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For 2020, MCAA has updated its student internship grant process to focus on the intern and give them the best opportunities possible with MCAA member companies. Five-hundred-dollar grants will now be offered directly to students who accept internships or full-time positions, with funding from MCERF.

Having MCAA interns working at member companies is a win-win for the mechanical contracting industry. Employers get top talent and build a pipeline of future employees. Students gain experience, create connections, develop skills and further their interest in mechanical contracting. In paying the student instead of the employer, MCAA’s goal is to increase the overall number of interns and drive the overall number of talented employees accepting full-time positions after graduation.

Here are a few success stories

MCA of Metropolitan Washington (MCAMW) member The Bowers Group, also known as W.E. Bowers, hired Andrew Nguyen, a junior at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, for a summer internship. Read the story here.

In 2019, BMWC Constructors, Inc. used an internship grant to for Purdue University Senior Madelyn Conway’s summer internship. She will join the company full-time following graduation. Read the success story here.

How does the new grant application process work?

The MCAA member company will first ensure a prospective intern is in good standing at an accredited two- or four-year college, university or technical school. While MCAA encourages its members to give priority to students from the MCAA Student Chapter Program, this is not a requirement to receive a grant.

Each MCAA member company can submit up to two internship grant applications per year. Once an application is reviewed and accepted, MCAA will send a $500 Visa Gift Card to the member company so it can present the Gift Card to the student at the start of their internship.

MCAA will follow-up with each company and intern to ensure the process and overall internship was successful.

Start your search for top talent today!

MCAAGreatFutures.org gives members access to student profiles and resumes. The profiles are searchable by university, desired location, and even a specific skill set, like BIM or AutoCAD. A keyword filter allows users to zero in on students who fit the bill.

Not finding a match? Try reaching out to our 60 MCAA Student Chapters. The chapter advisors are a great resource to help find the right person. And, MCAA members have exclusive access to post job openings on our job board.

Help build our industry’s GreatFuture – apply for a grant!

In this month’s Beyond the Classroom, meet MILWAUKEE TOOL’s Territory Manager, Hyojon Robbins, who highlights the unique opportunities available to students who choose careers working for a manufacturer/supplier. Upcoming Beyond the Classroom videos will showcase how MCAA student chapter members and MCAA members alike are benefiting from the program. They will also share the opportunities available to students who choose careers in the mechanical industry.

MCAA congratulates Thomas Walsh for accepting a full-time position with U.S. Engineering Innovations. Thomas is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He was a presenter in the MCAA19 Student Chapter Competition Final Four in Phoenix, Arizona where he also received the Reilly Family Memorial Scholarship, sponsored by the John W. Danforth Company.

Thomas reflects on how his experiences with MCAA, the MCA of Eastern Missouri and his student chapter helped him find his great future in the mechanical industry:

My experience with the MCAA student chapter was instrumental in helping me find full-time employment in mechanical contracting. I first met U.S. Engineering at the 2018 MCAA Great Futures Forum in Anaheim with the Missouri-Columbia student chapter where I applied for an internship. During interviews for this internship, I was able to speak at great length about my involvement in the MCAA student chapter and the annual competition. The interviewees were very impressed with my work on the competition and how easily it translated to the work they do every day as mechanical contractors.

I had the opportunity to present part of Mizzou’s competition proposal on stage at MCAA19 in Phoenix which played a big role in helping me become a better public speaker and presenter.

My internship with U.S. Engineering was amazing. I primarily worked alongside Preconstruction Managers and Project Managers. One of the larger responsibilities I had was to put together a full mechanical bid from design documents for a potential project. I was also responsible for acquiring and reviewing quotes from vendors for large mechanical equipment. I shadowed project controls to learn more about scheduling and real estate to learn more about renovations. My internship with U.S. Engineering was primarily so rewarding, because I was able to pursue parts of contracting that I found interesting.

Because my internship was so rewarding, I accepted a full-time opportunity with U.S. Engineering Innovations. I will be returning to work with the same team that I interned alongside. At my full-time position, I will work as a Preconstruction Engineer creating bids and proposals, estimating change orders, and assisting in scheduling. I will also work as a project engineer to assist in logistics, procurement and quality control of our ongoing projects. I will have the opportunity to travel to some of our sites and assist in and experience construction in the field.

Molly Sizemore has accepted her second summer internship at Southland Industries, a member of the MCA of Metropolitan Washington.

She will be interning in the company’s engineering department, where she will work on mechanical and plumbing systems projects in Navisworks and Revit. Last summer, she saw the project management side of the industry as an intern on a data center project in Ashburn, Virginia.

Molly said, “working on a data center opened my eyes to understand different heating and cooling systems since they’re so MEP-heavy and mission critical. Southland has opened many doors of opportunity in the past year – one of them being MCAA.”

Molly learned about the opportunity to be part of a MCAA Student Chapter during her internship last summer. There, she met Lauren Boyle, a Southland Industries design engineer and a past member of the MCAA Student Chapter at the Pennsylvania State University, also known as Penn State. Lauren told Molly about MCAA and the resources that would be available to her.

Molly worked with her faculty advisor and her local association, the MCA of Central Pennsylvania, to help the Penn State University chapter gain momentum and even participate in this year’s MCAA Student Chapter Competition. She said, “Participating in the competition has been a really unique experience in my college career.”

Molly also attended the 2019 GreatFutures Forum in Washington, D.C., where she was, “…blown away by the friendly faces of both students and professionals along with the engaging and fulfilling content of the conference.”

Molly is looking forward to attending MCAA2020 in Maui and expanding her network before heading to Washington, D.C. for her internship.

“MCAA has definitely created a springboard for me into the mechanical contracting industry, and I’m very excited to continue this journey and get others involved,” she said.

You can find student chapter members like Molly on mcaagreatfutures.org.