Bachrach for an article in the Journal of Organic Chemistry titled “”˜Planetary Orbit’ Systems Composed of Cycloparaphenylenes.”

At Trinity, students are given a lot of freedom when deciding what to research and how to do it.

“With my research, you were able to go at your own pace”¦ I can also keep on doing my research during the school year, which I’ve decided to do,” Zayat said.

Lavanya Hospeti, a junior at Trinity, also chose to do summer research on campus. Hospeti investigated milkweed germination and growing techniques, focusing on rehabilitating milkweed populations to help monarch populations breed during the spring, she worked with Dr. Kelly Lyons from the biology department.

“I found Dr. Lyons’ research to be interesting while I was reading up about Trinity research opportunities,” Hospeti said.

She was also able to work with other students during the summer, giving her a variety of different perspectives on how to go about conducting her research.

As for off-campus internships, Trinity student Marcus Whitten interned for Banno, a company that builds financial platforms for banks. The internship took place in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and he was able to build and maintain databases for Banno.

“The actual work was really fun, and the work environment was way different than I would have expected from a typical company,” Whitten said. “It  gave me a lot of practical work experience.”

Whitten is currently still employed with Banno, and plans to continue working with them during the school year.

Several Trinity students recommend applying to every possible internship or summer research position. Senior Kylie Moden worked for Google in London this summer, and suggests that students interested in internships should apply wherever they can.

“Living in London was the best,” Moden said, “however, the great culture at Google that encourages you to innovate and think big as well as promoting a work-life balance is truly why I keep coming back to work for them every summer.”

Junior Craig Burton also encourages students to try for any opportunity possible. “Reach out to every contact you can,” said Burton, who worked at Siemens, a company that works to improve technologies for mail services. “I got really good experience for software engineering.” He was able to help work on a new algorithm for software for the company that will be available in San Antonio.

“I felt like less of an intern and more of a contractor that was actually working on something that we’ll be able to see in the future,” Burton said.

Talk with professors for advice on the best plan for summer work.