At SWEPCO, we’re customer-focused and that includes ensuring the next generation of talent understands the work we do, the services we provide, and the way we lead.
On this #NationalInternDay, we’re shining a bright light on our interns across SWEPCO. It’s been a blast having them work alongside our teams.
“At SWEPCO, we believe in nurturing a questioning attitude to ensure we’re delivering the best service and customer experience,” explained Brett Mattison, SWEPCO President and COO. “Our interns bring new ideas, ask important questions, and help build on our good energy present in all our teams and work groups. We look forward to seeing how they’ll use these experiences at SWEPCO in their professional, academic, and personal lives.”
During their time at SWEPCO, summer interns have witnessed major storms across our territory and experienced first-hand how our crews, contractors, and support personnel work diligently to repair damage and safely restore service.
From understanding the importance of keeping our customers’ lights on to sharing helpful resources about day-to-day service, efficiency, reliability, accessibility or payment options, these interns are learning the purposeful work we do to serve our customers.
CODY MERRELL - 2023 SWEPCO FAYETTEVILLE DISTRICT ENGINEERING SUMMER INTERN
“There are countless opportunities for me to learn every day. The biggest learning curve is the actual material used in the distribution system. The crew members I work with are all awesome and very knowledgeable, so I have been going to them with all the questions I have and all of them have been eager to help me out.”
Cody Merrell is an engineering intern in the Fayetteville District for the engineering customer design department. He is a junior at the University of Arkansas majoring in electrical engineering. Cody is learning the ins and outs of the Distribution system and how the customer design team develops engineering plans for SWEPCO to distribute power to new homes, businesses, and other types of developments.
He helps draw construction jobs for Fayetteville District’s 2023 circuit inspection program, which identifies repairs that need to be completed on the circuit. Once inspections are complete, Cody creates a work order to fix the problems that were identified during the inspection. He also creates work orders to address repeat outages in the Fayetteville district.? This involves surveying the repeat outage location to determine what is causing the outage and then drawing a job that will repair the problem. His favorite moment so far was when he was able to come to Shreveport after the storm to help with the power restoration efforts. One of his favorite aspects of the job is that he is not stuck behind a desk all day.
QUINTON CALDWELL - 2023 SWEPCO LONGVIEW DISTRICT ENGINEERING SUMMER INTERN
“My favorite moment was when I went out with an engineer on a job, and we had to mark stakes in a cow field.”
Quinton Caldwell is an engineering intern in the Longview District. He is a junior at Southern University and A&M College majoring in electrical engineering. Quinton is currently obtaining knowledge about distribution systems while shadowing the distribution engineers, line crews, and servicemen as they work.? He is also assisting the Longview distribution engineering department with workload by completing small distribution design jobs. Quinton also assisted with the July 2023 storm restoration.
Quinton says his greatest challenge was getting everything done required as part of the all-in storm response work, and he loves experiencing what all goes into doing the many jobs at SWEPCO.
KANSAS COOLEY - 2023 SWEPCO SHREVEPORT DISTRICT ENERGY EFFICIENCY INTERN
“My favorite part of the job is learning about our programs and the new advances in technology.”
Kansas Cooley is an intern in the Shreveport District for the Energy Efficiency (EE) department. She is a Junior at Louisiana Tech University majoring in Business Economics. Cooley’s year-long internship affords her ample opportunities to learn all that goes into EE at SWEPCO. Her studies are primarily focused on the many ways EE can help support our customers and how the EE teams support tactical activation – energy audits, incentives and more. Since beginning her work, she’s supported on-site EE inspections, participated in EE program awareness presentations to customers, attended EE collaborative meetings, visited new projects, and is currently building her knowledge of all the EE programs and incentives available to SWEPCO customers.
The June storm gave her the ability to see another part of SWEPCO and reinforced the importance of safety in everything we do and our ongoing commitment to getting the lights on safely for our customers. The ability to meet and learn from other EE program managers has been one of her favorite parts of the job and gave her the ability to learn more about EE program design and implementation.
WILLIAM FIELDER - 2023 SWEPCO SHREVEPORT DISTRICT ENGINEERING SUMMER INTERN
“My favorite part of the job is being able to learn the behind the scenes of how power is distributed across the area and the restoration process after a storm hits.”
As an electrical engineering student at Louisiana Tech University, Will Fielder sees his internship as an opportunity to dig deep into systems design and distributed power.
The engineering intern in the Shreveport district is learning what an electrical engineer does on a day-to-day basis in the utility industry. As part of his internship, he’s getting first-hand knowledge about how to utilize design software to plan and map work so that construction can be completed. He is tasked with helping the engineers, staking jobs, and reviewing design drawings and documents.
RANDALL MASON - 2023 SWEPCO TEXARKANA DISTRICT ENGINEERING SUMMER INTERN
“Being involved in storm restoration in Winnsboro, Texas was such a cool experience. I saw firsthand how engineering works together with construction to get repairs done as quickly as possible.”
Randall Mason is an engineering intern in the Texarkana district for the distribution engineering department. He is a junior at Texas A&M-Texarkana, where he is studying electrical engineering. Randall is using his internship to learn all that it takes to become an electrical engineer, including spotting poles, designing electrical lines, designing jobs on DDS (Distribution Design Studio), and learning how to utilize his training in different situations.
Randall’s favorite part of the job is going out in the field to learn, and he enjoyed working to support our customers as part of storm restoration efforts in Winnsboro, TX.
GARRETT EPPS - 2023 SWEPCO SHREVEPORT DISTRICT ENGINEERING SUMMER INTERN
“My favorite part of my job has been traveling to other regions to help each team update their transformer ratings. The exposure to other professionals was an exciting experience.”
Garrett Epps is an engineering intern working with the Distribution System Planning Department in the Shreveport District. A junior at the Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, Garrett is working with the distribution planners in the west region learning to understand the distribution systems, transmission systems, and all the related infrastructure. As part of his internship, he’s had the opportunity to travel to work sites to view substations and participated in a ride along with a customer design engineer to learn different distribution terminologies and procedures. At the completion of his internship, Garret is confident he’s had experiences, opportunities, and exposure to learn the day-to-day duties required of distribution planners and the importance of planning to ensure stable operations.
LAUREN DOWDEN - 2023 SWEPCO SHREVEPORT DISTRICT CUSTOMER SERVICES AND MARKETING INTERN
“From the start, SWEPCO has inspired me to be who I am and has continued to push me to learn more. I am encouraged to adapt and grow through every activity I have been involved in, and I am excited for what the future will bring and everything SWEPCO has in store for me!”
Lauren Dowden is a business intern working with Customer Services & Marketing as well as the Advanced Metering Team. As part of her internship, she’ll work to support SWEPCO’s ongoing efforts to further modernize the electric grid – for greater stability, reliability, and enhanced customer service. Advanced digital meters, also known as smart meters, are part of SWEPCO’s grid modernization. In this role, she’ll work throughout the year working to help deliver the Advanced Meter Deployment plan across Louisiana and Arkansas. Her internship will provide her with the opportunity to build upon her supply chain management experience, as well as give her regulatory exposure and knowledge on utility finance.
Lauren grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas and is a recent graduate of Louisiana Tech University. She earned an undergraduate degree in Sustainable Supply Chain Management with a minor in Computer Information Systems. She is currently pursuing her master’s in business administration and anticipates a 2024 graduation.
SWEPCO INTERNSHIP POWERS TEXARKANA A&M GRADUATE TOWARDS FULL-TIME ROLE
“Since the beginning of my journey to earn an Electrical Engineering (EE) degree, I always aspired to work in the power industry and that ambition is now a reality.” -Kyle Parker, Engineer Associate
When you join SWEPCO, you help make us a more sustainable and resilient company and strengthen a force that makes the future of our communities stronger. That’s why SWEPCO’s history of working with interns to ensure the next generation of talent understands the work we do, the services we provide, and the way we lead is important.
It is the job of the intern to bring new ideas and ask important questions while learning and working towards a brighter future. Then there are times the roads students pave for themselves lead them right back to SWEPCO. After shining a spotlight on SWEPCO’s current interns last week for National Intern Day, we thought it was appropriate to also put Engineer Associate, Kyle Parker in the spotlight.
Kyle began his SWEPCO career as an engineering intern in the Texarkana District. As a SWEPCO intern, he helped support Texarkana’s Distribution Engineering Department and was exposed to many sides of the company. In the short month-and-a-half internship, he was able to see so many aspects of what he does now. He learned all that it takes to become an electrical engineer, including customer meetings and appointments, spotting poles, designing electrical lines, designing jobs on DDS (Distribution Design Studio), spending time with a few line crews, and learning how to utilize his training in different situations. He even spent two days at the dispatch center in Shreveport. Kyle spent much of his time shadowing Distribution engineers from the Texarkana office, as well as making a few trips to the Mount Pleasant and Nashville offices. “This experience helped me realize how an engineer’s role affects their ability to complete their job efficiently,” said Kyle.
Internships at SWEPCO provide students a unique opportunity to work with real-world hands-on experiences through their internship program. In May, he graduated from Texas A&M University -Texarkana, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering. For Kyle, his successful internship powered him toward his career goals and in June when a position became open, he applied for and was hired as a permanent employee with SWEPCO.
Today, he works as an engineer associate. “I am now an engineer with the company, and I get to use the skills I observed while shadowing others during my internship,” Kyle Parker shared. “One of my favorite things about this job so far is having the opportunity to build relationships with other co-workers as well as the customers that we serve.”
Just as he did while he was an intern, Kyle continues to report to Customer Design Manager Dusty Wiley.
“As an intern, Kyle showed a strong work ethic and a willingness to do anything we asked of him,” Wiley said. “He quickly learned what we were trying to teach him, and he showed the characteristics that we look for in a potential permanent member of our group.”
Wiley, who was named to the Texas A&M University-Texarkana’s Engineering Advisory Board earlier this year understands the importance of supporting the next generation of talent and remains passionate about helping to develop future engineers.
“As an engineering student, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in several engineering internships which helped give me direction in acquiring the necessary skills to be successful in my career,” said Wiley, as he reflected on his own education and career growth.
The team in Texarkana enjoys having Kyle back full-time. “It’s been fun. He has a huge head start over other new employees because of what he learned as an intern,” Wiley added.
If you or someone you know is interested in joining the SWEPCO team, visit AEP Careers for more information. Together, our energy to power bright futures is boundless.