Here at Trico, we are proud to offer summer internships that provide quality, practical work experience to college students.

Through this program we’ve seen previous interns become full-time staff at Trico. Our interns are an essential part of bringing Trico’s mission to life, and we are excited to see what they will accomplish in their future careers.

For interns Mark Smalling, Rylee Schull and Austin Cathers, the past few summers have been a great learning experience.

Mark assisted the Designers with field staking and Engineering in documenting and sending out as-built drawings. He also learned the internal workings, purpose and operation of single phase reclosers from Journeyman Substation Technician Bill Roethle. Bill said he enjoyed working with Mark, and said Mark is a great student and learns fast. Mark is currently a student at Pima Community College working towards his associate’s degree in Science.

“Working for Trico has helped me see that I have an interest in power engineering and I intend to transfer to ASU to study that,” Mark said. “I’ve really enjoyed coming in here every day over the summer. It’s given me the time to learn from my fellow employees and it’s a good opportunity to give back to the community.”

Rylee is a senior at Grand Canyon University majoring in Marketing and Advertising. She has been a valuable asset to Marketing and Communications, helping with social media and other marketing projects, including writing and gathering content for the Livewire newsletter and checking different websites to make sure their information about Trico is up to date. She also created a brochure and fact sheet about Trico for employees and Members.

“I have learned so much in the past four years and it has been such a great experience for me,” Rylee said. “The experience that I’ve gained here at Trico has been exceptional and I’ve worked with exceptional people who have taught me so much about how to have a job and life, how to do marketing and communications. It’s been a wonderful time.”

Austin is attending the University of Arizona majoring in Computer Science. He said he has enjoyed working in IT.

Information Systems Supervisor Robert Duke said Austin “has been a valuable member of the IT team and while we’re excited for him to continue his education we will miss his contributions until he returns.” Austin worked on computer updates, started new computer builds, and assisted IT in their software, hardware and network troubleshooting.