Arlington School & Family Magazine June/July 2015 | Page 9

Lockheed Martin Graduates First Class
of High School Engineering Interns

Five AISD seniors gave their final project reports marking
the completion of their high school engineering internship
at Lockheed Martin’s aeronautics business. Upon their high
school graduation, they will transition to college interns for
the summer.
Lockheed Martin developed the program in partnership
with the AISD as part of its efforts to prime the pipeline
for engineering talent. In addition to a mature internship
program, the AISD incorporates the Project Lead the Way
engineering curriculum in its schools. Project Lead the
Way is a nationwide experiential engineering curriculum
designed to spur interest in science, technology, engineering
and math.
The five student interns are Benson Phillips and Amy
Hughes from Arlington High School, Colton McAfee
from Bowie High School, Austin Smith from Martin High
School, and Abdallah Shishani from Seguin High School.
“The students have had an opportunity to engage in
engineering assignments and projects,” said Laura Hopkins,
Lockheed Martin corporate staffing director. “They are
making meaningful impacts on our business and will

continue to do so through their college studies and
summer internships.”
“Project Lead the Way is also interested in expanding
the high school engineering internship program to other
business partners,” said Judy D’Amigo, Project Lead The
Way vice president of development.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin
is a global security and aerospace company that employs
approximately 112,000 people worldwide and is principally
engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture,
integration and sustainment of advanced technology
systems, products and services. The Corporation’s net sales
for 2014 were $45.6 billion. †
“I would say the most rewarding part of my internship at Lockheed was
having something I could work on all year and constantly learn from, be
that from trial and error or from feedback from my supervisor. I went in
with not the slightest idea of what a database was, but with the resources
and time there, I was able to teach myself how to build one. Learning
in that way is not only more effective, it’s so much more rewarding than
anything else I have experienced.” ~ Colton McAfee

June/July 2015 - Arlington School & Family 7