As summer winds down, I know that many students are heading to college for the first time and trying to determine what to spend the next four to five years studying. With any potential career path, my advice is to participate in internships, and if possible, various types. Here are a few reasons that I feel internships are important and ways to maximize your experience:

• Determine if it's the right path for you. Internships give you the opportunity to decide if you truly want to pursue a career in a given field. The earlier you can land an internship, the better. Luckily, my internship with Dewberry helped solidify the fact that I was choosing the right career path as an engineer. Plus, working for a large firm allows for the opportunity to see if there are other areas of the industry that interest me.
• Hands-on experience. Depending on who you're interning with, you may be given the opportunity to work with a project hands-on. During my first few weeks as an intern at Dewberry, I worked on a sprinkler assessment study and a cooling study. Although it was a lot of responsibility at first, that was one of the best things that could have happened. Expectations were set early on, and I learned so much about the mechanical engineering industry in such a short amount of time.
• Opportunity to ask questions. When you're an intern, it's expected that you'll have questions. Take advantage of this valuable opportunity and ask any question that you can think of. Even if it's not obviously related to a project you're working on, you may need the answer to that question down the road.
• Explore different fields within your area of study. Try to participate in more than one internship, in more than one discipline. If you're in school for civil engineering, see if you can work under a transportation planner and a water resources engineer. If you're in school for mechanical engineering, try working in mechanical design as well as thermal and fluid design. This will give you the chance to determine a more specific field to pursue.
• Try on different sizes. While you seek out various internship settings, look into companies of various sizes. Some people thrive in a larger setting, while others work better with smaller teams.
• Set goals. When starting an internship, set goals. What do you want to gain from this experience? What kind of skills do you hope to learn? This will help you maximize your time as an intern.

I was lucky enough to be offered a full-time position as a graduate engineer with the Raleigh, North Carolina, office's mechanical team at the conclusion of my internship, and I continue to foster the relationships I've built here and learn from a group of talented engineers and mentors. After graduating, I had the opportunity to travel to Sierra Leone prior to starting my position, where I worked with the North Carolina State University chapter of Engineers Without Borders to install water collection and treatment systems for vulnerable populations. It's this multi-faceted background that's helped me understand which areas of engineering I'm most passionate about.