Trentin and Taylor

Meet the OPP Interns - Trentin Herrington & Taylor McKay

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

By Ali Sherretta, OPP Communications Intern

Trentin Herrington and Taylor McKay are both going to be juniors at Penn State this fall. Trentin is a landscape architecture major and Taylor is a civil engineering major. They are both interning at OPP as civil design interns under Rich Manning and Jason McCoy.

Q: What made you choose to come to Penn State?

Trentin: It's a local campus for me and my dad has been working here for about 20 years now so, it was a pretty easy choice.

Taylor: I didn't want to come to Penn State originally. I didn't want to go to a big school. After I talked with my parents and chose engineering, Penn State is really good engineering school so that sealed the deal.

Q: How did you hear about the position you applied for?

Trentin: I saw it on the Stuckeman School’s website and I initially had an interview with Derek Kalp, who is in Landscape Architect here. He sent my resume down to Design Services and that's how I got the interview there for my position.

Taylor: The husband of a woman that worked with my mom is a professor at Penn State. He is also the head of an engineering department. He gave me a bunch of internships to apply for and the OPP internship happened to be one of them.

Q: Describe the main project(s) you are working on for OPP.

Trentin: We do a lot of project consulting. We have a few projects, not just one specific one. We bounce back and forth between three or four at a time. Right now, we're doing project closeouts for last year's projects. I think that should last until the end of the summer.

Taylor: We're given tasks that our supervisors need help with or just need to have done quickly. We do different things like project closeouts, project startups, and CAD drawings for startup projects. It's different every day.

Q: Can you describe your typical work day?

Trentin: It's never the same. I would say at least half the day is in an office and then the other half we're usually on a work site or going to different sites. We talk to contractors and construction workers.

Taylor: Some days we'll be out in the field and some days our supervisors will come in and ask us if we want to go to a work site. Half the day we're probably in the office doing consulting and administration tasks.

Q: What has your internship prepared you for thus far?

Trentin: I feel like it's given me a lot more real-world experience. It made me look at design parts you may not see in the classroom or get to experience, especially working with contractors and construction companies. It gives you a different perspective on how to work through it.

Taylor: Thus far, this internship has prepared me for real-world situations. The internship shows the imperfections of the job, as any job will have, as well as the simplicity of mistakes that can be made. It helps me see and understand how miniscule things can severely impact a project and how important it is to pay attention to little details. This really helps me prepare for life and living a life in this field of study.

Q: Talk about your experience with Special Olympics. What was the most rewarding part?

Trentin: Seeing the satisfaction of the athletics being here. We did a lot of the moving in and it was nice to help with that part. They didn't have to worry about it so much and were relaxed when they got here. I think that helped their overall experience.

Taylor: It felt really rewarding. I helped with Special Olympics in high school, but not so much at Penn State, which is obviously a lot bigger. It's really satisfying to do that. It's really rewarding to see how much you're helping just by doing little things, so I really enjoyed doing it and I'm glad I did.

Q: After reflecting on your internship, would you recommend this experience to others?

Trentin: I would definitely recommend it.

Taylor: Absolutely.