A full year of competition and practice at different distances (six kilometers for cross country and 400, 800, and 1,000 meters for track) is just what Isabella Doty wanted. Then, she interned at SpaceX on Florida's Atlantic Coast. Her experience provided the challenge of "the discomfort of figuring something out yourself without asking for help immediately, allowing me to become familiar with the resources around me".

This is the ninth of a series, now in its second year, of Q&A's on University of Rochester student-athletes' internship experiences authored by Dennis O'Donnell.

Between running cross country in the fall, then moving to track & field for the indoor season followed by outdoors, it's a full year of competition. How do you balance your year?
I've found surprisingly that I actually prefer the lack of significant time off from competing. I feel that were I to be in a sport that competes for only one portion of the year, I would have much more trouble in the adjustment phases to and from competition/practice than I would with consistent practicing and competing. As I'm sure everyone else on the Track & Field and Cross Country team would agree, I love that my year of competition switches from cross country to indoor track, to outdoor track, to summer training in a 4-phase year of sport. I never have the chance to grow too accustomed to my training and environment before it's time to switch.
 
As a middle distance runner, you go from the cross country season (usually running six kilometers) to middle distance for track (400,800, 1,000, and relay work). Is that a challenge from a physical standpoint?
I think it's more exciting than anything to be able to watch my physical abilities change from season to season. As I'm now on the farther side from cross country, I notice how much harder it is to do workouts centered around longer distance racing endurance, however, I notice that it's much easier to reach speeds in short distance workouts that I had much more difficulty with coming right off of cross country training.
 
As an athlete at BASIS Tucson North HS in Arizona, how long did it stay very warm in the fall and then heat up again in the spring?
Doing soccer in high school and then summer training for cross country after my freshman year was quite challenging with the peak heat in the summer, and I definitely had to make sure I made adjustments to the timing when I would run/practice to avoid the hottest time of the day. However, when winter came, it was pretty much perfect training weather; from about late November to February, the weather was perfect for running. Because of the lack of humidity, it got colder than most people would think.
 
In your first season at Rochester, did you have to make any adjustments due to weather conditions?
Surprisingly, my first winter in Rochester was comparably mild. I only really had to run inside once or twice because it was too cold to be outside. However, because we have the indoor track to train on, doing workouts with faster intervals was much easier. I was ultimately pretty excited coming from Arizona to get to experience the snow and cold weather of Rochester.
 
At BASIS Tucson North, you played flag football and soccer, winning a league title on the soccer pitch. How much running were you able to do?
Our soccer coach prioritized running at practice; however, unlike with the track and cross country teams, we had segments of the year with little practice/competition, so in those periods, I would love to just run on my own and challenge myself to go as far as I could. Running on my own also significantly helped me manage my energy over COVID-19.
 
Flag football is growing in popularity. What makes it so appealing?
I think the biggest reason I joined flag football in high school was because it was a low-stakes sport that I didn't really need to have much knowledge/experience to join and have fun. The barriers to entry are very low for flag football, so that would likely be a reason for its growth in appeal.
 
Let's talk about your internship. You worked at SpaceX. Where was the internship located and where were you assigned?
My co-op internship last spring semester was located in Cape Canaveral, Florida. And I was assigned to the Dragon capsule team.
 
How did you find out about the internship? What made it appealing to pursue?
I found out about the internship from an email sent out to the mechanical engineering department at the university. It seemed like a super cool opportunity, and I didn't have much to lose by applying, so I decided to put together a personal statement and submit my application the day it was due. I had pretty much no expectation to really hear back afterward.
 
What was the application process like?
It was very quick due to the fact that the internship would be starting barely two months after the interviews and decisions were released. But submitting the application was not painstaking at all, and afterwards, I heard back immediately for the first phone call screening with UR mechanical engineering alum Obed Badillo. Afterwards, I still hadn't expected to really hear back at all, but after reaching out to ask about results, I was told I had been selected for a second interview. Unluckily, I had misread the time that the interview was (scheduled) and missed the second interview! But after emailing apologetically, I was able to have it rescheduled. And after feeling that the second interview went very well, I eventually heard that I had secured the internship position, much to my surprise.
 
Are you considering a career in the aerospace industry once you complete all of your studies?
I am highly considering pursuing a career in the aerospace industry. I think that having the opportunity to intern, especially for such an extended amount of time, has given me a lot of insights into what work in the field would be like. I would still be considering what company or organization I would like to work for, however, the nature of the work itself has certainly fascinated me.
 
What was a typical day like? When did you work and was the work the same from one day to another?
On a given day, I typically have about four ongoing projects that are at various points in their progression, which I cycle between depending on what roadblocks I'm dealing with at the moment. In addition to my own intern projects, I make sure to attend team meetings and involve myself in whatever issues my team would be facing on whichever capsule at any given moment.
 
How many college interns did you meet once you got settled there? Were any of them athletes?
The spring portion of my internship was much smaller, and our Cape Canaveral intern group was about 20 at its largest, with only two of us being women. When the summer came, a decent amount of spring interns left or transferred to other positions if they were able to land them, and the summer group of interns was much larger at about 50. I don't remember there being any other college athlete interns, however, I do know there were interns who enjoyed physical activities as hobbies. For example, there were a few avid skiers and hikers, but none that I recall being on any teams.
 
What made the University of Rochester appealing as a place to study and a place to continue your athletic career?
The GI Bill specific financial aid I was looking for was facilitated the best by the University of Rochester than it was at any other school which played a huge role in my decision to attend this school. Up until about two weeks before preseason, I was not under the impression that I would be competing for any team; however, after calling (then-head coach Eddie) Novara, I was able to join the team for preseason and go from there.
 
Which courses did you take that prepared you the best for the internship?
Since I had only just switched to mechanical engineering from physics by sophomore fall semester, the only relevant course I used in my internship was Intro to Fluids with Prof. Shang, which was taught exceptionally well, and ultimately gave me a lot of knowledge I drew on when designing the fluids routing in the new facility we were moving to.
 
When the internship ended, what did you feel you learned?
I felt that the biggest thing I learned from my internship was the importance of the discomfort of figuring something out yourself without asking for help immediately, allowing me to become familiar with the resources around me. I also learned that no matter what, with the right level of ambition, I was confident that any subject matter I was unfamiliar with I would be able to eventually learn. I also learned to be more distrustful of the sentiment that something "couldn't be done," especially if the reasoning was that it was just the way things have always been. I've learned that almost everything is malleable and debatable if you're aggressive enough.
 
Which courses did you schedule this semester that you were looking forward to studying?
Thermodynamics and heat transfer this semester because I really hadn't gotten much experience with heat mechanisms in engineering or physics before this point, and I can already see the way I think differently about the things I see around me. I also think that those two classes taken concurrently will yield an interesting blend of material to learn at the same time.