Richter Bogust and Jack Mulhare, both seniors, recently completed a fall internship at RPA Engineering's headquarters in Wyomissing. While there, Richter and Jack worked on various tasks to assist and help organize projects for RPA's engineers and staff. Season Evans, RPA's Director of Marketing and Communications, said that both Richter and Jack's contributions to the team were valuable throughout their fall internship. "As engineering is a licensed profession, interns are not permitted to work on actual client drawings or projects," she explained. "However, there are critical aspects of project preparation where Jack and Richter made significant contributions," specifically mentioning their assistance to help their engineers efficiently create electrical drawings by compiling information for their AutoCAD database. Even though high school interns are limited with the work they can complete as unlicensed employees, Ms. Evans said RPA's experience with them has been worthwhile and positive for their company--as well as their staff. "Richter and Jack's enthusiasm is contagious and fosters a positive, dynamic work environment that benefits from multigenerational learning and diverse perspectives," she said. But more importantly, she emphasized that the community benefits when businesses offer local employment opportunities and insight to the upcoming generation of Berks County workers. "As a company that serves national and international clients, it’s essential for high school students to realize the diverse, challenging and rewarding career opportunities that are available right here in Berks County."

Q: Can you tell us a bit about what your plans are for after graduation? Have you selected a college and a major?

Richter: After graduation, I plan to attend a 4 year college or university to major in Mechanical Engineering. At this point, I'm still undecided on where I will go.

Jack: My plan for after college is to go to a four year college (that I have not chosen yet) in business. I’m going for a degree in actuarial science.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your internship? What does a typical day look like for you?

Richter: Typically, we will get to RPA and get logged into our computers, we then check what tasks we may have been assigned, or are already working on. Throughout our time at RPA, we work to complete these various tasks, which may range from organization of documents or files, entering items into a catalog in AutoCAD (one of the engineering softwares we use) or a spreadsheet, restocking snacks available to the RPA employees, working on projects, advancing our knowledge and capabilities in Engineering softwares such as AutoCAD, Inventor, or Revit, meeting with Engineers and Project Managers, or anything else RPA Engineers and employees need completed.

Jack: On a normal day me and my other interns sit in the back of the office and we work on typing into spreadsheets that were given to us by another engineer. We work together and we work here for 2.5 hours a day.

Q: How did you select your internship? Did someone help you select it? Did you seek out the opportunity on your own? Were you asked to do the internship?

Richter: From when I first learned about Exeter's internship program, I knew that I would love to participate in an Engineering internship. During my junior year, I began working with Mr. Ricketts and a few other people from Exeter who were able to help get me possible connections. The first place that I was working with ended up falling through and I kept looking for another option. At the end of the school year, Mr. Ricketts was able to connect me with RPA.

Jack: I wanted an internship because it is something that every high school student should do. At the time I wanted to go into Engineering so I asked Mr. Rickett for help to find me an internship.

Q: Do you think your internship is helping you feel more confident about your decision to go to college and pursue your major?

Richter: This internship is showing me what engineering work is like in the real world and confirming my decision to go into the field.

Jack: This internship has been helpful because it helped in my decision to lean the other way to business.

Q: What do you like most about your internship? Is there anything you don't like?

Richter: I like most that we are able to have the opportunity to be in the environment with the engineers to see what it is like on a daily basis in an engineering company. I also like being able to speak with all the different engineers and be able to hear about what they do.

Jack: What I like most about this internship is working with my friends the whole time. I was never alone or working by myself, which is what made this time so much better.

Q: And finally, what would be your advice to a high school student who's thinking about Exeter's internship program?

Richter: I would highly recommend Exeter's internship program to any high school student that is considering an internship. An internship would give you an opportunity to "try out" a career and see what it is really like in the real world, while also earning class credit. An internship may confirm that this is what you want to do in your future, or change your mind about what exactly you want to do, even if it is only slightly.

Jack: I think everyone should do an internship in an actual outside workplace because it not only informs you about your field, but it gives you so much knowledge on basic things, such as how it feels to be in an office or inside a cubicle.