College Students Experience A Job Shadowing to Remember at the FAA Tech Center
The Aviation STEM program at the William J. Hughes Technical Center’s has hosted three engineering students in recent months, and plans to invite more.
By Jim Tise, FAA Office of Communications
Whether in person or via the virtual world, the FAA seems to be giving college students working toward their engineering degrees a lot to think about.
That was the consensus among three University of Delaware students who recently visited the William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J.
The Center’s Aviation STEM (AvSTEM) program has been active for years with elementary, middle, and high schoolers, but 2020 revealed a new emphasis on college-age students.
Pete Sparacino, a former FAAer now working as a Tech Center contractor, received an email from the University of Delaware inquiring about shadow and intern opportunities for its students. “We’d never done it before, but we liked the idea,” recalled Lyndsay Digneo, the center’s AvSTEM program manager.
In January, Brennan Scheffler became the first college student to attend a shadow session. Scheffler recently graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in mechanical engineering and a concentration in aerospace engineering. He heard about the shadow opportunity from the university’s career center’s email blasts.
Digneo gave him an overview of the Tech Center, followed by briefings from Cliff Johnson and Somil Shah, who discussed some of the work they did for the agency. For an entire day, Scheffler went on a tour that took him around many different departments and labs. He recalled visiting the National Airport Pavement Test Facility, and piloting the Boeing 737 and helicopter simulators.
But what really sticks out in Scheffler’s memory was the 360-degree air traffic control tower simulator. “That was something that was very interesting to me,” he said, “to have pilots in the simulation and be represented on the 360-degree screen.”
Scheffler appreciated the one-on-one nature of the tour. “I thought that was the best part of it; I could ask questions from my own personal interest and it was geared toward what I wanted. They let me do things that probably weren’t possible in a group setting,” he said. “I’m very appreciative of that.”
“It was the first time we hosted a college student for job shadow day,” said Digneo. “It went so well we decided to do it again.”
Unfortunately, the follow-up sessions with two more students had to be done virtually because of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Jarred McIntire, a rising sophomore at Delaware, had heard of the FAA but did not know too much about its research efforts. Because of COVID-19, his tour was limited to an hour-long Zoom session with Digneo and Johnson, a research and flight test engineer. Still, the experience left him with a lot to think about. He is contemplating picking aerospace as a concentration as he pursues his mechanical engineering degree.
“For me, it did kind of open my eyes a little bit,” said McIntire, referring to the virtual shadow session. “I personally don’t like heights. I do enjoy the mechanics behind airplanes. I want to be able to make them safe so I can make myself and kids feel safe.”
McIntire was especially impressed with Johnson’s zeal for his job. “He’s where I would like to end up experience-wise,” he said. “I enjoyed the enthusiasm Cliff had toward his work. That’s the main thing I want in my future. I just want to be able to like what I do. He showed me there are people out there who like what they do.”
Frank Doyle is a rising junior at Delaware. He, too, is considering aerospace as a concentration, but his interest is more on the private sector/commercial side. He applied for about 20 shadow sessions, but thought the Tech Center opportunity “was one of the more interesting ones.” Shah and Digneo briefed him during the virtual session.
“I thought the research options were interesting,” said Doyle “It was kind of cool to see what you guys do in the research.” He also was impressed by the FAA’s approach to work/life balance.
Although Doyle remains committed to working for a big aerospace manufacturer, he found the session “pretty useful” in that it gave him a better understanding of the federal government’s regulatory and research role in aviation. He added that a federal job might be an option later in his career.
“I generally know where I want to go,” he said. Still, “you get to see what life is like out there. It’s a very good way to get some insight into what [field] you want to go into.”
Johnson was anxious to participate in the shadow session, remembering there were no similar opportunities when he was pursuing his engineering degree at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. He spoke to the students about his work as a research and flight test engineer, as well as being a program lead for rotorcraft, unmanned aircraft, and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL).
“He was so excited, he said he would apply for a job at the FAA if one is available,” said Johnson about Scheffler’s experience.
Johnson thought McIntire showed interest in some of the cyber and software work, as well as “a keen interest in some of the work we were doing with materials and pavement. He gravitated a little more toward those.”
Shah, an aerospace engineer in the Aviation Research Division — in the same branch as Johnson — has worked for the FAA three years after graduating from Georgia Tech with a degree in aerospace engineering. “I spoke about one of our research projects and talked through why we were doing it, how we set up the experiment, and a little bit about the data analysis,” he explained.
He said Doyle’s questions were general. “He wanted to know what it’s like to work here, tips on getting a job, things a manager looks for when hiring, what our daily work is like, what a typical day looks like.”
Shah said the session gave him time to reflect a little about what types of people and skills the Tech Center is looking for. Innovation came to mind. “It’s one kind of skill set to solve a problem, but I think it’s another skill set to think outside the box and think innovatively. The problems that we solve have no straightforward solution. To be able to think at that level, where there’s no right answer, and there might be multiple right answers, it’s a different way of thinking,” he added.
Digneo said her colleagues “find giving back to younger generation very rewarding.” In return, she said, “I was really impressed by how much the students wanted to learn. I was so encouraged by the younger generation that they wanted to do this, to educate themselves.”
“I think just their desire to be part of this job shadow already shows they’re interested in working for the FAA and the type of work that we do,” said Shah.
“Some of the satisfaction I get is reaching out to those students who haven’t been as exposed to aviation,” he added. “That’s why I decided to join the AvSTEM program — to give back to the community a little bit.” He especially would like to address minority and low-income groups “who don’t have that kind of exposure.”
“With Brennan and Jarred, talking to them from the beginning when I first met them, you could kind of sense their enthusiasm and the change in their demeanor,” said Johnson.
As for himself, Johnson said his participation in the shadow sessions and AvSTEM “keeps me young, engaged, and fresh, as I am better able to understand what motivates the next generation of engineers and scientists, and what we need to do to attract them to these types of STEM careers. It shows us what types of candidates are out there and how can we modernize our agency and learn about what things are working or not working in terms of our recruitment.”
Are you interested in an internship with the FAA? Find out about the many job training opportunities throughout the US. If you are interested about what the engineers at the William J. Hughes Technical Center are working on, check out our Faces in Aviation Research video playlist on YouTube.
