Nolan Menchaca
Internship
At the Dayton Regional STEM School, it is required that every student completes an internship for a minimum of 72 hours. The internship location is chosen by the students themselves, so they can explore a potential career they would like to pursue. The purpose of this internship is to help the student decide whether they want to continue to pursue this career path or if it is something they would not enjoy doing in the future.
Day 1:
I started my internship by being introduced to the other staff members. Patrick, my mentor, then showed me around the work space. We then began working on his current project, which was repairing the Chevrolet Equinox fender and the back passenger door shown to right. (10.5 hours)
Day 2:
On the second day of my internship, we continued to repair the Equinox. There was quite a bit of external damage to the bumper and door so we had to prepare to repaint the door and new bumper. (10.5 hours)
Day 3:
On the third day, we finished preparing the front bumper and door. We began to paint but were only able to put two out of the three layers of paint that were going to be applied. While the Equinox was drying, we began to prepare another car to be painted. (10.5 hours)
Day 4:
On my fourth day of internship, we finished painting and reassembled the Equinox. Mr. Menchaca taught me how to use the buffer to clean up the door and front bumper. We then began preparing a Chevorlet to be repaired and painted. (10.5 hours)
Day 5:
On the fifth day of my internship, we finished preparing the Chevrolet truck and began painting. The truck only needed two coats of paint since it was black, so we were able to finish it painting the same day. (10.5 hours)
Day 6:
On the sixth day, Mr. Menchaca received a replacement door for a SUV the had damage to the front passenger door. He walked through how to disassemble the damaged door to transfer the parts to the new door. (10.5 hours)
Day 7:
On my final day of internship, we repaired and painted the door and roof of a sedan we received. Mr. Menchaca allowed me to use the paint gun and the buffer afterwards. I then watched Mr. Menchaca's coworker use the hydraulic press to reshape the frame from a damaged van. (10.5 hours)
