Summer internships bring new skills and surprises for LAS students
| Updated:
From gathering water samples in northern Minnesota to analyzing data that improves health outcomes in Florida, LAS students were busy across the country this summer with internships that made an impact. Below, four LAS students share how their summer internships gave them deeper insight into their respective fields, opportunities to learn new technologies, and an appreciation for collaboration and communication in the workplace.
Nicole Dembny (’27 statistics)
Internship:
Naples Comprehensive Health Management in Naples, Florida
Primary responsibilities:
As an enterprise project management intern, Dembny analyzed clinical and population demographic data to help inform Naples Comprehensive Health Management’s strategy decisions. She helped plan large-scale projects that involved teams from across the organization, including clinicians, IT, finance, supply chain, facilities, and executive leadership.
What’s one thing you learned during your internship that you’ll apply to your career?
“One technology I learned to use was ArcGIS, which is a tool for analyzing geographic data. In health care, it can be used to see how far people must travel for care, identify areas that may benefit from a new facility, and understand the needs of those communities. For example, an area with an older population may have a greater need for cardiovascular services, while an area with a younger population may have a greater need for obstetrics services.”
What surprised you about the internship or this field of work?
“I came away with a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes in health care. Health care depends on people from many non-clinical specialties and backgrounds, all contributing different pieces and working with one another. Seeing how those roles work together gave me a much greater appreciation for how complex it is to keep a hospital running.”
What are your plans following graduation from Iowa State?
“I enjoy the work that I have been doing, and after graduating, I plan to continue working with data in a health care setting.”
Sravya Evoory (’27 computer science)
Internship:
Wellmark in Des Moines, Iowa
Primary responsibilities:
As an integration engineer intern at Wellmark, a health insurance company with over two million members, Evoory created technical documentation for a new system in development and troubleshooted day-to-day issues. Evoory was also assigned several user stories – a description of a feature from the user’s perspective – which gave her an opportunity to work on different tasks and gain hands-on experience.
What’s one thing you learned during your internship that you’ll apply to your career?
“One of the biggest things I learned during my internship is that asking questions is always a good thing. It helped me learn faster, understand things more deeply, and become more confident in my work.”
What was your favorite part of your internship experience?
“My favorite part of the internship has been collaborating with my team and learning from everyone around me. I also really enjoyed participating in a volunteering event, which was meaningful and gave me an opportunity to give back to the community. Another highlight was presenting my work to executives, which was a great experience and helped me grow my communication and presentation skills.”
What are your future plans or goals?
“Moving forward, I plan to continue working part-time and become more involved in the AI and agentic AI use cases that our team will be developing. I’m excited to keep learning and contribute to these projects.”
Kaitlin Fields (’27 Earth science)
Internship:
Iowa State’s Department of the Earth, Atmosphere, and Climate and Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories in northern Minnesota
Primary responsibilities:
As an undergraduate research assistant for Elizabeth Swanner, professor in the Department of the Earth, Atmosphere, and Climate, Fields conducted fieldwork at Minnesota’s Deming Lake and Steel Lake, collecting sediment samples, recording water profiles, and taking anoxic water samples. This work was also part of Fields’ own research project related to microbial hydrogen production. She also spent time in labs, preparing those samples for analysis and travel. Following her fieldwork, Fields prepared a poster about her research, which she presented at the summer 2026 Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (EUReCA) event.
What was your favorite part of your internship experience?
“My favorite part of this experience was presenting my project at the EUReCA summer poster session. I enjoyed presenting my project and answering questions. Presenting my poster further solidified my knowledge by creating new ways to think about my project. I also enjoyed listening to my peers present their posters and learning new things in other fields.”
What are your plans following graduation from Iowa State?
“As of now, I am undecided about my next steps after graduation.”
Wyatt Van Dyke (’28 meteorology, mathematics)
Internship:
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado
Primary responsibilities:
Van Dyke researched precipitation forecasting with the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS), utilizing varying microphysics schemes during the July 2025 central Texas floods.
What surprised you about the internship or this field of work?
“I was surprised with how often people were invited to share their work. It felt like every day I was attending a seminar given by NCAR faculty, a professor from a university, or even scientists from other countries. I had the opportunity to learn more not only on my topic of interest, but the entire field of atmospheric research – from atmospheric chemistry, to climatology, to instrumentation.”
What was your favorite part of the internship experience?
“My favorite part of the experience was the opportunity to meet so many new people. NCAR is a center for atmospheric research, so I had the chance to meet dozens of the leading researchers in my field. I also had the wonderful opportunity to work with dozens of other interns my age who could be some of my future coworkers someday. Overall, it was awesome being able to work with others who shared the same passion in atmospheric research that I have.”
What are your plans following graduation from Iowa State?
“I know that I will be attending graduate school to get my master’s in meteorology. I will continue researching numerical weather prediction in some capacity related to precipitation. As for beyond school, I am looking into careers in either the National Weather Service or a professorship at a university.”