Over the summer, senior Alexis Gauba secured an internship with The Hive, a company that “incubates, funds and launches data-driven business,” Gauba said. It was her second time interning for the company, the first being in summer 2015 as a data science intern. She was invited back this past summer for a paid position as a data engineering intern.

Gauba’s primary responsibility at The Hive was to work on Synapse, “the company’s large-scale architecture for data processing applications that all of the startups use,” Gauba said. “A typical day consisted of coding, meeting with my boss, the CTO, lunch with co-workers on University Avenue, and the occasional UX or marketing meeting when I was working on side projects for different teams at the company.” She also had the opportunity to attend Think Tank meetups and hear from industry leaders on a variety of topics.

In addition to providing valuable industry experience, the internship gave Gauba the chance to see how the concepts she learned at school apply to the business world. “Having the opportunity to experience a work environment while still in high school provided truly valuable exposure into how CS processes function in industry, and of the workplace in general,” she said. “Working on my main project, I had to take the strong base of concepts I learned in AP CS and Data Structures and build upon that, learning about new ideas and technologies quickly, and then applying them.”

The internship was also a great networking opportunity, and helped Gauba grow her understanding of the funding process from the perspective of both the venture and the startup. “Working over the summer not only gave me a unique perspective into the world of CS, as I was able to work with cutting-edge technologies, but also insight into the workplace environment, allowing me to understand the career path I might want to pursue in college and beyond,” she said.