Pursuing a dual degree in mathematics and actuarial science, Elizabeth Dayton assumed her major would take her to an office. She pictured herself spending most of her days at a desk, sitting behind a computer, happily immersed in numbers.
But her internship with Clean Harbors this summer at the field services facility in Clackamas, Oregon, just outside her hometown of Portland, changed all that.
“It wasn’t a field I had ever seen myself in before,” she said of working in the industry. “I ended up falling in love with it.”
The sophomore at Long Island University was one of 13 college students working in the field at Clean Harbors sites across the United States and in Edmonton as part of a new, field-based internship program launched this year. Interns got hands-on experience, up close with equipment and processes and a real sense of how degrees in subjects like mathematics and mechanical engineering could be applied to help carry out the crucial work Clean Harbors does.
“The field-based internship program pilot was a huge success,” said Tim Therrien, senior manager of talent acquisition. “The feedback from our interns was incredible. The internship provided them with an opportunity to see an industry that they didn’t really know existed. And for the business, interns brought new energy and enthusiasm to help support current initiatives.”