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Marquis Scholar Alison Hindenlang ’03 (Randolph N.J.) spends a good deal of her time outside the classroom immersed in water as a member of the varsity swimming team. But in January, the chemical engineering major spent a few days learning about oil and its effects.
Hindenlang shadowed Cynthia Combi ’90, senior product safety specialist at ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences near Clinton, N.J.
“It was an interesting experience,” says Hindenlang, who says she learned a lot as she and another Lafayette student watched Combi on the job, toured the facilities, and observed and spoke to a number of laboratory employees.
Combi, who holds a B.S. degree in chemical engineering, has worked for ExxonMobil for 12 years and at the Clinton facility for the past year and a half.
“I tried to give them some exposure to all the different types of jobs in my division,” Combi says, adding that the students “shadowed” scientists in company laboratories. “I think they took away a broader understanding of what our division does.”
Combi enjoyed helping the students learn more about their fields of interest and giving them a taste of life on the job.
“I actually learned more about my own division by doing it,” she says.
Hindenlang, who is interested in biotechnology and ecology, says she probably won’t pursue a career in product testing, but hopes to find an internship this summer in another area that relates to her interests.
In addition to her participation on the Lafayette swim team, Hindenlang coaches swimming in Randolph and is a member of the Lafayette Communications Union, a special interest residence hall floor. She’s also a former member of the Forensics Society and has done volunteer service at Lehigh Valley Child Care’s College Hill facility and at Hugh Moore Park along the Delaware Canal. This semester, she is beginning an independent study project with Javad Tavakoli, associate professor of chemical engineering and department head.