HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – It’s not often you can try out a career like you would a new car. However, a new program manager here got that opportunity thanks to the Air Force’s Premier College Intern Program.
PCIP is a Secretary of the Air Force initiative that focuses on recruiting high-caliber college students who are looking at AF civilian careers to provide them real-world experience. Applicants must be a sophomore or junior currently enrolled in an accredited college or university and, if accepted, will participate in a 10- to 12-week full-time paid summer internship.
Hanscom employee Heather Wormald was a college student studying program management in New Hampshire when she first learned about opportunities here.
“Meghan Rosso from the Acquisition Functional Office at Hanscom was recruiting during a job fair at my school, Southern New Hampshire University, for program management positions, including trainees,” Wormald said. “We got talking at the time, and then emailing and I realized this might be a good opportunity for me.”
While Rosso, who has since moved on to another position, said she wasn’t seeking PCIP trainees at that specific career fair, she did match four students from that event and others to the program for mentoring at Hanscom. Two personnel worked in what was Battle Management at the time, one in the Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks Directorate and one in the Strategic Services Division.
“Overall, all four trainees had a good experience getting acquainted with and accustomed to the Air Force acquisition process,” she said.
Wormald interned in the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, office for 12 weeks.
“I was able to shadow the program manager to see what working as a PM would be like,” she said. “I was also able to see what it would be like to lead an [Integrated Product Team] by shadowing ones for the aircraft, payload and software.”
While Wormald said the office was very fast moving and it was hard to jump into the middle of the work, especially as the program was transitioning from a Joint Urgent Operational Need to a program of record at the time, she appreciated the way the team worked together.
“The team is well structured and everyone is involved,” she said. “When they are looking for solutions to problems, they want everyone to offer opinions and have different perspectives.”
She had a unique opportunity to view the work when one of the BACN aircraft stopped here last year en route to maintenance.
“This is one of the events that made me want to continue working for the Air Force,” Wormald said. “I got an opportunity to see the aircraft and payload, to physically see something that I’m doing that’s impacting the warfighter, that’s truly helping people.”
Another event that inspired Wormald to continue her Air Force career was the PCIP symposium, which she attended at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma.
“The symposium was a great opportunity to talk to personnel about the missions they were working on at other bases, from bomb to aircraft programs,” Wormald said. “It was eye-opening to see all the opportunities.”
Following her internship, she returned to college, and after graduating in January, she received an offer to return to Hanscom as a Palace Acquire. Wormald now works as a PM in the Deployable Radar Approach Control, or D-RAPCON, program.
“It’s great to be able to come in at a bit slower pace and I really like what I’m doing,” she said. “We’re working to finish [engineering and manufacturing development] and a pre-production unit refurbishment so I get a lot of hands-on with documents. I’ve also been able to see the system at Eglin.”
Wormald said the internship was a great lead in to her new position.
“I’m someone who likes to try something first before I do it and the PCIP was a great opportunity to do that,” she said. “I would have never thought about doing this before. I’m excited about what I can do here.”
She recommends the Air Force share information about the program with more schools. For more information about the PCIP or other Air Force career opportunities for students, visit https://www.afciviliancareers.com/students.php.