LSC-O Student from Lake Charles Goes the Extra Mile(s) for TCEQ Internship
Summer internships are more than just a regular job...they provide students with an opportunity to get a glimpse of their potential career path before they join the workforce. Internships are becoming increasingly popular in the present economy, from both the employer and student prospective, as the terms resemble temporary hire situations and are mutually beneficial. An intelligent Lamar State College-Orange student, Jamika Moore, took advantage of an opportunity to gain some exposure to a career field she plans to enter.
Moore, from Lake Charles, Louisiana, participated in a summer internship at the Beaumont office of Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). With plans to graduate in December 2009, she is an industrial technology major. Moore also applied to two other schools in Louisiana, where she received a grant and a stipend for gas, but she still chose to enroll at LSC-O. She chose LSC-O because of flexibility with course scheduling, caring teachers, and the “one-on-one personal connections” that faculty members encourage. From LSC-O, she received the ComSTEM (Community-Based Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and Womack scholarships.
Although industrial technology is not traditionally a field known for having (African-American) female, employees, Moore chose this concentration because this region has a strong demand for employees in refineries and chemical plants, and after doing some research, she found that this area was one of the higher paying fields for two-year degrees. (Did we mention that she was intelligent?)
Moore heard about internship opportunities from a former student intern during a TCEQ presentation during one of her classes under the instruction of Cheryl Pollard, who also serves as a student advisor. She was informed that the program included a paid internship and academic credit. Through one of her courses with Eddie Burns, process technology instructor, part of the course requirements is an internship. Moore worked hard and met all the necessary requirements to get offered the position. There were only two other students accepted for the internship, one from Texas A&M and two from Lamar University.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” added Moore. Every day, from May 20 – August 14, she drove from Lake Charles to Beaumont. However, the experience was worth the commute. The students were treated as though they were full-time TCEQ employees - they received paid holidays, accrued sick time, attended staff meetings, and even received company shirts.
On the practical side, they worked out in the field, attended investigations, kept records of site visits and results, and logged complaints and hazardous wastes and compliance. Moore added that she went on about three site visits per week to various locations including Nacogdoches, Winnie, Deweyville, and Grapeland. She also had the opportunity to look at a Superfund site. (According to the TCEQ, a Superfund site is a facility—often abandoned—where hazardous substances have been released into the environment either through misuse, or improper disposal, or both. At these sites, the threat is sufficient to warrant a cleanup to levels that will protect the public and the environment. The primary goal of the Superfund program is to protect human health and the environment.)
During the internship, Moore was able to utilize what she learned during her process technology and safety, health, and environmental courses at LSC-O, including skills relating to air inspection, releases, the MiniRAE 2000 air quality monitoring device, and examining solid waste disposal. She also received a certificate for attending an eight-hour OSHA course. She credits Cheryl Pollard and Eddie Burns for being very helpful and giving her advice during the summer.
Eddie Burns, process technology instructor, spoke very highly of Moore. He said:
Jamika was going to drop some of my classes last spring...and I encouraged her to stick with it and her grades continued to improve during the semester. She learned on her own to improve her study habits; with a little encouragement from me and being persistent she improved. Jamika will be a very productive and loyal employee for someone in the future, hopefully TCEQ. I wish I could take some credit for the internship, but Jamika did it all on her own.
Moore enjoyed her experience so much that she is interested in pursuing a career opportunity with the company once she completes her associate degree at LSC-O. She also hopes to continue her education and get a bachelor’s degree in environmental science. She mentioned that the TCEQ employees displayed a great work ethic and fostered a team environment. Moore added that working at TCEQ was very “interesting and exciting...and an experience I will never forget. It was a pleasure to be accepted into the program and I’m looking forward to reapplying.”
