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Young interns gaining work experience [The Porterville Recorder, Calif.](Porterville Recorder (CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) July 01--When asked what they did over summer vacation, three Harmony Magnet Academy of Engineering students will have a unique answer. They are spending their summer getting some hands-on experience through an internship program offered through the Porterville Unified School District's Charter Pathway Program. Mark Hernandez, Juan Morales and Gricelda Astorga, all juniors at Harmony Magnet, have been working on the framework for expanding the three-story training facility at the drill grounds -- 3.5 acres -- behind and surrounding the Porterville Fire Department Station 2 on Newcomb Street. The three students have been working on blue prints and drawing three-dimensional renderings of state-of-the-art training props from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays at the facility. Starting with the original blue prints to the existing training facility, the students first updated the prints by removing what was no longer there and making it current. Once that feat was completed, they began working on updating the facility on paper -- adding a roof, steps, and sprinkler system. In addition, they will be creating various props inside three Sea Train shipping containers, and measure and figure out the topography of the land using surveying equipment. Building codes must also be kept in mind the entire time, Hernandez said. "Even the concrete has to be up to code," Hernandez said. "The hard part is making sure everything fits perfect and getting everything in position." The work requires a lot of math, something all three students said they enjoy and excel in. "I'm working on measurements and elevations," Astorga said as she looked through an instrument to a measuring pole Hernandez held several feet away. As Astorga measured, Morales obtained longitude and latitude measurements and determined the GPS of the area. "I'm doing this for the experience, in case I choose to be in this career," Morales said. "It's fun and interesting. We're trying to find out all the elevations." All of the data will be placed into a computer for further evaluation. The students plan on using CAT, computer assisted or computer aided translation -- computer software programs that will help them accomplish their goal. Besides working on the three-story building, the trio will also place a large slab of concrete, add tower lights, and create a staged scenario of a mass casualty training exercise -- a school bus crashing into a vehicle -- on an empty plot of land adjacent to the fire station. The students are pushing toward finishing the first two prop renderings by August and will be presenting them, along with a report, to the Porterville City Council. "I've seen some of their work and I am excited to see the final product," said Ruben Alvarez, work base long coordinator and project manager. "This is a perfect example of Porterville Unified School District's Pathways, incorporating classroom lessons into real-world application." Once the blueprints are completed, the firefighters themselves will do all the labor and work on the actual building of the props, Alvarez said. "We're building a good part of it ourselves," said Battalion Chief Loran Blasdell, of Porterville Fire Department Station 2. "We've actually already started some of it but depending on funding, from the Indian Gaming Grant, we're going to be building parts of it at a time." But in the meantime, the students -- three of 120 Pathway students who have been placed as interns at various businesses around town -- are volunteering their time and gaining experience while putting what they have learned in their civil engineering classroom to use. Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or [email protected]. ___ To see more of The Porterville Recorder or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.portervillerecorder.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, The Porterville Recorder, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544) |