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The unfinished interior of the Gaylord Rockies Hotel and Convention Center's "grand lodge."

How did you get the internship?

I first spoke with Mortenson Construction at the career fair last fall. Through their interview process, I was chosen to be a construction intern with the Denver Operating Group. I was placed on the Gaylord Rockies Hotel and Convention Center working with the pool and site team.

What were your primary duties?

My primary duties included comparing drawings, drafting requests for information (RFIs) and going through submitted product data. After a week or two, I was also running some of the meetings our team held with subcontractors.

What was your day-to-day job like?

Every morning started with a meeting at 6:30 a.m., so everyone working in the pool area was on the same page and we could make any site-wide announcements. A similar meeting occurred at the 7:00 a.m. “stretch and bend” for the site team. Notes from those meetings went out when I get back to the trailer, and then the rest of the day got started. There were a good number of weekly meetings held so that people working on different aspects of the project are maintaining communication.

Most of my day was spent handling the questions and problems that came up. Sometimes these were assignments from my mentor, my project manager, or my superintendent; sometimes subcontractors would come in with questions that I was able to answer. No two days were ever the same because as the project progresses new elements are needed. The first week of my internship I was handed the site lighting as a pet project. That narrowed my focus a bit so I was working more closely with the electrical and concrete subcontractors, and keeping track of light poles on site as they were put in place. Being such a large site, this was not something that was finished while I was there this summer.

How has the internship confirmed or changed your post-college plans?

As an undergrad, I was set on being on the design side of the process of creating a building.Having a solid education in the “middle” of the process with structural engineering, grad school was going to be my time to learn a little bit about the front and the back end of the building design process – the architectural aspects and the construction aspects. At least, that’s what I thought going in. This internship helped me realize that my skillset and interests are well aligned with construction management. I spent most of my time outside, in the field, and I never had the same day twice – and those are positives to me.

Morgan Westbrook is a second-year master’s student in the construction track of architectural engineering.