Working at World Wildlife Fund directly relates to my professional goals, as the internship uniquely combines engineering and conservation into one position as opposed to forcing me to choose between the two.  Moreover, I will be contributing to projects that require my mechanical engineering skills, enabling me to further develop them. For instance, I will be collaborating with the conservation engineer to disrupt the pipeline of trafficked wildlife goods, such as ivory, from national parks to markets by designing air compression canisters to collect air samples from shipping containers so that they can be given to police dogs trained to discern the smell of these products and find the illegal items at ports. Assisting with this project will facilitate my learning by expanding upon knowledge I have gained in my engineering classes, such as how materials respond to stress, computer aided design, and properties of materials. Further, this internship empowers me to advance my career and academic goals and be part of something greater than myself. 

 

For my personal growth, I aim to gain more real-world engineering experience. I have never worked in an office or had to deliver a fully functioning engineering product to a supervisor other than a professor. This entirely new situation will help me develop as a leader as I will have to learn how to budget and manage my time effectively and communicate with my co-workers.