Summer Intern Spotlight: Abby Allensworth

Meet Abby Allensworth, one of our McLean Engineering summer interns! Abby joined the team in May and is actually wrapping up her internship at the end of July in order to return to the University of Georgia, where she is pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Abby is from Thomasville, Ga., about 30 minutes south of McLean’s office in Moultrie. This past school year she was looking at companies that were close to home and McLean caught her attention. “I came in contact with Stacey (Cimowsky, HR Manager) at the engineering career fair UGA holds in the fall. Mrs. Stacey thought I would be a good fit and it worked out great!”

Abby has packed a lot into the two-plus months of her internship. Some of her duties have included looking through Osmose reports and making necessary comments for clients to fix; working on DOT permits using AutoCAD; attending a work plan meeting, and looking through projections and finding issues that may arise. She was also able to attend a client meeting to discuss that work plan.

“I (also) worked on fixing sectionalizing maps,” she said. “After completing a group of maps, I attended a meeting with the engineers, who used those maps to find any issues or irregularities to take back to the client to fix.”

McLean offers practical, real-world opportunities for its interns and in return, expects useful contributions from them. It results in a good partnership and a valuable experience for the interns. “I've definitely learned a lot,” Abby said. “Just being able to see how an office runs, and what a typical day looks like has been a great opportunity. I think my main takeaway has been learning how to adapt. I've worked on a few different projects and programs; so being able to learn on the job, ask questions, try for myself, receive feedback, and try again has been invaluable.”

When asked what she enjoyed most about her internship, she explained, “I've enjoyed feeling valuable, as the work I do is real and needed. I've also enjoyed getting to know and work with people in the office. I think those go hand in hand because as a smaller company, I can feel a part of the work we do.”

McLean Engineering appreciates the time and effort Abby put into her internship, and we wish her the best as she returns to school this fall!