Why did you want to do an internship? What interested you in the company you worked for?

Within engineering and computer science, there is no better experience than an internship or co-op. I felt that pursuing an AI-focused internship would help strengthen my resume while improving my technical skills. I chose this opportunity with Midland States Bank in Rockford, Illinois because of the body of work, getting to work on AI systems, and because it is my personal bank, which gave the work I was doing more purpose. I found the job posting right when it went up on LinkedIn, applied, heard back quickly, and eventually got the offer in mid-January.

What did a typical day at your internship look like? What sort of projects did you work on?

I started my day at 8 a.m., in the office Monday through Thursday and remote on Fridays. At 8:45 I had our daily stand-up with the AI team, which was me, my boss (Director of Engineering and AI Strategy), and a Senior AI Solutions Engineer, where we recapped the previous day, went over what we had planned, and talked through any roadblocks. From there, I spent about a third of my day in meetings with different parts of the bank to improve or build out our technology, a third researching best practices and new tools, and the final third using that research to build out software.

My main project was an LLM proxy gateway for SpotCheck, our internal employee AI chatbot. The proxy sits between the user and the LLM API call to make sure no sensitive information leaves the bank, employees only have access to the policies and documents they need, and all interactions are logged for auditing. I also built an evaluator tool to test SpotCheck responses against new models and backend setups, researched tools like Open Policy Agent for policy-as-code controls, and launched the AI Solutions Hub, a SharePoint site where employees can learn AI basics, prompting, and responsible AI use.

How did your engineering skills benefit you in your internship?

The skills I learned orchestrating AI agents in my Generative AI Tools (GAIT) course were the most important to me while working through the agentic flow of SpotCheck. On the proxy gateway, I worked with a lot of technologies I had never used before, like RabbitMQ, Celery, Oracle database integration, and policy-as-code tools. I researched each one through documentation and technical videos, broke the architecture into smaller components, tested each part on its own, and then gradually connected them into a complete end-to-end system.

What did you learn working at your internship that you didn’t learn as a student?

I learned a lot about the current state of AI and LLMs and how enterprises use them in a safe and responsible way. I also learned how individual technologies fit together within a full enterprise architecture, and how to work with teams like Risk, Security, and Compliance. I developed my software development skills through research, talking with coworkers, and becoming efficient with Codex, which was a big part of my job. I was also surprised by how much autonomy I had. Near the end of the summer, I got to demo the security framework I built to the heads of the risk management department and the Chief Digital Officer.

What are you hoping/planning to do after you get your B.S.E.?

As I finish my BSE in Spring 2027, I will be starting a Software Engineering co-op with RTX on their AI enablement team. I am still deciding whether completing my MS in ECE through the U2G program is the best path or if I would rather go straight into industry, but either way I am excited for my post-grad future. Ultimately, I want to get into a tech-focused management or leadership role.

How did your internship experience influence your plans for the future?

With my focus area being AI and ML, my internship directly connected to my future goals and reinforced that I want a career in this field. I enjoy being on the cutting edge of the AI/ML space and can see myself building out or leading teams that create these kinds of tools.

What is your advice to current students on seeking and serving internships?

My biggest advice would be to stay disciplined and not cheat the process. Take advantage of all the opportunities available, like career fairs, peer advising, and mentoring. As long as you keep your head down and put in the necessary effort, you will find the right opportunity for you. Once you are in your internship, take notes, ask questions, and don’t be afraid of failure. Doing these three things allows you to productively learn and grow.