DAEGU, South Korea –The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Far East District (FED) has recently hired the district’s first Korean National (KN) Interdisciplinary Engineer intern.
Choe, Po Mi joined the Southern Resident Office (SRO) construction division on June 15. She graduated from Kyungpook National University in 2017 with a Master’s of Science in Environmental Engineering. According to Tony Hambrick, SRO Resident Engineer, Choe will receive training, guidance, and mentorship from the resident office staff to develop her into a future successful project engineer.
“SRO is excited to integrate our new KGS intern into the USACE team and provide her with the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to advance to the target level in her career field,” said Hambrick. “We anticipate she will have an immediate and positive impact in delivering the construction program here in Area IV.”
Hambrick went on to state that Choe’s internship also includes rotational assignments through the FED headquarters to include construction division’s quality assurance branch, construction services branch (CSB) and engineering division’s technical review, design, and geotechnical and environmental branches.
“She will also get the opportunity to complete rotations through the FED Safety Office, PPMD [Programs and Project Management Division], and with our primary customer, USAG-Daegu Department of Public Works,” said Hambrick.
Choe shared her sentiments on how it feels to be selected as the first KN engineer intern with the district.
“I am so excited; it’s unbelievable that I got this great opportunity,” said Choe. “I didn’t know that a Korean National intern is uncommon. Everyone says that I am so lucky, and I totally agree. I look forward to working and I will perform all my duties at my best because I came here as an intern, and hope to become a project engineer.”
According to Choe, there aren’t many opportunities in Korea provided to environmental engineers in the private sector.
After studying environmental engineering for seven years, Choe decided to apply for this opportunity because of the exposure to other engineering disciplines, which she began to notice are all correlated.
“The more I studied I realized that environmental engineering is closely related with other majors like electrical, civil, mechanical,” said Choe. “They each have close functions that are crucial with the development of sustainable cities. This opportunity can develop my skills and I can learn about engineering in the US Army.”
Choe stated that this is the biggest challenge of her life and she wants to work hard and develop a strong working relationship with her colleagues.
Hambrick shared that he initially joined USACE as an intern as well, and now he has the opportunity to mold an intern and get her set up with the right rotations through the different district offices.
“We have plans for her over the next three years to rotate her through the headquarters, safety office, various engineering offices, project management and construction division, said Hambrick. “She will come back and know a lot more than others, what the district does and how all the parts have to move together to execute the program. I am excited for her and it’s a great opportunity for her and the district.”