Reaching for the stars: Marcellious Prentice lands engineering internship at Lockheed Martin Space Program
On the heels of wrapping up an industrial engineering internship with Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, LU student Marcellious Prentice is now interning at Lockheed Martin Corporation within the company's Space Program in Denver, Colorado as a manufacturing engineer.
Q: Can you tell our audience about your background? Where are you from?
A: My name is Marcellious Prentice, and I’m a senior Industrial Engineering student at Lamar University. I transferred to LU in 2019 to seek a fresh start from my prior university. I am from Baytown, Texas, but my family is from an island in the West Indies called Nevis. Most importantly, I am a second-generation Cardinal as I’ve had multiple family members attend Lamar University before me. I currently serve as the president of the National Society of Black Engineers on campus. I am also a newly inducted Engineering Ambassador for Lamar University. Finally, I serve as the Vice President for the Industrial Engineering Honor Society on campus.
Q: What attracted you to Lamar University?
A: The main thing that attracted me to Lamar University is that the class sizes are smaller compared to my previous university. This has allowed me to get more one-on-one attention from my professors. To be more specific, the College of Engineering’s curriculum is more hands-on so that my peers and I are more able to learn the material that can be directly applied in the workforce. Lastly, LU provides more beneficial scholarship opportunities for transfer and engineering students
Q: What sparked your passion in industrial engineering?
A: Industrial engineering sparked my specific interest in learning because of the various applications of lean manufacturing in the workforce. My desire to improve issues and reduce wait times is what continues tomotivate me to pursue my industrial engineering degree path. Also, industrial and manufacturing engineers are always going to be needed in the workforce. For example, Henry Ford's idea of the assembly line was used not just to build cars in factories, but it also was used to build military tanks and aircrafts during World War II. Lastly, I want to finish my undergraduate degree in industrial engineering at Lamar University for my family and my mother who could not finish her degree due to her giving birth to my twin brother and myself.
Q: Where are you interning at?
A: At the moment, I am interning for Lockheed Martin’s Space program, in Denver Colorado, as a Manufacturing Engineering intern. I started this internship after finishing the Walt Disney World Co-Op, as an Industrial Engineering intern, in Orlando, Florida.
Q: What is your title and what are some of your responsibilities?
A: During my time at Disney, I was placed in the role of an Industrial Engineering Co-Op intern. In this role, it was my responsibility to support the Disney Parks’ team. To do this, I applied my working knowledge of lean manufacturing, six sigma, and 5S to provide recommendations to the industrial engineering park team. I also conducted studies that analyzed the amusement park’s data to create recommendations that allowed us to reduce the attractions wait time for the guests at the Epcot and Animal Kingdom parks. In addition to this, I created a presentation to train and educate cast members on how to conduct the roles for attractions. I also created, and presented, reports for the leading engineers on my team about the current state of the park operation system. Lastly, I served as the diversity inclusion representative for the interns to help bring ideas to promote diversity inclusion within the hiring process.
My responsibilities at Lockheed Martin are to create shop aides to protect quality of different chips and smaller electronics on computer boards for satellites. I also aid in the installing of new machinery, including ordering spare parts and looking over specifications, and in the process of creating centralized database for shop aides.
Q: How do you feel LU has prepared you for this opportunity?
A: LU's industrial engineering teaching faculty has prepared me very well for this internship by allowingme to participate in part-time study simulations and by allowing me to analyze data from our studies. Also, the Production & Inventory Control course, taught by Professor James Curry, prepared me to be able to answer questions during my technical interview with Disney. It actually feels cool to be the first industrial engineering student from LU to intern at Walt Disney World. It’s not every day you get to sayyou work for Mickey Mouse, getting to leave your office and see families enjoying themselves surrounded by the fresh smell of popcorn, and hearing kids scream from joy from being on the tower of terror attraction. Hopefully more Cardinals will apply to become an intern at Disney World. They typically hire all majors including mechanical engineers, nursing students, animal science majors, and more.
Q: For your future success?
A: Because of this experience, I’ve learned to communicate with professionals on a higher level. I’ve alsogotten to garner a lot of experience and knowledge about the entertainment industry. This internshipallowed me to apply my knowledge and make improvements in a timely manner. Most importantly, it taught me how to present my findings and recommendations in a slide presentation format. I plan to use this information in the workforce and to share this knowledge with fellow Cardinals and faculty. Most importantly, I’ve made great friendships with my co-workers in which I am still in contact with today.
Q: What do you hope to gain from this experience? What are your plans for the future?
A: My future plans are to finish my internship at Lockheed Martin this summer and complete my senior year of college. In addition to this, I want to continue to educate the youth about engineers and show how it can lead to a fun and bright future. I hope to graduate with Latin honors and enter the workforce as an industrial or manufacturing engineer for a Fortune 500 company.