During my externship at Micron, I had the opportunity to work on two projects. The first was designing a program to bring high school students on site to see semiconductor manufacturing up close. During the process I got to talk with people from all over the company, including engineers, technicians, HR, workforce development, public outreach, and more, and turn what I learned into a program that will help students explore future careers in the semiconductor industry.

The second was a tour guide system that I worked on with a group of fellow externs. The team wrote guides so that every tour covers the same information, and my job was to consolidate that work into a proposal for an automated tour system for Micron’s website, along with a mockup of what it might look like.

The most valuable part of the whole experience was just learning how much goes on at Micron and how many different kinds of jobs exist there. I had no idea just how many people other than engineers it takes to support computer memory manufacturing!

It was also great to see how people centered Micron is. In their official list of values, people are always number one, and it shows in how they treated us. I was blown away by how much they give back to the community, too. The amount of support they put into local schools, nonprofits, and STEM programs is staggering, and it was not something I knew much about before this summer.

I’m excited to bring all of this back to my classroom. My students live just a few miles from one of the largest employers in the state, and most of them have no idea what actually happens inside. It will be great to tell them about jobs they never knew existed, so they can find work that sets them up for success and that they will actually be happy doing.

Overall, this was another fantastic experience with some really great people. HUGE shoutout to the Micron Workforce Development team for being my hosts! I’m looking forward to continuing to partner with Micron, and to participating in the CTE externship program again!