Legacy High School senior, Christopher Whitmore, spent three weeks this summer gaining valuable hands-on experience through a student internship at Hood Packaging in Tyler. During that time, he worked with a team of engineers on a $69,000 capital project to help prevent plastic resin pellets from entering the facility’s stormwater drainage system. The company recently completed the project and invited Christopher back to see the it in action.
“It feels good to see the finished project,” Christopher said. “I am blessed to be in Tyler ISD and to have this opportunity to connect with internships and companies here locally.”
During the internship, Christopher collaborated daily with Engineering Manager Joe Williams and Controls Engineer Hayden McMullen to design a filter for the storm drains that catches any resin pellets that fall to the ground during the production process. This prevents the pellets from going into the drain when it rains. Christopher created a 3D model to illustrate the basic concept of the filter before the internship concluded. The project also includes a new retaining wall to better direct the flow of water to the drains, as well as reduce leaves and debris from entering the water flow.
With plans to attend Texas A&M University in the fall to pursue an engineering degree, the internship gave Christopher an opportunity to experience the field of industrial engineering while also getting a taste of environmental engineering through this specific project.
“Of course, in college when I get to engineering, I’m going to get to do several internship co-ops, but it’s good to start early when I’m in high school to see if I really want to go into engineering and what type of engineering,” Christopher said.
Wesley Hamm, general manager at Hood Packaging, feels it is important for companies to provide experiences for students in order to make the students and the community better.
“By participating in Tyler ISD’s career and technical education program, we are contributing back to our community,” Hamm said. “We really want to enhance and bring more professionals to the community, and providing these experiences to students now, we believe, will help to do that in the future.”
The Tyler ISD CTE work-based learning program creates meaningful interactions with industry or community professionals to engage students various career fields. Experiences may take place at the work site, in the classroom, or virtually, and can include workplace tours, job shadowing, school-based enterprises, internships and apprenticeships.
“We work a lot with our business community to find opportunities for our students in all of our different programs of study including health sciences, marketing, engineering and manufacturing, and many other areas,” Tyler ISD Work-Based Learning Coordinator Jessica Brown said. “It is more than just going in and filing papers. Students are actually getting hands-on experience and connecting what they’ve learned in the classroom to what is happening in the workplace.”
For more information on the Tyler ISD Career and Technical Education program, including programs of study, work-based learning, course guides and more, please click here.
