402nd SWEG hosts summer internship program, interns reflect on their experience 

WARNER ROBINS – The Air Force’s Sustainment Center’s Software Engineering Group (SWEG) at Robins Air Force Base hosted their annual summer internship program for rising college freshman and sophomores at Project Synergy. 

This internship program collaborates with Houston, Bibb, Bleckley, Twiggs, Peach and Jones County School Districts. 

According to a media release, 25 to 30 candidates are chosen from across Middle Georgia high schools through an application process involving both essay and resumé. 

In this internship program, the rising college freshmen mainly focus on coding, while the rising sophomores work with software and hardware. 

“This program is largely educational because after the [rising sophomores] ‘graduate’ they will be rising juniors in college and they will have enough credit hours and experience to be embedded in the squadron,” 402nd SWEG Summer Internship Program Director Sarah Martin said. “Most of these projects are educational because we are teaching them how to team build and do teamworking skills.”

Once the rising freshman have a good sense of coding, they will move on to a class dealing with more physical components. 

“What we do at this level is that we blend hardware and software activities,” sophomore class coordinator Brian Woods  said. “They are learning electrical engineering, basic principles of logic, resistors and basic components.” 

Woods mentioned the class is building their own smart cars. 

“What they are doing with the smart cars is that they are coding those as there’s already software in them, but they are learning how to change code in something that is already given to make it function in the way you want it to function,” he said. “They are getting a little bit of a leg-up when they go back to school when they actually learn these principles in a lab.” 

Daiven Abran, a graduate of Warner Robins High School who is a rising sophomore at Georgia Tech and Gianna Castro, a recent graduate of Houston County High School who is a rising freshman at Georgia Tech both reflected on their experience in the Summer Internship Program. 

“Starting as a first year, I can say it has been a good gateway job as I move into college because that’s what it focuses on as it prepares you for going into college in the future,” Castro said.  “It emphasizes a lot more learning, which I really appreciate as coming into a computer science major with barely any computer science background. It definitely gives a good head start for anyone with any kind of experience going into either engineering, IT or computer science.” 

Abran said he believes the transition from the first year to the second year in the internship was easier. 

“We’re still at this same building, and we have kind of the same flow of having briefers come in and talk about stuff,” he said. “I believe it was a similar transition, but it is going to be a lot bigger for us next time when we get embedded in the squadron.” 

Abran agrees with Castro about this summer internship program being a gateway job into the workforce. 

“This is just an amazing preparation tool for going into the workplace,” he said. “In the second year, we’ve been giving presentations so we have to learn good researching skills and presenting skills, also a lot of health courses that deal with mental health and physical health.” 

Both Abran and Castro heard about the internship program in high school. 

“They really advertised it as a good opportunity, especially transitioning to college, and I also heard from previous interns that they have really enjoyed their experience,” Castor said. “They were really open about just the amazing opportunity to be a worker that rolls into if you want to be a civilian worker, but it is just an amazing opportunity to learn and to get those skills straight out of high school,” Abran said.  

Castro and Abran each recommend the experience to others that may be interested. Abran said if you are really ambitious and ready to get into the workforce, this internship is the perfect fit. 

“One thing that this program offers that I know has been becoming a struggle with advanced technology and AI is job security. Continuing on and being able to come back every summer and have a secured spot is just something a lot of places don’t have,” Castro said. “Some of the benefits you get include the access to the base and the recreational facilities.” 

“I completely agree with the benefits,” Abran said. “Another great benefit is work stays at work. You come, you work your hours and obviously put in the effort, but when it’s done you’re done.” 

Interns are also government employees and can be given leave when needed. 

Abran did not know what type of field of computer science or electrical engineering he wanted to get into, and this internship program helped him decide.

“I’m an electrical engineer and this semester I learned I really like doing the hardware, electrical, logic and all that kind of stuff,” he said. “Not only was the learning amazing, but just to have the ability with the security of every summer and just have the ability to do what I actually want to do as a career.”