Student Spotlight Featuring Cooper Eastwood
- How did you obtain your co-op/intern with Stratolaunch?
I applied for my internship just through Stratolaunch's website. It is a small company that is rapidly growing so they are very interested in new engineers with real hands-on experience. There were no Embry Riddle alumni in their small tightknit community and in fact, many other employees didn't even know there was a Prescott campus. However, my resume spoke for me as I was only one of three interns at the company, and it was only their second summer with an intern program. I initially saw a magazine article with their project on the front page, a hypersonic research plane, this piqued my interest as I am working on hypersonic launch vehicle on campus. After quickly browsing their website, I saw an application link for an internship and was quickly responded to.
- What advice do you have for students interested in obtaining an internship/co-op?
My advice to students who want to pursue an internship/co-op is to work on what you are passionate about both inside and out of school. There's the mantra from the movie Field of Dreams, "if you build it they will come". For anyone who has passion or desire for their own success it is instrumental you work on yourself. Once you build yourself up by learning skills and producing tangible results in your field, employers will want you on their team. Even if you have a dream job you want or still don't know what you want exactly, taking the internship will only benefit your knowledge of how companies' function, how culture is created, and hard technical skills.
- Please tell us about your learning experience, both professionally and personally. What are the benefits you will take away from these experiences?
For me the projects I pursued at Stratolaunch they were for the most part well within my wheelhouse of knowledge. I was working closely with the chief engineer of hypersonics and he helped me foster an understanding of managing top level requirements while also accomplishing goals in the most efficient manner possible. At this company the culture is the driving factor for success, all of the engineers have an equivalent mindset of getting things done "whatever it takes". For some time, I was creating flight hardware that needed to be tested but doing so through conventual methods would've been over budget in time and cost. So as a company we decided to test unconventionally, this accomplished our goals quickly and even pushed the envelope of the design parameters, giving the engineering team behind it confidence that things will work even past the design margin.
- Do you think it was important to complete an internship/co-op?
For those who are concerned they cannot get an internship or find themselves in a spot where they cannot take one for the summer that is OK! Internships are a great way to explore where you want your career to travel as well as make new connections. However, exploring the industry at your own pace and in your own way is most important as you go through your education. Working on yourself and your own goals I believe are the most vital for your success. Trying to pack your resume is a poor mindset because when it comes to making friends in industry, deep conversations about your passions is what matters, that alone will get you places. For me I feel that my internship was very important, but only one part of my overall education. Most importantly I got to experience the innerworkings of a flourishing start-up experimental engineering company and I will apply that experience throughout my endeavors.