Jesseri Jensen – Internship Experience

Jesseri Jensen hugging an earth moundMy name is Jesseri Jensen, and I am excited to graduate with my bachelors in Civil Engineering in May 2019. I have been fortunate to land two summer internships during my sophomore and junior years by persistently emailing and sending my resume to companies that advertise open positions through CSU’s Civil Engineering Department. During my sophomore year, I interned with Colorado Department of Transportation for their C-470 Express Lanes project in Littleton, CO. I spent most of my days assisting with quality check/control of construction and filling out hold-point forms, which were tickets of authorization in order for the contractor or subcontractor to continue work. During my time in the field, I saw various transportation and geotechnical aspects such as construction and/or placement of manholes, pull-boxes, fiber cable for Intelligent Transportation Systems, soil-nail walls, caissons, concrete pavement, and mechanically stabilized earth walls. Thanks to Raymie Partington’s trust and confidence in me, I was assigned to be a representative for CDOT during construction work on Sundays.

My second internship was also with CDOT in Greeley, CO working for their hydraulics unit. I was fortunate to learn SMS, WMS, HEC-RAS, and other hydraulic and hydrologic software. Additionally, I conducted my own hydraulic analysis with the supervision of Steven Griffin to advise how much the maintenance crew could repave. It was a pre-scoping effort for State Highway 52 to determine how high CDOT could repave the roadway without causing a rise in the floodplain through four bridge structures. I also learned how to analyze and perform calculations for scour.

Through these two internships, I learned a lot about Civil Engineering in the real world related to transportation, geotech, and water resources. These internships also helped me land a job at RockSol in Thornton, CO as an Engineer in Training. I want to take this opportunity to share my gratitude and appreciation for Jocelyn Higashide, Raymie Partington, Jerome Estes, Steven Griffin, and Brian Varrella at CDOT. I would not be the successful engineer I am today without these inspiring and knowledgeable mentors.