Interns With Impact 2024: Emma, Engineering Intern

Following in her parents' engineering footsteps, Emma (pictured here, operating a backhoe) is spending her summer on the Pacific island of Guam, using her skills to help deliver the gospel to people across Asia.

With roots in Midland, Michigan, Emma is a rising senior at Michigan Technological University, where she studies mechanical engineering. She brings enthusiasm for family, adventure and the Lord to her service with TWR this summer. Time away from her parents and two siblings was one of the sacrifices she made so she could work as an engineering intern.

Growing up, Emma had the utmost respect for her parents, who are both engineers (her mother specializes in chemical engineering, while her father focuses on the mechanical discipline). From an early age, she fell in love with learning how things work and how she could make them work better and more reliably.

With her engineering skills at hand, Emma eagerly joined TWR’s summer internship program and literally headed across the world to serve.

“I love that TWR is using technology to reach people with the only information that matters in eternity. I wanted to spend this summer working in a ministry capacity, and this opportunity would allow me to use my degree to share the gospel with the unreached.”

Q. What is your role with TWR this summer, and where will you serve?

I am serving as an engineering intern on Guam at the TWR station.

Q. How did you hear about TWR?

I got connected to TWR through The Traveling Team. They visit universities and help students connect to ministry opportunities that relate to their major, in my case, mechanical engineering.

Q. What are you enjoying the most so far?

I’ve really loved getting my hands dirty. Each day I get to work in the field on equipment that directly affects the broadcasts. It has been such an honor to work...where I can see the impact my work has on the broadcasts that can change lives.

Q. What is the most challenging thing for you this summer?

The time zone difference has been a bigger challenge than I anticipated! I’m very close with my family, and it has been harder to stay in regular contact with them with the (14-hour) time difference. However, we’ve found creative ways to communicate, and it has been fun to share with them all that I am learning and doing!

Q. What are you most excited to do during your internship? Work or personal?

For work, the first time, we climbed up 160 feet to replace cables on the counterweight system. The antennas act like giant sails in the wind, and the counterweight system allows the antennas to billow out without snapping and flying away. This was a critical repair since Guam is in typhoon season, and so the antennas need to be able to withstand high winds.

I got to climb a different tower last week. I got to go all the way to the top this time! This most recent climb was truly just for fun. It was a beautiful, slow day at the office, and it was a goal of mine to get to the top of a tower, so we climbed.

Q. At this point, what is your favorite thing about TWR?

It has been such an honor to work in a facility where seven people potentially reach billions of people with the gospel.

Aside from that, I have worked in secular engineering contexts before, and it has been such an encouragement to me to combine work and faith in an engineering capacity. It has brought me so much joy to use my skills to serve the Lord and share the gospel.

Q. Is this your first ministry/missions experience? If not, where have you served?

Like many students who were raised in the church, I did missions trips throughout my middle and high school years. However, this is the first mission trip longer than 10 days.

One summer when I was in high school, my hometown flooded, and I joined the missions team working with my home church to help with flood relief. I volunteered over 200 hours, working to demolish, dry, and then rebuild homes in my area. I was a team lead and got to be heavily involved with the day-to-day ministry of missions work.

I am heavily involved in Intervarsity and my church, and so I have lots of ministry experience from being on campus and being a leader in the college-aged group for my church.

Q. What was the biggest sacrifice you made to be here this summer?

I did not return to my co-op job where I have worked the past two summers (and a fall). The company I have been working with typically hires students before they enter their senior year. Although I should still have a chance to interview, I am unsure of how the process will go. I trust that God will open the doors he wants me to walk through, and I pray that he will slam the doors he doesn’t.

Q. What do you hope to try this summer that’s new? Or favorite activity or food?

I don’t really have a distinct favorite food. I’m definitely a foodie, so I am trying all the good food I can get my hands on here on Guam! So far, I have been very impressed with the kabobs … they are so good!

I am also looking forward to hiking Mount Lamlam. Because of Guam’s proximity to the Marianas Trench, Mount Lamlam is the tallest mountain in the world. (Technically the tallest mountain in the world because most of it is under water.) The views from the top look gorgeous!

Q. What is your favorite hobby that you have now/ or hope to develop this summer?

While I’m at school, I really enjoy stargazing and hunting for the northern lights. The northern lights are harder to see in Guam, although the stargazing is wonderful because it is so dark here at night! This summer, I am working to develop my photography skills. Although I’m pretty good with my phone camera, I’d also like to get better with a DSLR as well.

Fun Facts: “Like most kids, I was interested in following in my parents’ footsteps. Because of that, I have been telling people I want to be an engineer since I was young!” Emma shared. “Family dinner conversations covered all sorts of topics, including how airplanes fly (including free body diagrams on the whiteboard in the kitchen), how combines work, how crop protection chemicals work, the chemistry of cooking, and just about anything else science- and math-related that we could dream of asking!” Emma loves the northern lights and has seen them over a dozen times!

Images: (banner, top) Following in her parents' engineering footsteps, Emma [pictured here, operating a backhoe] is spending her summer on the Pacific island of Guam, using her skills to help deliver the gospel to people across Asia, (top, left) Emma's engineering internship gives her the opportunity to experience her discipline firsthand, including climbing the radio towers on-site, (middle, right) An example of some of the damage the sea air can cause equipment on the island [left] and Emma's meticulous work to restore it [right], (bottom, right) Emma's ocean view from one of her tower climbs, (bottom, left) Island life has its perks, like this batch of bananas at the Guam site.