Our internship program

The C.A. Lawton Co. prides itself on its dedication to helping individuals grow professionally. One way it does this is by opening up internship opportunities for people to get hands-on experience working in a foundry setting. This summer, the company added an engineering intern to the team named Paola Rivera García. Paola was a returning intern, as she worked with the company last summer. Paola is an enthusiastic 25-year-old engineering student from Puerto Rico. She is currently finishing up her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering (minoring in aerospace engineering) at The Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.

When reflecting on her time with us last year and why she decided to return, she states “I learned so much last summer about the company and the different types of processes they do that I was eager to have the opportunity again to come back and try new things.”

Being passionate and learning new things

Paola expresses her passion for engineering adding that “I decided to pursue this career because I’m curious about different types of machinery that are specifically designed to help humanity be at its best performance. I’m also fascinated by spacecraft and astronomy, so a minor in aerospace engineering is an extra benefit.”

From the very beginning, Paola was excited to learn new things. She came in with a great attitude and seemed genuinely curious about how we do things and why. “The training process was easy-going, everything was well detailed and whenever I didn’t understand something I felt free to ask,” she says. The company’s aim for anyone going through its training process is to be as thorough as possible. Paola is yet another example of that.

Paola’s experience

Paola was in charge of helping the ERP team with the standardizing process, as well as data entry. She worked very hard to learn how to work with a new database and far exceeded expectations.

She enjoyed collaborating with her coworkers to learn new processes. She was happy to be welcomed onto the team with open arms. “The company is very ‘Family like’ everyone is hard working and kind with each other. They’ve been more than helpful to me,” Paola states.  

Manufacturing Engineer, Tricia Berg, stated “Paola has been an instrumental player in helping us prepare for the next ERP go live date at PMC. I don’t know how we would have done it without her. All along she has been open and willing to work on anything we would send her way and her attention to detail has made her an invaluable team member.”

Foundry Engineer Supervisor, Jeff Taylor, said “I enjoyed working with Paola. She’s like a sponge for knowledge. She is creative and reliable. You can give her a task with little direction and get something that is very professional and detailed. I have nothing but good things to say about her.”

Project Engineer, Brandon Leatherberry, stated “Paola exhibits all the qualities we seek in a great teammate. She evaluates any tasks given to her, asks questions as needed, and digs in to accomplish the work accordingly with minimal supervision. She communicates status updates on progress and completion timely with appropriate detail while providing an excellent work product. I would not hesitate to add Paola to any project team. She has certainly been an invaluable contributor to our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project team, and I look forward to continuing to work with her.”

Purchasing Manager, Ryan Adamski, added “Paola was great to work with. She was eager to help and provided a lot of value to the project.”

Hard work and collaboration pays off

Paola’s work and ability to mix with the team earned her a job with us after her summer internship ended. She now continues to help with data entry. She also helps to set up tools, products, cores, routings, and BOMs.

“The experience has been great; I can’t thank everyone enough. I’m more than happy to be given this opportunity,” she states.

She went on to say “I feel more prepared to take on a job in my career field since I’ve been able to observe different types of engineering processes up close and learn to be versatile as an engineer.” Her plan for the future is to work at a company that is constantly seeking new solutions to modern problems and making extraordinary improvements, and C.A. Lawton has no doubt that she will succeed in any path she decides to take in her engineering career.