Working on University Public Works projects is always a unique experience because the work is multi-faceted and diverse. Along with pooling our resources, we have a tool that gives us an edge and an insider perspective: our college interns.

Including our interns gives us insight because of their familiarity with the campus and in turn, our interns are getting on-the-job experience.

A standout university project we have completed is the Campus Edge Enhancement project at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla. It’s not every day that we are given the task of designing a specialized border to encompass an area. The 4-miles of steel and decorative masonry includes USF’s mascot “Bull U.” This is now a unique feature that defines the campus and increases safety measures on campus, which was an important factor in completing the project. Two of our interns were able to work on designing this project and they were able to tell their classmates, “I helped design that!” The Campus Edge project won the APWA Florida West Coast Branch’s Project of the Year award. This was a valuable, award-winning design experience that those interns now have under their belt.

In addition to the Campus Edge project, we have utilized interns for many other university projects including parking lot design, transportation studies, golf course practice area improvements, and even a biodiesel fueling station on campus. Our interns get a wide variety of project experience when they work on university projects. My advice to our interns who want more involvement in university work is to just ask your supervisor. We have plenty of university work options in survey, design, and geographic information systems (GIS) and we will gladly provide that experience.

The benefits of hiring an intern for university work are mutual. Interns bring specialized knowledge and we get to play a role in their professional experience to help further their future careers. We often see our interns stay to work full-time with us after graduation. As a matter of fact, we have college interns that we hired over 10 years ago that are still with DRMP today. Some of these individuals have moved up to leadership positions in our company.

We are happy to offer this valuable experience and mentorship for our interns, and in return, we are eager to learn from them.