Lockheed Martin internship helps Arlington high school students soar

For high school students, work experience doesn’t get any more real-world than this.

Harrison Perkins of Arlington High School created a project manual that was used on the Lockheed Martin flight line. Martin High senior Jonathon Webb designed components for an eye-tracking camera for F-35 aircraft simulators. Hunter Sheuerman of Lamar High integrated hardware for simulation labs for several joint strike fighter programs.

They were among the 13 seniors from Arlington high schools who wrapped up their yearlong engineering and information technology internships last week at Lockheed Martin’s headquarters, delivering 10-minute reports on their experiences to a panel of their mentors.

The panel included executives from Lockheed Martin, the engineering curriculum program Project Lead the Way and Arlington school district leaders.

Project Lead the Way is a STEM-based curriculum enrichment program used in Arlington schools that introduces students to engineering, computer and biomedical sciences through applied learning. Students approach the subject matter through activities, projects and problem-solving.

“The two core components we require for our internships are first, that the Project Lead the Way curriculum be used in the schools, and second, that a strong formal internship program be in place,” said Kenneth Ross, Lockheed Martin spokesman. “Arlington ISD excels in both and, at this time, is the only school district we partner with for high school interns.”

Ross said other districts have adopted the Project Lead the Way curriculum, and will likely become future internship partners with Lockheed.

The internships are structured where students spend three afternoons a week at Lockheed. Two are devoted to study and observation with an employee mentor, and the third is for hands-on work.

“Our expectations are that by the time they graduate from college, we’ve worked with them enough to give them a job offer when they graduate,” Ross said.

The program is in its second academic year. The first group of three interns started in the 2014-15 school year, this year’s contingent grew to 13, and there will be 23 in the 2016-17 school year.

“Just driving up to this building is huge and imposing,” said Arlington High senior Dean Wilkerson, a calculus and physics whiz who said he “has always been fascinated by how numbers work together.”

Craig Wright, the Arlington school district’s career and technical education director, said the Lockheed internship program is a groundbreaking one that is unique in the aerospace field.

“The whole corporation’s watching us here, interning high school kids,” he said. “Our students do the best job of selling it.”

The high school internships open the door to scholarships, college summer internships and even future employment with Lockheed.

Martin senior Eric Olguin, a self-described “backyard scientist” who once melted a penny with parts from an old projection television, recounted one of his internship fails for the panel. He was working with 68-pin cable, a tedious task that he was glad to finish.

“I found I did it backwards, so I had to do it 68 more times,” he said. “It was an embarrassing experience, but I learned from it.”

After the presentations, Jonathon Webb recounted the steps required of students to get into the Lockheed internships.

Near the end of his junior year, Webb filled out the online application for the program. One hundred district applicants were selected for an internal interview class. Twenty of those made the cut to interview with Lockheed officials. Thirteen were accepted for this year.

“It’s really rewarding to see these kids come in, and see them grow,” said Fred Samudio, a 29-year Lockheed employee who was Webb’s mentor this year.

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Lockheed Martin internship helps Arlington high school students soar."