Don't be afraid to let one experience complicate the other instead of keeping them tidy and separate.
Name: Kifa Ul Eman (Cohort 8)
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Give a brief description of the experience.
This summer, I worked as a Regional Design Engineering Intern at ComEd, an Exelon company, in Chicago, where I helped design a Distribution Automation upgrade to improve fault isolation and restoration speed. That same summer, I also participated in the IIE-Exelon Global Scholars Program, an interdisciplinary field course comparing energy systems in Chicago and the Netherlands, touring sites like the Bronzeville Microgrid, Argonne National Laboratory, and TU Delft's geothermal research well. Together, these experiences let me see the same industry from two very different vantage points, experience hands-on design work, and conduct global systems-level comparison, in the same few months.
What was the most impactful part of the experience?
What struck me most wasn't a site or a system; it was how seriously I was treated as a contributor rather than an observer. Throughout the summer, I sat in on conversations with Exelon's executive leadership, toured a national laboratory, and was welcomed into a government ministry meeting in The Hague, spaces I assumed I'd only ever read about, not stand inside as a student. That kind of access, and the respect that came with it, made me feel like I was already part of this industry, not just preparing to enter it someday.
What surprised you?
I was surprised by how fundamentally different the U.S. and Dutch approaches to infrastructure maintenance are. My internship work was largely about upgrading equipment to respond faster to faults, which reflects a reactive model. In the Netherlands, proactive, preventative maintenance is built into the culture and governance of their energy systems from the start. Seeing that contrast so clearly, from working inside one system and then studying another abroad in the same summer, reframed how I think about what "good" infrastructure design means.
Did you make any personal and/or professional connections with peers?
Definitely, in ways that felt different depending on the setting. At ComEd, my connections built slowly over ten weeks, my manager, my project partner, and engineers who took the time to explain the "why" behind decisions, not just the "how." Abroad, the connections happened fast and intensely, a small group of students from completely different backgrounds problem-solving together in unfamiliar cities, alongside direct access to professionals at national labs, universities, and Exelon leadership I never expected to be in a room with. I left with mentors from one experience and genuine friends from the other.
What were your major takeaways? What did you learn?
I learned that engineering decisions are never purely technical, they're shaped by governance, culture, and whether a system is designed to prevent problems or respond to them. My internship taught me how to execute a design within an existing system, while the Study Abroad program taught me to question the assumptions behind that system altogether. Together, they gave me both the practical skills and the bigger-picture perspective to think critically about infrastructure and not just build it.
How have your career or academic goals changed or evolved as a result of this experience?
I came into this summer assuming my job was to get good at solving the problem in front of me. I'm leaving it wanting to get good at asking whether it's even the right problem to solve. That's a harder skill to practice in a classroom but standing inside two very different energy systems in the same summer forced me to start noticing it.
What is one piece of advice you would give to another Clark Scholar about engaging in this experience and/or pursuing an experience like this?
Let one experience interrupt the other. It would have been easy to treat my internship and my study abroad as two neat, separate stories. What mattered was letting them mix. Every time I saw something in the Netherlands that contradicted how I'd been trained to think at ComEd, that friction is where I learned the most. Don't be afraid to let one experience complicate the other instead of keeping them tidy and separate.
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