Ashton’s Intern Experience – What Can’t be Taught in a Classroom

Hey there, my name is Ashton Davidson and I am currently attending Missouri University of Science and Technology. I will be a senior in the fall of 2021 and intend to graduate in the fall of 2022, majoring in civil engineering, pursuing a career in construction. In pursuing a construction career, I am advancing my education and experience by interning with Alberici. This summer of 2021 I am in my second internship with this great company and have the privilege of spending my second summer contributing to the success of the King’s Bay Dry Dock Recapitalization. The previous summer, this project was still in the “on-boarding” phase and team members were just starting to mobilize on site. I met quite a few different ranking and specialized people from both sides of the joint venture, all of whom I learned from and gained valuable experience that cannot be taught in a classroom.

For me, choosing this internship had a lot to do with craving the real world construction processes and dynamics. When I first accepted this internship, my family was in the middle of building our dream home. We have self-performed almost the entire house and I have learned a lot about construction, from pouring concrete footers to screwing in the structural studs. I have grown to desire the possibilities that construction offers our society. We were able to build our dream home with friends and family  pitching in their specialties, such as electric and plumbing, and if my family and I can build our dream home with just our small group people, I could only imagine the amazing things Alberici could build with their trusted business relationships and resources.

Now, that I have been apart of Alberici for some time, I see all the great things this company does. Some great things include the wide range of projects they take on. For instance, the Dry Dock Recapitalization project is a huge government job, with a lot of eyes on it and a very strict schedule to keep up with since our Navy has planned this “outage,” so to speak, specifically at this time when they can afford to have the dry dock empty. There has been immense coordination and planning meetings among the client, the joint venture and all our many subcontractors to facilitate the anticipated successful completion of this project. I do feel very proud to be part of such amazing work and for such a great company. I know this company will never stop striving for the best and that includes hiring the best people in their field to be on their team.