It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know

My name is Natalie Gadelrab, I’m a junior studying Ocean Engineering with a minor in Sustainability. This past summer I interned with Carnival Cruise Line in the Technical Operations department. I worked alongside engineers and project managers on energy efficiency projects involving water consumption, energy usage, hul fouling, and looked into issues they were having with exhaust gas. I also assisted the project managers with re-organizing systems they use to oversee the projects and learned a lot about MS Excel and MS Project. Because of this internship, I gained invaluable connections with industry professionals, and am working on my Sustainability Capstone project with Carnival Cruise Line!

The internship position was one which was not publicly advertised and was created specifically for me due to having been a Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) Scholarship Winner, a huge honor within the society. During the annual SNAME Maritime Convention on October 26. 2018, I was elected to the position of Chair for the Student Steering Committee. The Student Steering Committee is an international committee within the Society and I am the first ever women and the first student from Florida Tech to be elected to the chair of the SSC (to my knowledge, I’m working to find the history on it), the SSC has been around for 10 years. As chairperson of the SSC, I will be serving on the executive council for SNAME and will be on the planning committee for the 2019 SMC.

My biggest piece of advice to students are that it’s important to network, what you know is important, but who you know is even more important.