Summer Snapshots

If your pricey headphones fail, electrical engineering major Jack Goutier may be able to figure out why. Goutier spent his summer working in a co-op engineering position at Bose Corp, the audio giant based in Framingham, Mass. Assigned to the product safety division, one of Goutier’s main responsibilities was to investigate speakers and headphones that had failed and been returned by customers. “I would try to figure out how it happened so they could make sure it won’t happen again,” says Goutier, who also worked with audio equipment before it went on the market, assisting lead engineers in quality assurance testing. “It was all very new to me, but I learned a lot about problem-solving.”  Goutier was surprised at the willingness of his Bose co-workers to drop whatever they were doing to answer questions. “I’m so introverted, but everyone was so helpful and easy to talk to,” he says. “It really got me to step out of my bubble.”

Hayley Buonodono scored big when she was hired as a merchandising co-op for TJX, the parent company of retail chains such as T.J.Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods. “I used to tell my mom every time we’d walk into T.J.Maxx or Marshalls, ‘I’m going to buy for them,’” says Buonodono, a senior business administration major, who has known since middle school that she wants to be the one who identifies trends and haggles with suppliers to purchase the products that retailers sell to consumers. Over the summer, she wrapped up a six-month co-op position in the company’s planning and allocation department. As an allocation analyst, Buonodono was responsible for “moderate brands” of handbags sold in more than 1,200 T.J.Maxx stores across the country. Things went so well that Buonodono was offered a permanent, full-time job at TJX. She plans to start the job in the fall while completing her degree.

This summer, Miranda Melo took another step toward her goal of becoming a registered nurse: She completed her clinical rotation at Lowell General Hospital, working in acute care. With the experience she gained, she feels well-prepared to start her career. "I’m strengthening my assessment skills, administering medications safely and improving my communication with patients, family members and other health care team members,” says Melo, whose past clinical rotations included working at Winchester Hospital, Holy Family Hospital and Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of New England. After she completes the nursing program in December and passes the licensing exam, Melo plans on searching for a job in a community hospital. “I feel confident that I’m where I belong and can see myself working in a community hospital like Lowell General in just a few short months,” she says. 

Bradley Sherwood spent another summer surrounded by happy campers. The history major worked for the third consecutive year as a counselor at the summer camps run by the Tsongas Industrial History Center at Lowell National Historical Park. Sherwood works year-round helping out with school programs in the UML-run educational center at Lowell National Historical Park. He helps out on different projects when he’s not teaching children about water power, labor history and the immigrants that came to work in Lowell’s mills. “I love camp,” he says. “I also get to help in the curatorial department and other areas. I get good exposure to a wide variety of work.”

Hayley Andrade, a graphic design major, began her summer with a “surreal” 10-day trip to the Azores. Of the 11 students in the Documentary Image photography class who made the trip, she was the lone traveler with roots in the islands. “My grandfather is from there, from the island of Faial,” she says. “He came to this country in the 1950s, when he was 23 years old.” The trip, led by instructor Anna Isaak-Ross, was “the capstone to the class,” which focused on the art of visual storytelling. Students were able to use a variety of equipment – including traditional film cameras, drones and 360-degree cameras – to work on their final project, a photo book about the trip. “I just got into photography in my sophomore year,” says Hayley. “And I just fell in love. I love using my viewpoint to take photographs for others to see.”

It may be more than two months until the puck drops for River Hawk men’s ice hockey, but players were busy prepping for the 2019-20 season this summer. Chemistry major Charlie Levesque, a junior forward, returned to campus in early July to begin working out with teammates. Levesque was among the players to report a few days early to “help out some of the incoming freshmen.” He also took the opportunity to job-shadow a chiropractor in Nashua, N.H. “Chiropractor is the career path that’s interested me for a while now,” says Levesque, who is considering medical school or chiropractic school after college. “It’s really interesting to me how sudden movements, especially with the spine, can help relieve pain.”

Education major Sydney Fagundes is already getting teaching experience as a group leader for Girls Inc. of Greater Lowell’s summer program. She supervises girls from ages 5 to 14 in activities that range from swimming to lessons in mythology, and accompanies them on field trips. Fagundes also works at Girls Inc. during the academic year as a science and math literacy specialist. “The exposure I get to lesson-planning is so beneficial,” she says. “Every lesson is different, and you need to try things and adapt.”

As co-president of the campus Salesforce Leaders Society, junior business administration major Gianni Newman (above, right) was among 10 Manning School of Business students who traveled to San Francisco this summer for the annual Salesforce TrailheaDX developer conference and career fair. The Manning School of Business picked up the tab for the trip, which included a tour of Salesforce Tower and meetings with company executives. Newman, whose concentrations are in marketing and management, was impressed with Salesforce’s “1-1-1 Model of Integrated Philanthropy,” which provides funding for thousands of nonprofit organizations around the world. “Their philosophy on improving communities around them, instead of just focusing on self-growth like most other companies, has changed my perspective on the world,” Newman says.