Nineteen College of Engineering and Computer Science students recently had the opportunity to observe and interact with Syracuse University alumni at eight companies in Manhattan during the college’s Winter Break Immersion Trip.
Earlier this month, 19 College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) students traveled to New York City during the college’s Winter Break Immersion Trip. The students stayed in Manhattan and met with eight companies: Arcadis, Cisco Systems, EY, Google, Langan Engineering, McLaren Engineering Group, TRC and WSP. At each company, they met with Syracuse University alumni and discussed the types of projects they work on and got advice on internships and career paths.
“Everyone has been inviting. Syracuse alumni are not only proud to be Orange but look forward to helping us get our careers started,” says Salim Oloko ’21.
At Google, the students toured the company’s massive building and talked with current Google employees and ECS alumni Bill Halpin ’88, G’95, G’05, Kayla Powell ’17, Terrance Nip ’14, Zutao Zhu G’07, G’10, and Matthew Ostman ’16.
“Seeing the alums, even those who are recently graduated, it is motivation to network and connect,” says Oloko.
The students also got to work with engineers at Arcadis on a real-world problem facing New York City. For the past few years, New York City has been researching the best way to prepare for rising sea levels. While the students were at Arcadis’ building in Queens, they worked with company engineers and scientists, including civil and environmental engineering alumna Lucie Worthen G’19 to consider new ideas for protecting Manhattan.
“It was really interesting to see the people working on concepts and get feedback on a major project affecting New Yorkers,” says environmental engineering major Sophia Luna ’22.
Worthen was impressed by the way current students developed ideas and believes immersion trips are a great opportunity for students to make professional connections: “I think it is important for students to have the opportunity to get out into the real world, network and interact with companies where they can see themselves.”
The students also got to see the work environment and culture at many companies. For many of them, it was also an opportunity to see what appealed to them and how they would interact with future co-workers.
“Seeing how work in the classroom is being applied in real life,” says Luna. “It showed me the importance of everything I’m doing at Syracuse.”
