Victoria Rutkowski is following her chosen career path motivated by a trail already started by her father.
Rutkowski, who just completed her freshman year at Western Michigan University, is the newest intern at the Macomb County Department of Roads. She obtained the internship thanks to a high school job shadowing opportunity a little more than a year ago through the county’s Fueling the Talent Pipeline (FTTP) initiative. FTTP connects employers with educators to provide meaningful career exploration activities for students and to prepare the next generation of our workforce for the interesting and well-paying jobs offered by local companies.
Victoria is a first-generation college student, pursuing a civil engineering degree at WMU with a minor in mathematics. Rutkowski was motivated to pursue an architectural career by her father, who had a love of architecture but was not a technical, computer-savvy person and never went to college. He, along with Victoria’s mother, encouraged her to pursue her dreams of a post-secondary education.
It was in her architecture class at Romeo High School that Rutkowski first learned about civil engineering job prospects. She had found her niche. More than a year ago, she attended a Macomb County Super Job Shadow with other Romeo High School students, where these students were able to see what “a day in the life” of their potential career choice would look like. And thanks to this opportunity through the FTTP initiative, she followed up with the Department of Roads and secured the internship.
“I really like the geological and structural aspects of civil engineering,” Rutkowski said. “I’m fascinated by the integrity of bridges, how they hold with the soil. I always knew I wanted to go into design. Either that or rocks and geology.”
Rutkowski has spent the first couple weeks of her internship using an autoCad program called Open Roads Designer to draw out county roads and highlight what projects the Department of Roads plans to work on for the next couple of years. Once she completes a couple of courses at Macomb Community College this summer, she will be able to go out into the field to watch current projects reach completion.
“It’s been a very welcoming environment,” Rutkowski said. “I really enjoy the design part, watching what happens on paper be completed in the field.”
Rutkowski would love to work in the public sector, and she has her eyes on a job with the Michigan Department of Transportation or another state transportation agency.
Would your business like to get involved with the FTTP program or do you need students to fill internship positions? Contact Senior Outreach Specialist Jennifer Weot at jennifer.weot@macombgov.org or call 586-469-6565.
