r ftOrELL\NG \NTEftNSH\r \ nternships were often th e crown jewel of a college stu– dents' career. It provided studen ts the much- needed experience in th eir field and it gave them a leg up on the competition once they left college. It was also required by most majors to graduate. Senior Kevin Jen– sen, an engineering major, had an internship at Dassalt Falcon] e t at Little Rock International Airport during the summer o f 2009. J ensen found out about the program from an engi– neer who worked at Dassalt Fal conJ et through a connec– tion in his h ometown and after calling a few con tac ts, he landed the internship. The company took small commercial planes that were built in France and added the interiors, painted the planes and test fl ew them.Jensen worked with engin eers on deSign– ing the interiors of the planes. While Jensen worked there last summer he did multiple tasks. but his main task was to check deSigns for errors using a computer. "There are t housa nds of parts in one design," Jen– sen said. " It is easy to aCCidentally put a square peg where a round o n e should go. " J en sen also wrote a program th at would look up standards for d esigners . Whenever a d esign needed to be checked, it had to meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stan – dards. What a deSigner used to have to do was go through document after document to find the standard they were looking for. Jensen created a more e fficient program that worked like a key word sea rch, and made looking for stan – dards a lot Simpler. ''"When you get an internship you are never just doing what you thought you were going to be doing," Jensen said. With plans to graduate in May 2010, J ensen hoped to return to Dassalt Falcon J et for employment. H e said that in engineering, a per son's internship can lead to their first job right out of college. H e was going to reconnect with the people h e wOI·ked with last summer and talk to them about the p ossibility of a full time job. He said that they were in– terested in hiring him, and in this eco n omy, job security was someth ing one did not take lightly . NickSmelser Senior Kevin Jensen poses in front of a plane on Sept. 23, similar to the ones he worked on at Fa lcon Jet. Jensen completed his internship in mechanical engineering during the summer of 2009. Noah Darnell Jensen explains how the interior of a plane is constructed on Sept 23. His job required him to look at computer generated blueprints of planes, which demanded a good eye for detail. Noah Darnell science 233
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