Not Your Average Internship

What do you get when you combine real-world experiences, a collaborative team environment, strengths-focused personal and professional development, and exposure to a positive working culture? One rockin’ internship with ISG! This year, ISG welcomed 35 interns into our offices—investing in their experiences by providing customized and meaningful opportunities that mutually impact our firm and each student.

Collaboration Culture + Project Experiences

By jumping right into ISG culture and their discipline-specific roles, our interns get to experience a real-life perspective of working in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. Interns are immersed in ISGs culture of collaboration by attending on-site visits and participating in client conversations, internal design meetings, and executing assigned tasks. ISG mentors guide them by providing resources and a support team to develop their professional skills, setting them up for long-term success. Check out some hands-on project opportunities ISG offered our interns this summer!

“I've done inspections on stormwater detention basins, shadowed the wetland delineation team working on a park project in West Des Moines, and volunteered for an Impact Day event picking up trash along bike trails and in a city park.” - Christen Bain, Water Resources Intern, Iowa State University

“My mentor and I took a trip to Pierre, South Dakota to complete a structural inspection of some older buildings in the area. The Fort Pierre Museum had us in the crawl space and I learned about wood floor systems.” - Jackson Bruggeman, Structural Intern, South Dakota State University

“I’ve been doing what I love and am focusing on what I'm passionate about! I went on a site visit to a U-Haul self-storage building in Des Moines, Iowa. It was really neat to see the project almost complete!” – Lily Trenkamp, Architecture Intern, University of Arizona

“I helped design temporary traffic control by optimizing road usage while keeping costs down. I was also out in the field, testing pavement for I-90.” - Major Rhoten, Transportation Intern, University of Iowa

Embracing A Strengths-Based Culture

Every ISGer and intern takes the CliftonStrengths assessment within their first few weeks at ISG. This online assessment measures an individual’s unique talents, approach, and behaviors towards a variety of statements to determine their top strengths. Understanding and fully embracing these unique strengths can help individuals and teams elevate awareness, collaboration, development, and performance. Read on to see how some of our interns are maximizing their strengths expanding their knowledge, developing their skills, and contributing to the firm.

“I am re-designing a park to include a splash pad and newer amenities, and I was able to provide a couple different options to the team. I used my communication strength to describe my quick sketches and ideas to help people understand the final vision of the project site.”– Jenna Vanboxtel, Landscape Architecture Intern, University of Wisconsin, Madison

“One of my top five strengths is strategic, which I’ve used throughout my internship to understand the reasoning behind why things are designed and constructed. I’ve learned so much here, and being able to wrap my head around different processes and ideas has helped my experience immensely.” – Zachary Taylor, Civil Intern, North Dakota State University

“One of my strengths is focus. This is extremely important when working in the field and some days are chaotic. When the contractors have a busy day, it is important to stay focused, ensuring everyone is safe and that the construction process goes according to plan.” – Christian Kapanke, Land Survey Intern, University of Wisconsin Platteville

“I embrace my analytical strength on site visits. We often conduct jar tests to see how chemical additions react with water chemistry to remove contaminants like hardness, heavy metals, and other particulates. This requires a very methodic procedure to see what works and what doesn’t.”  – Russell Brummer, Water/Wastewater Intern, South Dakota State University

“Over the past eight weeks, I have used my individualization, strategic, and maximizer strengths to create personalized sessions for the employee owners that I am coaching within ISG. Additionally, my learner strength has been at the forefront of my work as I’ve had the opportunity to learn about the AEC industry and grow professionally through coaching individuals and speaking in front of large groups!” – Kinzee Miest, Talent Engagement Intern, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Join Our Team!

ISG provides an internship experience like no other and equips our interns with the tools to grow as professionals and jump-start their careers. If you are eager to learn and have some fun, check out us out at campus career fairs or at careers@isginc.com for your next internship or to advance your career. We are excited to see where we can go together!