August 27 - Hatch Ltd.

My final day at Hatch, my cubical neighbor greeted me with a friendly smile and a ‘Good morning’. I sat down at my computer and continued working on my presentation, which was scheduled to occur in 3 hours. The presentation explained my experiences at Shad Valley and my internship in the Hydrotechnical department at Hatch engineering company. The presentation took place in a big board room in which I felt intimidated by. Fortunately, the presentation went well and the participants saw a brief 20 minute overview of my Shad Valley experience.

Over the course of the past four weeks, I’ve gained much more than I ever thought I would. I’ve learned everything from water principles to soil properties. I also learned how to write up a basic report and to test wire harnesses, all in just 19 days. But the major project I worked on was to design an open-channel drain. Over this short period of time I’ve learned that engineering is a constant learning process and at the end of the day it comes down to finding a solution.

When lunchtime came around the hydrotechnical department followed its weekly routine of going out for lunch and this Friday wasn’t any different. I enjoyed lunch with my fellow Hatch employees who are both amazingly friendly and approachable people. As the final hour was drew closer, I was completing questionnaires and saying my goodbyes The final thing that I did was hand in my swipe card and walk down from the 4th floor to catch my bus. As I was leaving I thought that this could be the last time that I am leaving the Hatch building, or perhaps in the future I may walk down these steps again.

Mariya Spylchak
Hometown: Winnipeg, MB