Interns become lifelong leaders

Dec. 6, 2023

By Lauren Macias-Cervantes

El PASO — It is not unusual to find someone at TxDOT who starts as an intern and becomes an important part of the team for more than 20 years.

TxDOT offices across the state get extra help with an intern year-round as thousands of high school and college students join the ranks to gain valuable experience at TxDOT. The students are immersed in different sections of maintenance and engineering. There’s no question TxDOT’s internship program nurtures success stories.

El Paso District Engineer Tomas Treviño started his TxDOT career as a summer hire and said the program has positive potential long-term impacts.

“The summer intern program is as beneficial to the department as it is to our summer interns,” Treviño said. “Interns experience a professional working environment and get to develop and practice new skills. It affords them the ability to see how their formal education translates to real-world problems. It benefits the department by exposing the transportation industry to tomorrow’s workforce and, if we are lucky, interns will enjoy their summer experience so much, they will seek full-time employment when they graduate..”

The 30-year veteran of the department is not alone. There are others on his leadership team that have grown from interns to leaders in their careers.

“If I could sum up the TxDOT Summer Internship program in one word, it would be ‘opportunity’,” said El Paso District Director of Transportation Planning and Development Raul Ortega. “The summer program provides students the opportunity to gain practical engineering and maintenance experience, which they will carry with them for the rest of their careers. Being a participant of this program myself, it gave me the opportunity to gain the valuable perspectives and experience to start my engineering career.”

Their story has been repeated time and again, including in January when two new engineering assistants joined the El Paso office full-time. This came after they graduated college and spent years dedicating their summers sharpening their skills.

Ivan Ramirez, an engineering assistant, spent time at the district and area office ahead of his role in design.

“I started at TxDOT as a junior in high school and spent seven summers rotating to different sections until I completed my bachelor’s,” Ramirez said. “The main reason I kept coming back was because I was challenged to learn from engineers and technicians in the field of work that intrigued me the most (civil engineering). Every semester my courses would somehow coincide with my summers, and I loved that the most.”

Raul Garcia, an engineering assistant, spent started in Fort Hancock and rotated through maintenance and construction before joining the district bridge section.

“I started as a high school student. I did six summers with TxDOT, six rotations and after I graduated from UTEP I was able to apply and get a job as an engineering assistant. The internships helped me develop my skills, so I was able to hit the ground running,” Garcia said. “I knew I wanted to work with TxDOT since the first summer so now that I’m actually a full-time employee, I was very happy when I got the news.”

Slots for summer internships are now open for interested high school and college students. Additional opportunities are also available for year-round internships. To learn how to apply, visit txdot.gov/careers.