Each summer Esri will allocate one summer internship position within their Business Development program to one of Master of Science students. Eva Macek is currently a student within our MS GIS program and is the first person to be award with this internship. Learn more about her experience with Esri this summer and how her studies here in our program helped her.

What group did you work with?
During the Summer of 2022, I was fortunate to intern at Esri as Solution Engineer on the State and Local Government team. While also enrolled in the MSGIS program, I was able to combine the skills I’ve fostered throughout our program with my internship experience. I was based out of the Philadelphia Regional Office where I supported state and local government processes, workflows,policies, and engagement with citizens throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States.

What projects did you work on and/or what were your job responsibilities?
As part of the Esri Internship Program, interns complete a project during their time. As part of my capstone project, I worked with the Town of Islip, Long Island’s MacArthur Airport to develop a comprehensive ArcGIS Hub to provide real-time solutions and workflow deliverables using ArcGIS products. This solution enables operational and airport personnel to effectively manage
their operational airfield while also complying with the Federal Aviation Administration regulations that are required by all airports. Airfield regulations like the Part 139 Airfield Inspections, Airfield Fuel Inspections, Wildlife Observation, Wildlife Mitigation, Bird and Other Wildlife Strike were incorporated into the Operational Hub site to allow management and inspectors to access information in a centralized system. The solution engineer role allowed me to engage with various government clients to define, create, and implement sustainable plans to maintain assets and meet strategic business needs. I was mainly responsible for providing technology solutions to the state and local government clients in the Mid-Atlantic region and assisting our team to do so. I supported various state and local government processes, workflows, policies, and engagement with citizens in the Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York areas.

How have the skills you have learned in the MS program helped you during this internship?
Thanks to the courses and experiences I’ve had at the University of Maryland and the opportunities provided within the Department of Geographical Sciences I was well prepared to excel during this internship. I was able to use the spatial analytics skills I learned from GEOG 653, and all the programming knowledge I learned from Dr. Resop’s GEOG646 andGEOG656 courses. In addition, the WebGIS course allowed me to leverage some of the advanced skills while working in ArcGIS Online. Considering our heavy usage of the ArcGIS System at UMD I felt very prepared to start working in the various Esri products and functionalities that are taught by our department. However, all the support and guidance from Dr. Jack Ma and other faculty within our program were pivotal in my success at Esri.

Do you have any other insight or lessons learned from this experience that you'd like to share?
My biggest recommendation to any student would be to 1). Get involved!!!!! 2). Reach out and network 3). Ask as many questions and talk to as many like-minded individuals as you can. My mentor encouraged me to schedule 1 on 1 meeting with everyone on my team and other cross-sector teams. Of course, I was nervous as a new intern, but I took it as an opportunity to learn, ask questions, and understand my team on a personal level. I was welcomed by every colleague I spoke to and was reassured that I had all the support to succeed as a young professional in this field. I also was so surprised by how many connections and experiences were shared in a quick 30-minute teams meeting. Don’t be afraid tor each out! It can make a real difference in any of your experiences. Real learning comes from when you can apply what you’ve learned to a specific solution or experience. The ability to take that knowledge and apply it to various facets and experiences is what makes learning and working so fascinating. An internship gives you the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in a field that may be new to you. It’s a perfect opportunity to test the waters and explore what is right for you and your career goals and that’s exactly what my Esri internship allowed me to do. It's been great to connect and work with so many like-minded individuals across various teams and sectors in our region, as well as the country. Thank you to Rachel Weeden, Lauri Dafner, Anthony Myers, Alexander Brown, and my amazing mentor Mary McColley for all the support, and guidance, and for making my last internship an unforgettable experience. I’m very excited to be continuing my career as a full-time Solution Engineer within the State and Local Government team at Esri!

Congratulations Eva on your new full-time position to Esri!  All the best to you in the future.