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Down to Earth science Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell North Medford High School junior Jennifer Williams looks out over a sea of transformers at Pacific Power Co.�s storage yard. Jennifer is pursuing her interests in engineering through an internship with Pacific Power organized by the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology in Beaverton. The internship program matches science-minded students with professionals in business and government. Internship program matches local students with businesses By Vicki Guarino Plenty of summer jobs pay more, but professional internships are giving a handful of Jackson County students the chance to learn more about their career interests. For these students, experience is the best compensation. "This is my first job, and it�s not a McDonald�s job,�� says North Medford High School junior Jennifer Williams. "It�s a step in the perfect direction. "All my friends are really impressed.�� With career interests in engineering and astronomy, Jennifer has moved into a comfortable corner of the engineering department at Pacific Power Co.�s Medford office. She has a spacious desk with her own computer and telephone. She has been issued her own red-orange safety vest and a hard hat with her name on it. And once a month she gets a paycheck: $1,400 total for her eight-week term at the utility. The job is among more than 200 summer internships organized for high school students by the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology in Beaverton. Since 1990, the school has matched science-minded students with professionals in business and government. Participants this year range from Oregon State University to the Bonneville Power Administration, from Hewlett-Packard Co. to the Oregon Zoo. Students apply through their high schools, and the participating companies and agencies that pay for the program choose their interns. All are paid alike. Locally, six students have been working with a psychologist, two state universities, the National Weather Service and the Nature Conservancy, in addition to Pacific Power. Medford psychologist Michael Villanueva joined the graduate institute�s intercept program just this year. He is getting help from Ashland High School student Beth Lilley on a study of pain assessment in patients suffering from dementia. Villanueva is in the third year of data collection and analysis in his study, sponsored by the Alzheimer�s Research Alliance. Beth has been doing background research and documenting the scores of observations drawn from research patients. Villanueva says he is getting valuable assistance with a great volume of raw data and the opportunity to cultivate a colleague. "It�s nice to be able to share with people who are interested in science and medicine, and to give students a taste of that,�� Villanueva says. The emphasis is on exploring career interests and gaining skill and knowledge to further classroom studies. Pacific Power mentor Dave Asgharian says Jennifer�s primary job is to learn. "She�s not really here to work; she�s here to find out how utilities work.�� So Asgharian, the company�s senior lead engineer, has seen to it that Jennifer samples the work of every department. Jennifer has made the rounds with meter readers, getting drenched in irrigation spray and facing down dogs. "There were a lot of dogs,�� she recalls. She spent a day with managers, attending a statewide administrators� conference on developing e-commerce, put on by Bear Creek Corp. "Oregon rates 49th out of the 50 states in the use of e-commerce,�� Jennifer says. And she has been studying the basics � the difference between a fuse and a capacitor, an ohm and a milliamp. "It�s so that when everyone is in the office talking, I don�t feel so left out," Jennifer says. "It�s not hard, and it really is helpful.�� She spends most of her time working directly under Asgharian�s supervision, mostly on mapping, a perennial chore for Pacific Power�s engineering department. She has a thick stack of maps she has updated, showing the location and capacity of every transformer and every power line from Shady Cove to Tiller. "I really have learned a lot," she says. "I�ve learned a lot more than I thought I could know." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA