The Intern Roundtable: Career Lessons From the IALR Internship Experience

What happens when you hand the microphones over to the interns?

In this special episode of Inside IALR, President Telly Tucker and Dr. John Hughes, Executive Vice President of Operations, sit down with four summer interns for a candid conversation about career goals, personal growth, college experiences, networking and what it's really like to work at IALR.

The discussion ranges from robotics and semiconductor design to marketing, sports communications, IT support, coffee habits and even solving Rubik's Cubes. 

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves as a regional catalyst for economic transformation in Southern Virginia. Our services, programs and offerings are diverse, impactful and far reaching. 

Get updates from IALR on other channels: 

• Facebook 
• LinkedIn 
• YouTube 
• Instagram 
• Email Newsletter
• News Stories

Transcript

Copy

Welcome And Why This Roundtable

Caleb Ayers 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Inside IALR. Thanks for being here. And you will only have to listen to me for the next minute. So here's what happened. The last episode that published was an interview with President Telly Tucker for his four years at the institute. We were kind of just marking that, talking about leadership and his experience here and those types of things. Um and afterward, he started asking our marketing and communications intern a bunch of questions. And we all kind of looked at each other and said, This sounds like a podcast. So we have uh this intern roundtable podcast as a result. So this is uh President Tucker, along with our executive vice president of operations, Dr. John Hughes, just really talking life experiences, career experiences with four of our summer interns. Uh, every summer we have at least a dozen interns. This summer, I think it's 15 that we've had on campus, and they contribute to all different kinds of things, all different kinds of programs, whether that be, you know, our research department, whether that be our different programs that we run, or our communications team or information technology, all across the board, we have interns who have come contribute to what we're doing and also gain really valuable experience. Uh so this interview is with, like I said, Telly Tucker, our president, and Dr. John Hughes, and four of our summer interns. So I will uh let you hear it from them.

Meet The Interns And Roles

Telly Tucker 1:26

Well, hello to our audience. I'm Telly Tucker, I serve as the president here at the Institute. With me, joining me as co-host today. We're not usually in this the hosting seat, so thank you, Caleb and Daniel. Um, I have with me my colleague, Executive Vice President of Operations, Dr. John Hughes, and uh we will be grilling, I mean, having a conversation with four interns today who have spent their summers um doing one of the most exciting things they've ever done in their life, being an intern here at the Institute. Um so we'll give them an opportunity to introduce themselves to kick off our podcast, and then Dr. Hughes and I will just uh have some fun interviewing them for the next 30 minutes or so. So starting to my right, um ladies, why don't you introduce yourselves and uh share that your intern, what the title was and the team you worked on for your intern experience.

Rebecca Briones 2:19

My name is Rebecca Briones, and I am the marketing and communications intern here at the Institute. Uh, so I work with the marketing and communications department.

Emily Clatterbuck 2:28

Hi, my name is Emily Clatterbuck. Uh, I am the marketing and program development intern, so I work with advanced learning.

Matteo Costagliola 2:35

Hi, my name is Matteo Costagliola. I'm the coding and robotics intern, so I work with the applied research department.

Trooper Garland 2:41

Hey, my name is Trooper Garland. I am an IT specialist with the IT department, and I try to solve tickets all day, be delivering good customer service to everybody in this nice facility, and that's what I

Backgrounds And First Impressions

Trooper Garland 2:56

do.

Telly Tucker 2:56

So thank you for introducing yourselves. I'll maybe kick it off, and then Dr. Hughes, you can jump in. So, for our audience, maybe just share a little bit about your background, where'd you come from, your your educational background, or if you're you have work experience, what work experience did you have um prior to this internship work experience? And maybe a little bit about how was it alike, how was it different? Um, why don't we start with you, Emily?

Emily Clatterbuck 3:22

I grew up in Danville. Um, and I'm currently going to James Madison University. My degree is in media arts and design. And I pretty much I'd say my internship is stuff that I've done kind of my whole life, but it's all put together into one big lump. So a lot of it is um marketing and through like things like Canva to make social media posts or uh promotion for different events and programs that we put that we're putting on in advanced learning. Um, but then also a huge part of it is like working with kids, which I have done a ton. My mom is a children's pastor uh at our church. And so pretty much my entire life I've been uh helping with children's camps and setting up vacation Bible school and going to all sorts of uh like summer camps and stuff. So um it's a lot of things that I've sort of been working with my entire life, but now taken to a bit of a different level uh and a more professional job. So it's yeah, I don't know. My background connects to it a lot.

Telly Tucker 4:26

And you got paid for it. That's it. And I'm getting paid for it this time.

Emily Clatterbuck 4:29

I was sort of volunteering since I was 12. So now I'm making some money.

Telly Tucker 4:37

Rebecca, what about you?

Rebecca Briones 4:39

I am, I'm gonna say I'm from Danville, but I'm technically from Sutherland. I just graduated recently in May from Averett University. And while at Averett, I also was an intern for their marketing and communications department. So a lot of things that I've done here at the Institute um have kind of like crossed over with what I did before, you know, helping out with social media, writing articles, blog type things. Um, I do a lot of photography. Um, I'm seen around a lot at a lot of different events, maybe at the STEM camps or things like that. Um I think that's kind of like about it. So they kind of like crossed over a lot about like the same things I've always done.

Trooper Garland 5:18

All right, over to you, Trooper. I'm from the Danville region. Small, a little small city. I went to DCC. I did networking engineer, two degrees actually. And then I was trying to find me a job after I had graduated from DCC. It was hard, like, it was just too hard. Trying to find work experience because it is an oversaturated field. It's a chill job, it really is. So I'm just trying to do more and more, trying to put do projects freelancing all over the city, trying to put my name out there. Because if you're just trying to put an application in saying I've done XYZ, you probably ain't go get it. So, in that my time at DCC, I told myself, I said, if I can't find any employment, I try to go back to school, which is it was Averett. I mean, I just graduated this past May. And I was trying to do an internship while I was at Averett, while they was going through a rough finance situation, and I couldn't get nothing. So it kind of made me feel, it made me feel down because like why I see kind of other people trying when I know I'm trying to, but I can't really get lost in the loop while I'm focused on other people. I gotta be focused on myself. And so I try to give myself motivation every single day, trying to do, just trying to be a changed person because it really is a difference when you come into the institute because you meet so many different personalities, and everybody's so nice, and I am not used to being nice. That was the hardest transition for me. I'm just lost, like I can't, I don't know, I don't know what to do. So I just had to grow with the person or grow with other people. I'm learning from just learning from other people around here. And it actually made me realize I'm like, man, I would really love to work here because it would it would just change my life.

Telly Tucker 7:19

All right, audience, you heard it. You got a a Danville in Avergrad. He's looking for opportunities. All right, let's see. Matteo, you're up.

Matteo Costagliola 7:28

I'm like everyone else here, also from uh Danville, lived here my entire life. I am a uh I'm majoring in electrical engineering at George Mason uh University with a minor in mathematics. Somewhat unlike the rest of the applied research department, I don't do typical um experiments like you might think of. You know, I'm I'm not um I don't have a logbook that that I use every day and tweak minor things. Um most of my job entails writing code to um to work with the smart platforms we have here at the institute. It it very much does align with my major, working with uh various electrical components, motors, CNC controllers, as well as uh using cameras for a field of um engineering called computer vision, uh using using cameras, computers, uh, and autonomous electronics to say mimic human eyes, if you will, you know, give computers eyes and such. Um to be able to say watch the plants grow, uh track their motion, track their growth, track their health, and make um make defining decisions about their environment, changing their uh changing the humidity levels, changing the soil, stuff like that. That's uh sort of what my job entails. And you know, I've I've been I've been doing this for the past three years at this point. Every year I just keep on coming back. There's all never it's never finished. You know, the there's always more stuff you can do. And uh as Trooper was saying, everyone here is just so interesting, so nice. Um, you have so many, so many conversations on uh a daily basis of just things that really open your eyes and open your mind to different perspectives and different ideas. Um, you can talk with a colleague over lunch, and suddenly you have a solution to a problem that you've been facing for for the entire week.

Telly Tucker 9:28

Now,

Mentorship And Returning Each Summer

Telly Tucker 9:29

while we did pay them for their work, um, I promise you we didn't pay them to say these nice things about IALR, but um Matteo's come back three times. So that that should be an indication for our listeners out there about um the type of work environment and the and the uh experience that that certainly he's had here. Um John, what thoughts?

John Hughes 9:48

Sure. I was just gonna ask Matteo, you've been here, you're the the senior intern uh here at at IALR this summer. What are your some of your best experiences in not only just with the research department, but with uh my colleagues and staff in general and the project that you've working on?

Matteo Costagliola 10:05

Yeah, so um I think you know, my my first internship, I was fresh out of uh high school. I had just graduated, and I had attended um AET here, the Academy for Engineering and Technology. So I was already somewhat familiar with the institute. When I was participating in that program, you know, we worked with uh Jessie Vernon. She was such a tremendous help throughout that, um, organizing uh various like we we took tours of of the facility when uh I was a student, as well as um her coming in and talking about work experience and helping us. I remember she uh helped us make our resumes and stuff like that. So that I think being exposed to that at such a young age, like I said, at the time, that was uh I think that may have even been my junior year. And well, yes, that was you know, four years ago at this point, that was still such an impactful experience I had um with with someone here at IALR. Um and then working within the the department also uh my first year, just being exposed to all this, you know, cutting-edge technology and coming to a place where I was really passionate about about programming and coding and robotics in in high school, but I didn't have an outlet for that. And then being mentored by people like Dr. Lowman as well as Mitchell Doss, uh working on the smart platforms, that was really impactful and obviously really enjoying or enjoyable as well. Since, like you said, I've I've returned here every summer. Um, it's been a really amazing project to work on, and it it it really is um very special to be a part of it.

John Hughes 11:55

And we definitely appreciate you uh putting in the application, taking time and and working on some things that um I know Dr. Lowman had had a plan for you at one point, and then he said, Well, he's he's finished that in a week, so what do we do with the rest of the summer? And you work that out as well. Come back uh two

Most Impactful Internship Moments

John Hughes 12:13

more times. I'd like to ask some of the other interns here, what do you think thus far is your most impactful experience?

Rebecca Briones 12:20

I think for me it's getting to kind of like cross over into so many different divisions here. Like, while you may work with just like one specific group, like you're constantly like dipping your toes into like everybody else's business too, especially like with me. I mean, I'm around a lot of different people and a lot of different like things that are going on around here because of like what I do, like following people around with cameras and things like that. And I think it's really cool to like get to experience that like everyone plays such a big role in so many different ways here at the Institute, not just within your division, but you also impact every other division around you, which I think is really cool.

Telly Tucker 13:05

You heard it, Rebecca. Professional paparazzi. She got to be in everybody's business, follow them around with a camera. Yes.

Rebecca Briones 13:12

I always have to ask.

Telly Tucker 13:13

And got paid for it.

Rebecca Briones 13:14

Yes. I just walk around and take pictures.

Emily Clatterbuck 13:20

Um, I would say working with advanced learning, I've really enjoyed seeing the process of how the institute puts on a lot of the learning events that it does. Um, so one project that I've been helping work on is we have an event coming up in fall called Healthy Island, um, which is gonna be all about uh helping families sort of learn how to stay healthy. And so I've sort of been able to be a part of that whole kind of process from the beginning of planning for that and getting to see, like I've sat in on meetings about um getting people to come and set up tables and booths and going through the list of all the things we need to get done for that and budgeting and all sorts of things. I've mainly been more of the marketing side for that. I've made flyers and um save the date. That's just been really great to kind of see how they sort of bring a project to fruition uh sort of over the course of really just a couple of weeks, is getting that whole thing together.

John Hughes 14:18

Having the project and bringing it to its successful completion is uh is very meaningful. I think I see it in your faces, see it in pre in previous interns' faces as well. Trooper, I'd like to ask you, since you shared your your journey to internship, uh, how do you think uh your weeks here at IALR prepare you for the workforce? And what can uh other interns glean from your experience?

Networking And Learning By Doing

Trooper Garland 14:41

Every internship is different because while you're doing IT, it's it's like you have to network with people in order to get what you want. And like while doing this, I feel like I have to, you can't learn while you just like kind of shadowing all day. Because I'm a I'm a hands-on person, and I like to be uncomfortable because it lets me know I don't know what I'm looking at, and it also teaches me that I'm new to it. So if I see it later on in the future, I already know what I'm doing. So I love to be uncomfortable. You never want to stay comfortable because you never you're never gonna level up in life. You're not gonna do what you think out of your expectations that you want to do better in it. So I'll probably say that's the only thing I wish I kind of had more from the institute while doing my internship, is that I wish it was a little bit more hands-on. I had more credentials in order to do instead of they lead me up to a job and I can't do it because I need this certain answer, and I gotta call somebody to get it.

Telly Tucker 15:57

Did you enjoy the networking piece?

Trooper Garland 15:59

Yes, it is, it's kind of hard for me because I'm not a I'm a huge intro, like a huge uh introvert. I don't like I don't even like to be on stage because I feel like I I listen to my voice way too much. I feel like, you know, I'm not the voice. It makes it just makes me feel weird about it. But I know I gotta do way better. I can't be paying attention to my voice because there's some people gonna like it and some people go hate it.

Telly Tucker 16:24

Good insight. Yeah, the very good insight. And and I think, you know, a lot of people uh unfairly will um stereotype this generation, you all are Gen Z, as the generation that doesn't like to communicate, that doesn't like to network, that doesn't, you know, that are kind of isolate themselves and are in front of a screen. And and while even you you those of us who are introverts in the room, um you're hearing that networking is a valuable part of this experience. Uh it's a it's it's one of those underrated things that maybe they don't teach you in school. Um and I would my experience has told me that networking and building relationships and building rapport with other professionals is as important of a skill as some of the technical skills that you learn. Um, because if you have all the knowledge in your head but you can't communicate that and and your capability, your skills, your your experience to others, it's really hard for them to to um to identify with that. And and ultimately, um, I think your opportunities won't be as great if you don't have that as a skill. So for all of our young listeners out there, um encourage you to use those networking skills and uh continue to develop those as part of your your experience.

Caffeine Picks And Staying Driven

Telly Tucker 17:38

Um so just as a little fun aside while we're maybe thinking about where you're gonna head next and where you see yourself maybe in 10 years, but before we get there, um what's your uh what's your vice of choice in terms of like caffeine or um sugar or um what gets you through when you're when you don't have energy that day? What do you what do you what's your pickup?

John Hughes 18:04

Extra push-ups, what do you all do?

Trooper Garland 18:06

No, I don't do no physical work, nothing. I stay in bed, but um man, when I be, if I'm for real tired, I probably would give me a bang energy drink. And I don't even like to drink caffeine drinks like that. Okay, unless I have to. The bang energy drink. Yep, kind candy. That's what it is. Okay.

Matteo Costagliola 18:25

I am shamelessly uh quite the Red Bull and monster drinker. I uh yeah, unlike Trooper here, um I rely on those quite heavily. Uh I I took 19 credits this past semester of it was six STEM classes, six engineering classes, and um that definitely did irreparable damage to uh to to my heart there. Uh that it was it was I pulled many an all-nighter. It was uh it was not a wise choice. Please don't do that to yourself.

Telly Tucker 19:03

Shout out to ICC for keeping the energy drink stocked in the in megabytes.

Rebecca Briones 19:07

Mine would probably have to be like some form of like ice latte, just coffee, probably. I'll say at Averett. I'll say if I had a friend walk up to me and they were like, You want to go get a coffee? I'd be like, Yes, of course. You're asking the right person. I'd be like, I'm not even gonna check and make sure I have the money. Yes, I'm always gonna like thank you.

Emily Clatterbuck 19:50

Well, I'm gonna be totally honest here, and I don't want anyone to take this as me being a health nut or anything like that, because I really am not. But I am an incredibly picky drinker. I really have only ever had water and milk like in my entire life. And so I just kind of push through. I this is my way of how I get through the day. I will wake up in the morning and I don't want to get up. I lay there for like five minutes, and then I I tell myself, okay, three, two, one, and then I just sort of push off and I don't let myself take a break for the rest of the day, because if I do, I'm gonna fall asleep.

Telly Tucker 20:31

No snacks either.

Emily Clatterbuck 20:33

Snacks. I I will do like chocolate. I think if I need something, I will have chocolate, and I always pack myself a little chocolate something, but most of the time, if I start feeling drained, I'm just like, I just have to keep going. Just push through. It's anxiety. Anxiety is my caffeine replacement.

John Hughes 20:50

Is that dark chocolates or milk chocolates?

Emily Clatterbuck 20:53

Milk chocolates. I'm not a big dark chocolate fan. Sorry.

Telly Tucker 20:57

Not a problem.

Emily Clatterbuck 20:58

Not a problem.

Telly Tucker 20:59

Dr. Hughes, what do you what do you think is next for these bright young minds here? You you think we should uh ask them where they

Ten Year Goals And Big Plans

Telly Tucker 21:08

uh foresee themselves 10 years down the road if they had a crystal ball?

Emily Clatterbuck 21:12

My degree and the experience I have is I feel like pretty versatile because everybody needs marketing for something. Um so I really I I really love Danville. Uh, I know a lot of people who grow up in a small town are like, I need to get out of here and get to the big city, but I'm not really that person. I kind of like I have a lot of friends here, I have a lot of family here. Um and I've really enjoyed the past couple of years watching sort of how the town has sort of continued to grow as we have more money coming in and have sort of renovated some of the downtown areas. Um it's been a really fun process to kind of see. So I've always kind of wanted to use my degree to try and get involved in that and really sort of give back to my community and um come home. So I feel like in 10 years I'd like to work with some of those sort of efforts that are being done here in Danville. Um, but I do really love the marketing side of things and I love uh video work and video editing, so I'll probably stick to social media for a while. Um yeah, I I just kind of want to. Home.

Telly Tucker 22:23

Emily, you're gonna work for yourself or are you gonna work for somebody else?

Emily Clatterbuck 22:26

Uh I feel like probably work for somebody else. I I like to um to sort of get really involved in a project. I feel like freelance work, I'd kind of be hopping between multiple different areas, but if I stayed with sort of one group, then I could kind of put roots down, get to know everyone, and get really involved with whatever thing we're working on.

Telly Tucker 22:46

So for you employers out there, you've got a potential uh employee in 10 years. Um how about you, Rebecca? 2036.

Rebecca Briones 22:56

I would like to possibly be working in sports. Um that's like a recent revelation in my life that I've had, um, thanks to like my big brother. So he's the reason why I enjoy sports so much. Um, but I think at the same time, anything that gets me to use my degree more and the experience that I've gotten, I fully believe that any experience is good experience and it can help you achieve what you want at some point. Um, but I think I'd really like to see myself within 10 years possibly working for a sports team. I'm a big ice hockey fan, so I let's go canes, Stanley Cup champions. Um I'd love to possibly see myself and Raleigh one day working for them. Um that can be a bit hard to get to, but like I said, any experience is good experience. And I feel like, especially here at like the institute, I've learned so much that can one day help me possibly like just transfer over into anything that can bleed into any job that I get.

Telly Tucker 23:57

Raleigh's not far.

Rebecca Briones 23:58

Raleigh isn't too far.

Telly Tucker 23:59

I'm sure we have some listeners from that part of the region. If anybody's got connections with the with the hurricanes, Rebecca's your girl for for uh communications and marketing. All right, over to you, gentlemen. Um Matteo, you want to go first? 2036.

Matteo Costagliola 24:17

The global demand for computer chips is ever increasing year after year. Uh not really expected to slow down at all. And that's actually what I'm concentrating in uh with my major is uh computer chip design. So I I really hope that you know in that in that time span I would uh you know hopefully become an expert in that field. Um and being in the applied research department, I'm surrounded by people that that have you know extensive higher education experience, uh graduate degrees, postdoctoral degrees, and such. Um and you know, I I'd really be interested in pursuing more education following my undergraduate degree. So hopefully in that time, uh, you know, maybe obtain a master's, if not begin work on a uh PhD. Um and I I think that like I said, yeah, being being surrounded by individuals who who have gone through that path is is very, very valuable. Be able being able to ask them questions and hear from their experience. Um so yeah, hopefully, uh hopefully nothing happens to the world, silicon supply and and I I'll have a I'll have a job in 10 years.

Telly Tucker 25:30

Uh definitely a high demand um sector. I was just on a call earlier today where we were talking about semiconductors and microchips as as a uh as a target sector for this region. So are you gonna be is your preference to be somewhere in the Southern Virginia region, or do you have your eyes set on like California or maybe another country? Or what do you what do you think?

Matteo Costagliola 25:50

You know, I took a trip to Seattle, Washington, uh when I was in middle school, and that was a very impactful trip. I think Washington is a very beautiful state. Um and there are like, for example, there's a Boeing headquarters out there, there are meta offices. Um, so you know, I may return here, but I would definitely like to experience that part of the country for a little bit. I think that uh the scenery there is very beautiful and it's a very relaxing environment. I agree with that. No arguments here.

Telly Tucker 26:19

All right, trooper, 2036.

Trooper Garland 26:22

I don't think I'll probably be around Danville just because it's not that many opportunities in what I do in my field in IT. And it's a it's a very small region. Especially like you gotta have paperwork in order to do good. What I had noticed. You know, if you was, if you're really trying to go for something and you in a small city, I always try to tell people is, you know, go somewhere that you know you have a good possibility that you can get something, just something. Something better than nothing. And I just hope, like, what I kind of learned from the institute versus looking at different uh job positions is that I don't think I could do AV again. The audio and visual part of IT, uh that is stressful. So, like, and I had noticed that like you have to do it all the time. I'm like, man, I am lost. I I I thought it was just gonna be straight computers, switches, just everything. But it's more than that. I gotta deal with Teams. Um, somebody didn't drop their computer by in the tub, breaking the cords. You know, something simple. But it's a wide uh it's a wide portion of what I do. So I just hope I can find something out in a different area, hopefully.

Telly Tucker 27:46

You want to be an entrepreneur and own your own IT services firm, or do you want to you want to work for someone else?

Trooper Garland 27:52

If I can build me a team that can help me guide, you know, to build my own company organization, I would. But as the time being right now, I probably would go work for somebody, take me under their wing, show me some things that I may not ever seen before. And I can just learn how I can do my own way, hopefully, and God's plan.

Telly Tucker 28:13

No, I love hearing the diversity of thoughts and ideas and perspectives that you bring to the table. I'm sharing from my own experience. I'd be, I wouldn't be telling you

Building A Career From Every Job

Telly Tucker 28:22

the truth if I told you that I knew when I was your age what I'd be doing today. I never set my goal or had an even aspiration to become a president of an institute or an educational facility. That wasn't what I wanted to do. Um, but I enjoyed the work and economic development and building relationships and building rapport and and it turned into opportunities. So I think um just what you all have shared, everything you learn, every experience you have, every job you have, you might wonder, eh, when am I going to use this? When am I gonna learn it? But I promise you it'll it will influence and help you down the road somewhere in a way that you probably never even expected it to. Um so if I could encourage you to just continue to follow your dreams, follow your passion. Um, you hear people say all the day, I mean all the time, if you do something that you love, you never work a day in your life. And uh, I think there's some truth to that. Um certainly um find something you find enjoying. You'll you'll definitely find a way to make money if you have a passion for what you do. So just a word, word of wisdom um for me, and I'll turn it back to Dr. Hughes to to maybe uh give us one more question and close us out.

John Hughes 29:30

But also just like to say with whatever experience that you have here and other places, take some tenets from that. Find some gems, find some good things that help you along the path and eventually put those things together, and it's you can find uh what you want. Um, myself included, a lot of and a lot of my colleagues don't have a conventional way of getting to point B or point C and D. But we take what we've learned in those in various positions and opportunities and made those work in our benefit. So think about that. It's not maybe not all-encompassing, but a few things that you have done uh in your work here and other places, find the bright spots and use

Unexpected Fun Facts And Talents

John Hughes 30:10

those. I'd I would like to ask you before we close, tell us briefly something about yourselves, just one thing that you think would is very unique about you that that we wouldn't know or we might not believe, but is but is something unique about you.

Emily Clatterbuck 30:25

I really like to write. I'm a creative writing minor. I started um fun fact. So I came to the institute when I was a kid um for a women in coding camp. Um and at the end of the day, it sort of uh we had like a competition to see like who could design a website um that was better than everyone else's website, and my team won. Uh so we got to go to like a larger women in coding conference, and at the end of that conference, they gave us a laptop, which was really awesome. Um, and then on that laptop, I started writing books when I was like 11, and they were not good books. Where I've read through them pretty much every chapter is one big paragraph with no breaks or proper punctuation. But um, I kind of started there and now I do it like all of the time. I've written a ton of short stories and I'm working on larger books, and it's kind of my favorite thing that has nothing to do with what I'm majoring in. So great.

Rebecca Briones 31:30

I'm really good at guessing the song, and I know this for a fact. Um I my brother and I, uh, whenever we would get bored when we were younger, he would pull up a YouTube video and we would guess songs. And to this day, he will play a song and be like, who sings it? Um, what's the name of it? I was in high school and I helped win like my classes, like thing. It was like you had like your different, like I was like my government class or something. We did something, we played Guess a song. I knew almost every song. I was an orientation leader at Averett, and no one ever wanted to play with me because I would guess the song so quickly that they'd be like, Okay, Rebecca, you're no more fun. So that's my unique fact.

Matteo Costagliola 32:14

You know, I haven't tried it in a while, but I used to be able to solve a Rubik's Cube in about 30-ish seconds. Um and, you know, believe it or not, uh there's actually quite a bit of math involved in solving a Rubik's Cube. Um so that I I remember I would uh I would kind of write like algorithms, if you will, like if if you have a face of the cube that's set up a certain way, you do these these certain steps and then you'll solve it. Um it's it's actually not just guesswork.

John Hughes 32:55

Rubik's math.

Telly Tucker 32:56

Just recently, I think somebody broke the record, the world record for jumping out of an airplane and doing the Rubik's Cube, solving the Rubik's Cube, a certain number of them before they got to the ground. Um you should Google that. That was somebody thought that was a good idea.

Trooper Garland 33:13

I guess something unique is I was a runner. I ain't gonna lie. I was the fastest runner out of the whole county. So I feel like that's something unique, I guess. And I only did it for one year. One year, and I just broke every record. And I was like, man, I didn't think I was this capable. So what did you run? I ran the one, two, four. I was a sprinter, a short distance runner.

John Hughes 33:43

All right. What do you think, President Tucker?

Telly Tucker 33:46

I think it's been an incredibly um interesting session um and and podcast so that you can meet um our

Closing Thanks And Staying Connected

Telly Tucker 33:55

interns and hear from them directly about their experience, um, their backgrounds, and their future plans. Um just part of who we are and what we do here at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, helping shape lives, helping people find their destiny, what their future is going to be, being being just one part of their evolution and maturation. Um and that's a beautiful thing for me uh to be to be in leadership here and to help support these young people find um where their future is. Um so just a word of of uh advice, maybe a little bit of encouragement for all of our uh listeners and those who may you may be wanting to share this with someone else, share with an aspiring um young person who may be looking for an internship in the future. Um you can do it as well. We I think we hosted some 16 interns here uh this year on site and and help support others in the community. And um it is it is part of um maturing and growing as a as a young person, as a professional, and hopefully one day as a contributing um member of society. So thank you to each of you. I want to wish you all the best in your future. You are officially now and forever part of the IALR family, so you're always welcome to come back and visit. And uh don't be a stranger. Please share um your future, where you are, where you're working, where your travels may take you. Um, share them on our social media. Stay plugged into our podcast as well so that um other people can be connected to us through your experience. So um from my seat, I just want to say thank you. Um, thank you to all listeners in there for tuning in today.

John Hughes 35:34

We appreciate your time. I know you're busy with the internship duties, but you're definitely have a um a mark on the next interns that that come to our our facility, as well as just our colleagues and staff in general, when they when they look on the website and see um your interview and the things that you have presented here today. So thanks for taking the time out and and being human with us on this podcast. We appreciate it. Wishing you the best.