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Discoveries, innovations, and insights that illuminate the future of the built environment

My B.L.U.E. Summer: Sara Berry-Maraist (Spokane)

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Hello! My name is Sara Berry-Maraist, and spending my summer as a project design engineer intern in McKinstry’s Spokane, Wash. office has been a wonderful experience. I graduated from Gonzaga University (also located in Spokane) in the spring of 2018, and interning at McKinstry has made for a smooth life transition.

Sara Berry-Maraist.

Sara Berry-Maraist.

Everyone has been so welcoming and—even when I ask questions multiple times—I always get nothing but positive responses. I’ve wanted to work at McKinstry since I toured the office in 2017 and working here has exceeded my already-high expectations. Even as an intern, I’ve felt like an important part of the company—doing real work and not stereotypical tasks like getting coffee and making copies.

This summer, I’ve worked on a variety of projects from smaller Seattle projects to significantly helping design the zero energy Catalyst Building in Spokane. Recently, I’ve done a lot of load calculations and duct static pressure calculations. I think my favorite activity, though, is designing in Revit—a building information modeling software. The only modeling software I learned in college was a different one called SolidWorks, so learning Revit and expanding my skillset was important for me.

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My B.L.U.E. Summer: Rachel May (Seattle)

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Growing up near Seattle, and attending school in the city, I’m well-acquainted with the “Seattle Freeze,” and I’m regretfully complicit in perpetuating it most of the time. However, being part of the B.L.U.E. Program at McKinstry this summer has opened my eyes to the company’s unique people-first orientation. Everyone here smiles, waves and is almost always eager to start a conversation. McKinstry might be the friendliest company I’ve ever worked at.

Rachel May.

Rachel May.

This summer, I worked with the Brand Services/Communications team at McKinstry to create both internal and external communications. While I’ve been designing as a freelancer for people I know for quite a while now, this was my first taste of being a part of an in-house design process. Having an established process to request graphics and a whole team to support me ensured I stayed organized and hit all my deadlines to keep clients happy.

Starting at a new company is kind of like walking into a class that’s already in-session. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and paralyzed by not knowing the material and the culture of the room. However, having the resources and structure of the B.L.U.E. Program made transitioning into McKinstry feel more like walking into the classroom after just a summer away. All of the interns are in the same boat, which helped us become friends, grow as a team and build a central pool of knowledge.

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My B.L.U.E. Summer: Haley Hansen (Seattle)

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Haley Hansen.

Hello! I’m Haley Hansen and I’m a safety engineer intern at McKinstry through the B.L.U.E. Program this summer in Seattle. I’m originally from Bellevue, Wash. and was raised in Great Falls, Mont. I’m a rising senior studying Occupational Safety and Health at Montana Tech in Butte, Mont. and I also have an associate’s degree in Accounting Technology and Human Resources from Montana Tech.

I chose to work in Safety because of three reasons:

  1. The People. My passion in life is to be a support system for individuals and to work with others. Safety inspires me to make a difference, positively impact my community and provide a helping hand for those in need.
  2. The Company. Being a part of a company and its community drives me to help develop both the company and the employees around me every day. It also gives me an opportunity to influence the future of a company.
  3. Myself. I’m passionate about becoming a better person and serving others as well as I can.

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My B.L.U.E. Summer: Mac Cliff (Portland)

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Before I jump into what I’ve learned, what I’ve been working on and what my internship experience has been like thus far at McKinstry, I’d like to take a couple minutes to introduce myself. My name is Ivan Cliff, but most everyone knows me as Mac. My parents named me Ivan to keep the name in the family. I was born and raised in a little town called San Anselmo outside of San Francisco. Ever since I could walk, I’ve been riding a bike—at first around the local school yard and eventually out into the mountains.

Mac Cliff.

Mac Cliff.

I continued to race bikes through high school and the beginning of college, until I decided to ride as a hobby, not a sport. Throughout high school, I worked in a bike shop as a mechanic and that—combined with a passion for speed—is where I discovered my engineering intuition. Fast-forward to today and I’m entering my final year of the mechanical engineering program at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.

I first heard about McKinstry from a friend who toured the Spokane office two years ago. I attended an open house at the Spokane office in the fall of 2017, and that boosted my interest in joining the McKinstry team. On May 15 of this year, I was thrilled to start work as a design project engineering intern in McKinstry’s Portland, Oregon office through the B.L.U.E. Program.

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A day in the life of a talent acquisition intern

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Georgia Riffle.

Hello! My name is Georgia Riffle and I’m the current talent acquisition intern here at McKinstry’s Seattle headquarters. I am a rising senior at The University of Washington, Tacoma studying Business Management and also working towards a Spanish Languages & Culture minor. Recently, I’ve been interested in Human Resource Management, specifically the acquiring of talent and employee development. Because of that, this internship has been a great learning experience that’s positioned me for helpful career exploration.

My passion is people—what motivates them, helping them find their purpose and finding their “why.” So while I’d like to explore a career in business, my true aspiration would be to someday be in a position of influence to drive a more effective, efficient and purposeful business. After all, what is a business without the people behind it?

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Year Two of B.L.U.E. at McKinstry

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Editor’s Note: B.L.U.E.—or Build, Learn, Understand and Enrich—represents the core tenets of McKinstry’s internship program: the B.L.U.E. Program. As a part of the program, we have asked our interns to share their backgrounds, their passions, their work, their lessons learned and their ideas for the future on the “B.L.U.E. Blog.” We launched the B.L.U.E. Blog on Spark in 2017, so Logan’s post about his second year of interning at McKinstry kicks off the second year of the blog’s existence.

Logan Bock.

Logan Bock.

In my second summer of being an intern at the McKinstry office in Golden, Colo., I have joined the construction team to further expand my knowledge and skillset. I have a “never say no” attitude about work, which has lead me to taking on many kinds of projects here at McKinstry. I have found myself outside of my comfort zone, which has pushed me to expand my skills.

For example, I have been challenged to develop my AutoCAD skills working on a project for the L.A. County School District. I have been using AutoCAD software to update project “as-builts” for three different schools. While I learned this program in school, the type of tasks I have had to complete with the software have been different than what I learned in the classroom, which helps expand my skillset.

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Wrapping Up My B.L.U.E. Summer

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Jessica Baumann.

With only a few days left in my internship this summer, it’s important for me to look back and reflect on how I’ve grown during my time with McKinstry. My internship has taught me many different lessons—both work-related and life-related. This may seem a bit confusing to some of you, so let me explain.

This summer, I went from attending a small college (University of Wisconsin, Platteville) to living in a big city (Madison), where I lived on my own. This meant I was responsible for all my own cooking, cleaning, and—probably my most daunting chore—not having a dishwasher and doing the dishes by hand. During this summer, I got a real taste of what the adult world was like. I’ll be graduating in a few short years, and this was a helpful preview of what to expect down the road.

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Getting To Know: Nicole Demby (Golden, Colo.)

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Nicole Demby.

Hello! I’m Nicole Demby, and I’m a commissioning engineering intern and proud B.L.U.E. Program participant at McKinstry this summer. I’m from Cortez, Colo. and I’m a rising junior studying Mechanical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines—just five miles from McKinstry’s office in Golden, Colo.

Getting to intern at McKinstry this summer has been invaluable. My knowledge of HVAC systems and commissioning engineering (not to mention construction in general) has grown exponentially over the past few weeks.

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Getting To Know: Taylor Blevins (Portland)

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Taylor Blevins.

Hello! My name is Taylor Blevins, and I’m a B.L.U.E. Program intern in McKinstry’s Portland office. I first met with a McKinstry representative at the Oregon State University career fair and once I learned more about the company, I knew it would be a good fit for me.

I’m currently a rising senior at Oregon State studying Energy Systems Engineering. I also have some experience in BIM (Building Information Modeling) from my last internship with an architectural firm.

Ever since that internship ended, I’ve wanted to further-develop my skills in building systems and learn more about how buildings consume energy. As an engineer, it’s important that I learn how to help reduce that energy consumption.

Since McKinstry focuses on the mechanical systems of buildings and the energy aspect of buildings, I knew I was in the right place. So far my experience with McKinstry has been tremendous and I’m learning constantly.

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Getting To Know: Max King (Portland)

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Max King.

Hello! My name is Max King and I’m a B.L.U.E. Program intern at McKinstry’s Portland office. I work on the mechanical majors team, and I’m also studying Construction Management at Washington State University.

When I was pursuing an internship, I knew that one of my family members had previously worked for McKinstry. I thought interning here would be a good way to get my foot in the door with a company that already knows my family’s work ethic.

For my degree program at WSU, there are a few companies that come in nearly every week of the semester to present to students about their company, projects, goals and culture. I made sure to attend the McKinstry presentation and interview with them.

Ultimately, I chose McKinstry because of their commitment to creating a truly sustainable built environment. I wanted to gain experience in the mechanical field and I’d heard good things from my family about McKinstry.

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