A SUMMER IN THE LIFE by Mackenzi Greene ‘17
Recent OLu alums Jeran Heistermann ‘16 and Julia Zimmerman ‘16 got a taste of their future career aspirations through the STEM program.
Heistermann did her internship at the Boeing Company. She was part of a team that developed a luminescent paint used on aircraft and submitted it for a patent. If approved, Heistermann will have her name on the list of the submitting team. She also tested properties of glow-in-the-dark paint pigments with respect to their ability to burn and after-glow for both commercial and military applications. Highly regarded by her coworkers, Heistermann made a major contribution to the project and learned a lot through the process. I gained so much work experience, and knowing that the project I was working on was going to help the United States and possibly the rest of the world was very motivating. I was able to see firsthand what it will be like later in my future when I begin to build my career.
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Heistermann plans to major in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis of Aeronautics or Aerospace in graduate school. She was
also an accomplished athlete as a four-year varsity tennis player and captain of the team. Zimmerman participated in an internship at Toyota Racing Development. She was part of a team testing racing engines before they were sent back to North Carolina to be used in Toyota’s NASCAR racing cars. She mostly helped in subassembly, which is where the engines are put together. Zimmerman enjoyed her time at TRD immensely, and gained fantastic hands-on experience.
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Working at TRD was an awesome experience. Throughout my time there, I helped design, create, test, and ship out the race car engines. I really learned how important it is to work as a team, especially in the race car industry. If one person didn’t make their assigned part perfectly, then the entire engine would not work. It was awesome to see how important each individual was to the entire process of building an engine.
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In the summer of 2015, twenty five Orange Lutheran students participated in remarkable internships through the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program (STEM). Two seniors made an especially significant impact. Jeran Heistermann and Julia Zimmerman demonstrated incredible work ethic and passion for their respective areas of interest.
Zimmerman learned a lot from working in a male-dominated space, and “loved how the guys didn’t treat me any different. I think that women are becoming more prominent in the race car industry. It’s incredible to see the impact that women are making.” Both Heistermann and Zimmerman learned valuable skills from their internships, and made significant contributions to their respective teams. 25
