Summer intern program offers opportunity, challenges

Lonny Gransbury spent his past four summers working as an Alyeska summer-hire intern, working all the way from Pump Station 1 on the North Slope to Pump Station 12, the last stop before oil reaches its destination at the Valdez Marine Terminal. Gransbury, pictured right, has been part of an Alyeska program that allows engineering students to combine theory with practical experience in a field-based environment.

Every year Alyeska selects engineering students to work for 10 weeks at sites along the 800-mile-long trans-Alaska pipeline. The students are matched with a pump station maintenance coordinator who provides guidance and makes sure the intern's time is focused on substantive work and activities.

Intern Megayla Franks helped design a septic system at Pump Station 6 this summer.

"We surveyed area soils and generated several possible design solutions," said Franks, a junior at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "This project demonstrated the steps involved in project development such as gathering preliminary information, establishing contacts with subject-matter specialists and preparing conceptual reports."

Depending upon the assignment, interns are challenged with diverse, multi-disciplinary Trans Alaska pipeline System related projects including construction management, preventive maintenance and environmental
assessments.

"Each year students are able to complete increasingly challenging assignments, develop confidence and perform more work independently," said Sara Pate, lead maintenance coordinator for Alyeska and Franks' program supervisor.

Students get to use their own creative thinking, talents and energies to complete assignments under the supervision of qualified professionals.

"It was rewarding to know that I could share my ideas and freely ask questions," said Franks, pictured on the right with her supervisor Larry Ladd, PS06 Maintenance Coordinator.

"The program not only benefits students, it's also beneficial to us as a prospective employer," said Lisa Weise, Alyeska's summer-hire program coordinator. "We're able to see firsthand how students fit into Alyeska's work environment, and they get to evaluate us as a possible employer."

Gransbury said the program is a great supplement to classroom experience.

"I learned more during my four years in the summer internship than I learned in school," said Gransbury, who will be a junior at the University of Alaska Anchorage this academic year. "I've seen every mile of the pipeline during the four summers I've worked in the summer hire program. And I've been getting paid to learn."