ANTHC’s Environmental Health and Engineering interns gain real-world engineering experience
August 22, 2018
ANTHC is committed to strengthening our Alaska Native and American Indian workforce and developing future Alaska Tribal Health System leaders by offering a number of summer internships.
ANTHC Environmental Health and Engineering (DEHE) interns are contributing their talents toward the organizational vision that Alaska Native people are the healthiest people in the world. Three interns are busy working on a variety of projects, from helping design a new water storage tank to readying homes for water and sewer service.
Henry Horner grew up in Kobuk and knows firsthand the importance of clean, accessible water. He remembers as a young child when his house got running water. That’s why Horner, who graduated this spring from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, chose to apply for the Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative internship. A large part of his work this summer involved traveling, coincidently, to his hometown to prepare other homes for water and sewer service lines. He also traveled to Shungnak to assess the old fluoride system for future use.
Horner’s plans include completing as much field work as possible in the next few years, then taking that real-world knowledge and transitioning to engineering design.
Corissa Berntsen also graduated from UAA’s civil engineering program this spring and worked in ANTHC’s Engineering Design department. This summer, she traveled to Kokhanok to help assess water treatment options for the upcoming water plant there, and she conducted research on a project to replace the water storage tank in Kwigillingok.
Berntsen, who grew up in Anchorage and has family in Old Harbor, plans to return to UAA in the fall to pursue her master’s degree. She is undecided on whether to study Arctic, geotechnical or water engineering, but knows she wants to work with Alaska’s smaller communities going forward.
Michael Eastham, who grew up in Wasilla and has family roots in Angoon, intern
ed with the ANTHC Tribal Utility Support department. The mechanical engineering sophomore from UAA traveled to Kiana, White Mountain, Kotlik and Alakanuk to install and troubleshoot sensors for remote monitoring systems in those communities’ water treatment plants. The sensors send measurement data to a website and trigger alerts if anything is out of the ordinary, pote
ntially saving communities money by catching small problems before they become big.
Eastham says the remote monitoring internship aligns with his long-term goals of working on innovative engineering design projects and traveling the world.
Internships and other job opportunities with ANTHC are available for application at https://www.anthc.org/anthc-job-openings/.