Ben   Karpus is a manufacturing engineer intern at Waupaca Foundry’s machining operation in Effingham, Illinois. He is dual majoring in physics and engineering at the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana.

What initially brought Ben to Waupaca Foundry in 2018 was a casual conversation amongst friends A friend of his mother suggested Waupaca Foundry as one of the available internships in the area. This connection helped him discover an internship in manufacturing.

Now in his third summer as an engineering intern at the machining operation, his time with Waupaca Foundry has given him valuable knowledge, insights, a network of connections that will benefit him in the future. With three consecutive internships, he has expanded his understanding of industry standards, the learned the importance of planning, and developed relationships with manufacturing professionals.

Contributing meaningful work to important engineering projects has been a positive experience for Ben. "They are accepting and willing to work with you." The daily job responsibilities for Ben were continually changing.  The variety of everyday tasks has allowed him to gain more design experience.  Ben has created detailed drawings and made modifications in AutoCAD daily during his internship. Ben's internship role this summer assisted in a much larger project. This has allowed him to support a project that is adding automation and, at the same time, has a goal that improves downtime for the plant. Being a contribution to the project engineers "has been really positive because they are really accepting and willing to work with you." This is a valued skill for engineering "Just making sure that the contributions that we make are actually going to be useful."

The Summer Help Program at Waupaca Foundry provides valuable work experience and an insight into the variety of careers in the metal casting industry. Students interested in summer employment and internships at Waupaca Foundry are encouraged to apply.