Thirteen internships at two Sandia sites resulted in transformative experiences for Prairie View A&M University students in 2023. The opportunities delivered firsthand experience on how the research and development and business students could directly benefit the nation through their chosen career fields.
Prairie View A&M interns worked at one of the Sandia locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, or Livermore, California, in jobs aligning with their degrees, backgrounds and interest areas. While the students were embedded in diverse areas such as supply chain, electrical design, generation systems, cybersecurity, nuclear deterrence project management and systems surety engineering, they each gained an appreciation for how effective communications, teamwork and problem-solving skills impact success.
Seven of the 13 Prairie View interns are now year-round interns, and one of the summer interns serves as a student ambassador for Sandia.
ACCELERATED LEARNING — Space Jam, the winning team composed of mechanical, chemical and civil engineering students, focused on the tracking of acceleration and elevation of a switch, which is important in detecting malfunctions during flight missions. Space Jam team members, from left, included Kaleb Crawford, Kendall Seveor, Donald Okonkwo, Trinity Wiley and Chelsea Guidry.
STRATEGIC CONTRIBUTIONS — Year-round graduate intern Toya Acharya from Prairie View A&M working in Sandia’s Strategic Cyber Initiatives department uses his technical skills to detect host attacks earlier in the cybersecurity “kill chain.”
PANTHERS INVENT — Prairie View A&M student Josiah Moore prevents defects and reduces risks in high-consequence systems in Sandia Subsystems/Components Surety Engineering department. Moore participated on the team that took second place in Panthers Invent.