Anabelle Lopez, a rising senior majoring in environmental engineering at Florida Polytechnic University, is completing a utility engineering internship with the City of Fort Myers.
Anabelle Lopez spent the summer working as a utility engineering intern with the City of Fort Myers – an experience she spent countless hours researching and working toward.
“I wanted to see the different ways I could apply the education I’ve received to the real world, whether in the public or private sector,” said the environmental engineering major from Miami. “I spent months combing through multiple government websites for various cities in Florida looking for an internship, and I’m very glad I found this one.”
Lopez, a rising senior at Florida Polytechnic University, is managing and participating in several public works projects aimed at improving drinking water quality, system management, efficiency, safety, record keeping and meeting the rising need for water output throughout Fort Myers.
The internship has helped her develop managerial skills, she said.
“As project managers, we make sure everybody is doing what they are supposed to be doing when they are supposed to be doing it,” Lopez said. “There is significantly more supervising, delegating and communicating than expected, though I am pleased with how it has worked out.”
The work, she said, has also sharpened her networking skills and given her access to experienced professionals in the field.
But what may be the greatest part of the experience is putting her classroom knowledge to work in the real world. Her internship has involved updating and improving older systems for treatment and transportation to improve water quality for citizen satisfaction and prevent potential contamination of surrounding environments.
“Before this internship, these were things I had only read about in textbooks and calculated for hypotheticals in homework assignments,” she said. “The environmental engineering coursework at Florida Poly has a significant focus on water and water treatment, which is incredibly relevant to utilities management.”
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Lydia Guzmán
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