UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sarah Newby had one goal when she went to the fall 2014 career fair at Penn State: hand her résumé to an ExxonMobil representative. New to the materials science and engineering (MatSE) major, she was excited for any MatSE experience she could get her hands on, and one of her professors had mentioned that ExxonMobil was looking specifically for MatSE students.
Newby, a senior Schreyer Scholar working toward a bachelor of science in MatSE and a bachelor of arts in Chinese, traveled to Houston in fall 2015 after landing a semester-long product-development internship with the company.
“ExxonMobil has a fantastic internship program. The company assigns projects that would have otherwise been completed by the full-time employees, and challenges interns to produce results that can help advance the project to the next stage,” Newby said.
Newby worked with ExxonMobil Chemical Company’s Gas Phase and Differentiated Polyethylene Product Development group, which turns polymer-based research into products for commercialization. Her internship focused on blown film grades of polyethylene, the material commonly used to create plastic bags and plastic wrap.
“It’s a really exciting group to be involved with. Product development has ties to both research and marketing, which allowed me to expand my knowledge of polymer fundamentals while also learning about the bigger picture,” she said.