Tim Medearis – Internship Experience

Tim Medearis

This summer I worked as an intern for Drexel, Barrell & Co. as a civil engineering intern. Drexel, Barrell & Co. has offices across Colorado and I’ve been working at their headquarters in Boulder. Drexel, Barrell & Co. prides themselves on being an “A-Z” civil engineering and surveying company so I truly have gotten a wide range of experiences. I did da lot of work in AutoCAD or the “language of civil engineering” as it’s known around Drexel. I was able to work and create everything from details of manholes and inlets to neighborhood planning documents. It was also neat to see how the company is working on different infrastructure projects right around my neighborhood. Site visits to different projects such as bike trail tunnels, spillway reconstruction sites, and others were very enlightening, hands on experiences. I even got to brush up on my surveying skills which I luckily still recalled from my first semester freshman year! Being an environmental engineering major I also got to work with the water resources area of the company. Seeing how the rational formula and other environmental engineering concepts were used in the “real world” just like in the classroom was very rewarding and made me very grateful for my professors.

Everyone I worked with was very friendly and willing to answer any of my questions as well as explain all the minute details and processes that go into large civil engineering projects. The importance of communicating with the client, as well as the city council and city planning office was intriguing and really showed the need for engineers to be great communicators.

All that I learned there, outside of the classroom, I feel I could not have learned anywhere else and for that I am very grateful. I definitely have a little more confidence in myself and have a much better picture of what I want to do when I graduate in a year!