The Tucson Chapter 2022 Leonard Halpenny Intern Scholar is Marleigh Nicholas. She is the 25th Halpenny intern Scholar since the program began in 1996! Marleigh is a sophomore at the U of A who is majoring in Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences. She is a student member of AHS and is OSHA certified.
The Halpenny Internship was an extremely rewarding opportunity. I am grateful for all of the organizations and companies that were involved in this program.
Before starting the internship, I expected to gain valuable hands-on experience and learn more about the career field that I had chosen as my major in college. I did achieve both of these things, however, there have been a multitude of other benefits that have come from that internship that I will profit from throughout my entire career, both academic and work related. The structure of the internship itself has given me the opportunity to increase my social and communication skills. I was starting a new job every week. Due to this, I learned to make connections with people at work and communicate with those around me in order to be successful in the task given to me. I was able to make connections with people at every level in the hydrology career field. Those connections have proven to be beneficial and I hope to maintain those work relationships throughout the rest of my education.
I was able to discover what areas of the career field that I most enjoy and interest me. This will allow me to have a starting place for what I would like my own future career to be and as such steer my college courses toward the subjects that will prepare me the most.
Lastly, the knowledge I gained at each of the companies involved in the internship will help me in future academics. Not only seeing the material and subjects that will be covered in my future classes, but working with professionals on projects will help me exponentially as I will be able to visualize and understand the concepts in a way I would not have been able to without the knowledge I have gained in the internship.