Student Spotlight: Ameem Khan

Why did you choose your internship and how did you secure it?

My journey began on the first day of my C Programming Fundamentals class. Before this class, I'd never seen any code in my life, so the first day came as a major shock. Everyone around me seemed to be ahead and was able to understand the lesson while I felt like I was falling behind. I tried to self-study after class and still could not grasp the basic concepts. This continued for a few more weeks in which my other classes started to weigh on me heavily. I started to talk to my peers to learn more efficiently. I ended up hearing about an event called the Professor Mixer hosted by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) club.

I attended this event and had a one-on-one conversation with Professor Chen, my C programming professor. She walked me through some of the problems I was having by drawing some diagrams for me and broke down the basic functions that I was having trouble understanding. This was the first real interaction I had with Professor Chen and it helped me grasp the concepts incredibly well. Following this interaction I began speaking to the professor more often and realized that Professor Chen genuinely wanted me to succeed. It was the first time I felt such kindness from a professor and it helped me feel confident in my abilities.

This gave me the confidence to apply to my dream internship which is called Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship which is hosted by the Department of Energy. I read through what this internship entailed and thought it would be a great learning experience. I also saw that this internship required a letter of recommendation. My first thought went straight to Professor Chen. I realized the due date of the application was very soon so I asked Professor Chen if it'd be possible for her to help me in such a time crunch. She did not even hesitate to help me out even though it was during a holiday. Due to Professor Chen's help throughout the semester, I was not only able to apply but was accepted to the SULI internship. Thank you, Professor Chen, I really appreciate everything you've done for me.