For this year’s International Internship Program, we welcomed 15 students from Poland for positions in our engineering and supply chain departments, and five students from the Czech Republic working in our engineering department. This internship experience takes place at two of our U.S.-based engineering hubs: Cranberry Woods Headquarters in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania and Rock Hill, South Carolina.
“We are thrilled to welcome these outstanding university students as part of our Westinghouse team, offering them a chance to learn from us, gain deep industry insights, and share this knowledge in their home countries,” said David Durham, President, Westinghouse Energy Systems. “We value the fresh perspectives our interns bring and their role in shaping our nuclear legacy, and it is a privilege for us to mentor them in return.”
During their time at Westinghouse, the students embarked on diverse activities to enrich their experience and foster personal and professional growth.
The interns enjoy dinner with Engineering leadership in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
The students got a behind-the-scenes tour of many prominent nuclear industry facilities, such as the Penn State University Breazeale Reactor in State College, Pennsylvania, which is the country’s longest, continuously operated nuclear research reactor; Westinghouse’s instrumentation and control (I&C) production, design and testing facility in Warrendale (Pennsylvania) and Energy Harbor’s Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport (Pennsylvania). In addition, the teams toured the AP1000® Reactor Control Room Simulator at Westinghouse’s global headquarters.
“Working at Westinghouse Electric Company provided me with invaluable insights into the real-world application of my studies. This internship was not just an opportunity but a stepping stone toward a promising nuclear engineering career. I'm incredibly grateful for the experience,” said Lucie Titzova, a student of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague.
“I'd say that the greatest benefit of that internship for me was understanding how the knowledge I learned at the university can be applied to a very particular problem, which in this case was designing a nuclear power plant. I understood how things I was taught and which I learned in my free time, especially programming, made it possible for me to complete assigned tasks and provide meaningful suggestions,” said Stefan Horodenski, a student of Applied Physics at the AGH University of Krakow.
The students had the unique opportunity to connect with our top-level executives. These interactions occurred over scheduled coffee chats or during dinners with several executives, such as Luca Oriani, Westinghouse’s Global Chief Engineering Services Officer and Pavan Pattada, Executive Vice President of Westinghouse’s Global Operations Services. The interns also met with Durham and technical leaders who supported the Vogtle AP1000® project in Georgia.
"I learned a lot about nuclear reactors and the whole industry. I also really enjoyed the working environment where I worked with many people who were very helpful and always open to questions. I am grateful for this opportunity,” said Maciej Dyduch, a student of Power Engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology.
The interns visit the PSU Reactor.
Beyond professional development, the students had the opportunity to participate in various team-building experiences, including attending sporting events such as the Chicago Cubs/Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game.
“My time at Westinghouse was a wonderful lifetime achievement. I've gained so much hands-on work experience, created many new friendships, and could have felt ‘America’ on my own skin! It was truly an exquisite and remarkable opportunity,” Karol Śliwa, an Engineering and Data Analysis student at the AGH University of Krakow.
As this internship journey at Westinghouse concludes, we extend our best wishes to the interns who have completed it, with the expectation that some of them may find rewarding careers within Westinghouse, leveraging the skills and experiences gained during their time here. We believe that their dedication and hard work will pave the way for continued and extraordinary success in their future careers.
Header photo: David Durham with interns from Poland and the Czech Republic